The Postie Plus brand is getting a new lease of life after South Africa’s Pepkor bought the failed retailer’s assets out of administration.
Pepkor acquired Postie Plus’s 64 stores, intellectual property, staff, head office, and stock from the administrators for an undisclosed sum after the clothing retailer’s lenders withdrew support in the face of ongoing losses.
In Australia, Pepkor owns the Harris Scarfe and the Best & Less discount clothing chains.
Postie Plus shares had slumped to 7.3 cents, valuing the company at about $NZ2.9 million ($A2.70 million), before being suspended from trading in early June, having debuted on the NZX in 2003 at $NZ1 apiece.
Debt stood at $NZ12.1 million at the end of February.
Pepkor won’t use the “Plus” part of the name but will otherwise keep the brand unchanged, Jason Murray, MD of Pepkor South East Asia told BusinessDesk.
The South African company will use its scale to reduce stock costs and fatten margins, while ensuring Postie isn’t starved of capital, he said.
“You can’t stabilise and then grow a business that doesn’t have capital,” Murray said.
Pepkor will ensure Postie has “the right stock, in the right store, on the right day. We’ll make sure there is plenty of capital for that and then the rest the business trades its way to keep being able to reinvest.”
Postie is the first New Zealand investment for Pepkor, which has been trading since 1965, and joins more than 3000 clothing, textile and footwear outlets across Australia, Africa and Eastern Europe with more than $NZ4 billion ($A3.72 billion) in annual sales.
It is entering a New Zealand market where clothing retailers are suffering from intense rivalry and inroads made by international online shops.
The failure of Postie Plus means its shares are probably worthless.
PwC administrator David Bridgman said it was “unlikely” the 1603 shareholders would get anything as remaining funds and assets will satisfy creditors’ debt first.
Substantial shareholders included Kathmandu founder, Jan Cameron, and Postie Plus’s founding Dellaca family.
BusinessDesk
