Last week it was Crabtree & Evelyn. Today, menswear retailer Ed Harry has been placed into voluntary administration, placing the fate of 87 stores and nearly 500 staff in doubt. From The Australian:
On Tuesday, KPMG’s Brendan Richards and Gayle Dickerson were appointed voluntary administrators after a “particularly tough” Christmas sales period for the chain, and mounting pressure from decreased shopping centre footfall.
The news follows the closure of a string of Australian retailers recent times, including Marcs, Pumpkin Patch, Payless Shoes and Roger David, while department store Myer has also struggled.
The statement about “decreased shopping centre footfall” is pertinent. Last week, Citi published the below chart showing a big decline in foot traffic into retailers across the Christmas and Boxing Day period:
Expect more retail closures in 2019 as the housing bust gathers pace, pulling down discretionary spending via the negative ‘wealth effect’.
