This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
ANOTHER 388 shops will be emptied by April and nearly 1,600 employees impacted after administrators confirmed that the remaining brands and stores in the Mosaic Brands portfolio – Rivers, Millers and Noni B – would be closed in the coming months.
Mosaic entered voluntary administration at the end of October with debts nearing $250 million, just weeks after it announced the end of five of its brands..
At that time, the company had more than 2,700 employees and 700 stores across the country.
KPMG was appointed as receivers and managers, and FTI Consulting appointed as administrators.
In September it said it would “rationalise” its brand portfolio as part of “driving simplification across the business and focusing resources”, closing the Rockmans, Autograph, Crossroads, W.Lane and BeMe brands, including all stores and websites.
“Despite the best efforts of all parties, a sale of any of the brands within the Mosaic portfolio as a going concern was unable to be achieved,” the administrators said in a statement yesterday.
“As a result, all stores in the Mosaic Brands Group will be wound down over the coming months, with the expectation that operations will cease by the end of April 2025.
“The wind down of the remaining brands will result in the closer of a further 388 stores and directly impact 1,583 employees.”
All 80 of its Katies stores were also closed.
KPMG had said late last year that following submissions of non-binding indicative offers in late November, short-listed parties had been undertaking due diligence on the group.
In August of 2023, Mosaic said it intended to open 40 new Rivers “mega stores” in FY24, mostly in regional areas, after it swung to a $17.1 million earnings profit. It had slashed its store network by 148 sites during the period, following on from its shuttering of 250 stores during the pandemic. That period saw Westfield shopping centres landlord Scentre lock Mosaic out of 129 of its own stores after a rent payment stoush.
Mosaic was borne out of women’s fashion brand Noni B, which was established in 1977. Throughout the 2010s it took the growth path, acquiring Pretty Girl Fashion Group in 2016 and then two years later taking on the Katies, Millers, Autograph, Crossroads and Rivers Specialty Fashion Group.
It changed its name Mosaic Brands in 2019.
