Being in business is tough. It takes skill, good management and good marketing to stay in business these days.
Here are a few well-known national businesses and brands that didn’t recover.
HOWARD STORAGE WORLD
Retail chain Howards Storage World feel into voluntary administration in December 2016.
The group operates 29 company-owned retail outlets in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. The business also wholesales goods to a network of 30 franchised Howards Storage World stores, of which it is the franchisor.
The business is continuing to trade, according to reports from Fairfax, with the administrators expected to commence a sale campaign for the business, which was founded in Sydney in the 1970s with a single store called Stack and Store. The first franchised store opened in 1998.
PUMPKIN PATCH & PAYLESS SHOES
Children’s wear retailer Pumpkin Patch and discount shoe chain Payless Shoes called in external managers.
Gary Mortimer, a retail expert at Queensland’s University of Technology Business School, said “Pumpkin Patch has always been regarded as great for fashionable childrenswear, but over the years it began to see the impact of retailers like Kmart and Zara Kids,”
“These places began doing fashionable childrenswear at much lower prices, and once a retailer becomes the same as all the others, all shoppers look at is price, and it loses its point of differentiation.”
At the time of its collapse, Pumpkin Patch operated 117 stores in Australia and 43 in New Zealand, employing approximately 1600 employees.
DICK SMITHS
Dick Smiths stores founded by entrepreneur Dick Smith in the 1960’s and later sold, did not survive competition from other electronic retailers such as Harvey Norman, JB Hifi, Kogan and The Good Guys.
For decades Dick Smith was a specialist electronics retailer selling cables, components and kits to hobbyists and technical people in the industry.
Dick Smith had moved away from their core business and then employed young staff with without “techie” knowledge to sell big box consumer products.
MASTERS HARDWARE
After a short, intense burst store openings all over Australia, Masters felt the brunt of the sector heavyweight Bunnings and closed in December 2016.
ED HARRY
The 2019 closure impacted nearly 500 staff who work across 87 stores nationwide and in the head office in Adelaide, South Australia.
SUMMARY
Retailing in Australia, and in fact in most developed countries have faced stiff competition from other retailers, consumer preferences for online shopping, and falling consumer spending.
Certainly tough times for retailers continuing to ignore trends, and using “old” marketing and retailing models.