David Jones has entered voluntary administration, ABC News reported, with administrator McGrathNicol seeking expressions of interest from prospective buyers. The retailer's receiver confirmed 19 store closures nationwide, with hundreds of jobs expected to be lost.
The administration comes as Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth confronts a wave of corporate restructuring. Qantas announced it would cut 850 roles over coming years, citing offshore outsourcing and artificial intelligence. Tech company Canva announced a global restructure that would result in more than a thousand staff departing.
The David Jones founding family operated or owned the retailer for more than 140 years, with the first store opened in Sydney in 1838. Anchorage Capital, a private equity firm, has held ownership for the past three years.
Receivers plan to shut half of the chain's 38 stores before year's end. Retail restructuring expert James Stewart told the ABC program 7.30 that strong customer nostalgia and record foot traffic following the administration announcement made clear the brand still carried appeal. He estimated that if a suitable buyer was found, turning the company around would take between 12 and 48 months, but said simply repeating the existing model at a smaller scale would not be sustainable.
Rishworth said in a statement she was concerned by job losses and urged companies including Qantas and David Jones to make every effort to redeploy affected workers into other roles, invest in retraining, and support continuing employment. She said she hoped David Jones could keep trading and restructure successfully, and called on the company to explore redeploying as many affected workers as possible to other stores. She released a best practice guide for the adoption of AI in the workplace, saying it was intended to clarify how workers should be included in workplace transformation, with potential shared benefits including higher pay, shorter working hours, greater job satisfaction, and more time for meaningful tasks.
Workers at the 19 stores confirmed for closure face job losses, though a buyer could affect final outcomes for some employees.
Official statements: Ministerial statement
Reporting: ABC News
Written by Pick & Scroll News from the reporting and documents linked above.
