EziBuy goes into administration by owner Mosaic Brands
Large Australian clothing retailer goes bankrupt after sales drop by more than 50 percent
Online retailer EziBuy is the latest brand to collapse and go out of business after sales plummeted.
The multichannel retailer of fashion and home goods suffered a 51 percent drop in sales in the first half of fiscal year 2022-2023, numbers that were at odds with the strong and continued online growth of the owners’ other brands.
Mosaic Brands had seen a 23 percent growth in online sales revenue during the same period, an increase of 68 percent overall since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The fashion giant has appointed Katherine Barnet and Damien Hodgkinson of Olvera Advisers as administrators.
EziBuy, an online multichannel retailer of fashion and homeware, is the latest popular retailer to go bankrupt
Mosaic intends to propose a restructuring to the manager that would emerge EziBuy as a simplified, profitable, cash-generating online-only operation, and one more closely aligned with the group’s successful digital strategies for its other brands. ‘ said the company. told investors Monday in a market update.
“This process to restructure EziBuy is in the best interest of the group’s shareholders as it will improve the group’s overall net asset position and operating cash flow.”
Mosaic added that the announcement does not affect other of the nine retail brands within the group’s portfolio, including Millers, Rockmans, Noni B, Rivers, Katies, Autograph, Crossroads and Beme.
Founded in 1978 as a mail order company in Palmerston North, New Zealand, EziBuy describes itself on its website as a leader in the clothing and homeware market.
More than 23 million catalogs are mailed each year, accounting for more than 1.75 million orders per year in Australia and New Zealand.
Mosaic Brands acquired EziBuy after major shareholder Alceon acquired the company from Woolworths in 2017.
Alceon had grand plans to build an online department store spearheaded by high-profile model Jennifer Hawkins and in 2019 sold a 50.1 percent stake of EziBuy to Mosaic Brands-owned Noni B.
Mosaic Brands is Australia’s largest specialist fashion retailer group Millers, Rockmans, Noni B, Rivers, Katies, Autograph, W. Lane, Crossroads and Beme with over 1,100 stores nationwide.
EziBuy’s demise follows the collapse of other popular retailers in recent months, including Alice McCall, Sanity and Brosa.