This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
RETAIL landlords will be scrambling to find new tenants after ASX-listed Mosaic Brands announced it end of five of its brands, leaving hundreds of stores empty across Australia.
The group will “rationalise” its brand portfolio as part of “driving simplification across the business and focusing resources”, it said in an ASX statement, closing the Rockmans, Autograph, Crossroads, W.Lane and BeMe brands, including all stores and websites.
“Mosaic will wind down five brands which have become marginal and non-core, allowing us to focus on five core growth brands,” Mosaic CEO Erica Berchtold said.
“Each of those core brands will have a clearly differentiated market proposition, target customer, price point and product range.”
More than 200 stores of its 700 stores nationally will shuttered. The group will now turn its attention to its Millers, Noni B, Rivers and Katies brands, along with a standalone online Mosaic marketplace.
The announcement comes nearly two months after nearly a quarter of Mosaic’s share price was wiped out in response to its announcement it had engaged Deloitte to advise on “refinancing considerations”.
Berchtold said this week that, “whilst the operational details of the rationalisation plan, including store closures, continue to be worked through, we will seek to minimise the impact on our team, including where possible reassigning impacted team members into roles within the five core brands”.
“Our ‘focus on core’ is a growth-driven strategy to retain existing customers and attract new ones. Central to this strategy, Mosaic will continue to focus on servicing regional Australia,” she said.
In August of last year, it said it 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 in net terms during the period, following on from its shuttering of 250 stores during the pandemic. That period saw major landlord Scentre lock Mosaic Brands out of 129 of its own stores after a rent payment stoush.
Mosaic’s shares have been suspended since it missed the deadline for lodging its full-year results. Mosaic said it is “continuing to finalise” its results.
“The delay is due to events after the reporting period, which will impact the disclosures accompanying the audited results,” it said.
