Failed retailer, Dick Smith, will close down its stores across Australia and New Zealand over the next eight weeks after its receivers failed to find a suitable buyer.
301 stores in Australia and 62 in New Zealand will shut down. As a result, 2,460 workers in Australia and 430 workers in New Zealand will lose their jobs, pushing almost 2,500 candidates onto the retail jobs market.
Affected employees would be paid in full, following their Australian employee entitlements, the receivers said.
This is the latest in a chain of disastrous events for Dick Smith. Earlier in February, the
Fair Work Ombudsman investigated the firm after evidence was found that it may have underpaid its employees.
In January, the company went into receivership after generating cash and sales well below expectations in the busy December trading period. At the time, Dick Smith was unable to secure support from the company’s bankers to purchase further stock.
In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, receivers Ferrier Hodgson said the decision to close down the stores was disappointing.
“While we received a significant number of expressions of interest from local and overseas parties, unfortunately the sale process has not resulted in any acceptable offers for the group as a whole or for Australia or New Zealand as standalone businesses,” receiver James Stewart said.
“The offers were either significantly below liquidation values or highly conditional or both.”
