Crabtree & Evelyn to wind down Australian business

Luxury skincare retailer Crabtree & Evelyn is winding down its Australian operations, amidst a global wind-down of its operations.

The business has appointed restructuring firm KordaMentha to handle the closure locally and expects all 12 stores in Australia to close by the end of January, affecting approximately 100 staff.

Crabtree & Evelyn recently announced the closure of its 12 Singaporean stores and 19 Canadian stores after going into bankruptcy protection.

“It appears the driving factor for the decision to close the world-wide network of Crabtree & Evelyn was a reduction in sales, or the tough sales environment, purely driven from the discretionary spend challenges in the retail market,” KordaMentha partner in restructuring Scott Langdon told IR.

According to Langdon, Crabtree & Evelyn proactively spotted challenges for its brand and opted to engage with administrators in order to facilitate a structured, solvent wind-down of the business rather than enter voluntary administration.

“They’re proactively engaged with ourselves to put in a plan to ensure that all stakeholders come out with the best financial position from a difficult situation,” Langdon said.

“A structured, orderly wind-down is a creative and methodical way, and is incredibly respectful of stakeholders.

“As a consequence, all stakeholders will receive far superior returns than they would form an unstructured voluntary administration process.”

The brand also trades within New Zealand, though it is not clear whether these operations will be affected by the Australian closure.

Crabtree & Evenlyn did not wish to comment.

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