Administrators are seeking a buyer for the intellectual property of a now defunct children’s retailer after shutting all six of its retail stores immediately after it was placed in administration. Rhubarb Enterprises appointed Craig Shepard and Rahul Goyal of KordaMentha as administrators on March 20. Rhubarb Enterprises is divided into two divisions, Rhubarb Retail, responsible for the retail stores and staff, and Rhubarb Investments, which holds the intellectual property including the Rhubar
rb brand, online platform, and customer databases.
Prior to its administration, Rhubarb had four stores in Victoria at Westfield Doncaster, Chadstone, Northland, and Highpoint shopping centre; one in NSW at Chatswood Chase; and one in Queensland at Indooroopilly shopping centre.
Goyal told Inside Retail PREMIUM the decision was made to close the stores the day KordaMentha was appointed due to a lack of working capital in the stores, very little stock, and lack of available funds to pay staff.
Next season’s winter stock was also yet to be ordered, with Goyal describing the stores as “pretty bare”.
KordaMentha has struck a deal with a buyer to purchase the stock, however, it is now looking to sell the company’s intellectual property.
Last month, Rhubarb hosted a warehouse sale, drastically reducing prices to between $2 and $10 in a bid to clear stock and pay down creditors, understood to mainly be the National Australia Bank.
Rhubarb was established by Katlin Harper in 2002 as a designer, importer, and wholesaler of homewares. In 2006, Rhubarb homeware products were sold at department store, David Jones, and two years later the first Rhubarb store opened at Westfield Doncaster in Melbourne, with a 50 per cent split between homewares and kids apparel.
Harper told Inside Retail PREMIUM in 2010 that the store model was based on the belief that the target customer was a mother who would go into the store looking for homewares, but would also shop for her children.
The decision was made to transfer the Rhubarb offering to kids only, as 90 per cent of sales were soon being generated from the children’s clothing range under the original store model. Rhubarb was also planning a steady rollout of around 20 stores in total.
By 2008, all stores were trading with a children’s only offering, divided into 80 per cent kids apparel and 20 per cent related accessory items.
It launched an online store in 2011, however, all stock has since been removed from the website.
A creditor’s meeting will be held on April 1.
This story first appeared in Inside Retail PREMIUM issue 2039. To subscribe, click here.
