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Who killed David Jones? Inside the butchering of a beloved brand · The Front

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 2: It's Friday, November 6, 2026.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Finally, let's tackle productivity.
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  Speaker 2: That seems to be the thinking from a federal government
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: panicking about the economy. The Australian's Matt Cranston is revealing
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: today Jim Chalmers.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Has asked Treasury.
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  Speaker 2: to develop new productivity ideas for next month's mid-year budget update.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: That story's live now at theaustralian.com.au. Is there a way
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: out of hell for David Jones? The 188-year-old Australian retailer
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  Speaker 2: will go into the festive shopping period in voluntary administration.
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  Speaker 2: with potentially hundreds of jobs to go and some stores
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  Speaker 2: to close. Disgruntled landlords, angry suppliers and bemused customers are
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  Speaker 2: all asking, how was a beloved legacy brand trashed so comprehensively?
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  Speaker 2: After 188 years in business, Australian department store David Jones.
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  Speaker 3: David Jones.
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  Speaker 1: David Jones. David Jones has entered voluntary administration.
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  Speaker 4: This is a long time coming.
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  Speaker 2: Bridget Carter edits the Australian's much-read business column, Data Room.
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  Speaker 5: You know, there's been rumblings about David Jones being in
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  Speaker 5: trouble for a very long time.
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  Speaker 3: Taylor remained under an active investigation for its 2025 accounts
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  Speaker 3: that showed another major loss of $ 95. 5 million. And the
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  Speaker 3: year before that, they had posted a loss of $ 74. 1 million.
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  Speaker 5: Earlier in the year, there was changes to the terms
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  Speaker 5: for people who sold clothes and items and David Jones
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  Speaker 5: in terms of how they got paid. So for many
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  Speaker 5: in the industry, this is not a big surprise.
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  Speaker 2: It's really sad, though, for both people in the industry,
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  Speaker 2: I think, and for consumers in Australia. Many of us
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  Speaker 2: have memories of shopping with our mothers and grandmothers at
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  Speaker 2: David Jones.
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  Speaker 1: These are beloved retail.
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  Speaker 2: Establishments in kind of every city in Australia and in
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  Speaker 2: some regional locations too. I remember riding up the wooden
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  Speaker 2: escalators at David Jones in Elizabeth Street in Sydney. It
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  Speaker 2: was a big, sophisticated day out for me. And I
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  Speaker 2: love knowing that my grandmother had ridden on the same
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  Speaker 2: escalators to do her shopping when she was my age.
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  Speaker 2: How could David Jones, with that level of brand recognition
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  Speaker 2: that any brand would kill for, failed to manage the
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  Speaker 2: modern era?
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  Speaker 5: Well, I think there's a few things at play. First
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  Speaker 5: of all, we have to look at what's happening internationally.
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  Speaker 5: Department stores, particularly luxury department stores, have been through a
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  Speaker 5: really hard time. I mean, we've seen lots of reports
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  Speaker 5: about stores like Macy's and big names in the industry,
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  Speaker 5: others in the UK, either struggling or coming close to
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  Speaker 5: collapsing or collapsing. So the first thing I'd say is
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  Speaker 5: this is actually a trend that's happening right around the world. However,
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  Speaker 5: there have been success stories, and we do have success
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  Speaker 5: stories in Australia. For instance, Best in Less is a
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  Speaker 5: really strong performer now. Well, Ian Moyer is the chief
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  Speaker 5: executive of Woolworths, and he's been spending quite a bit
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  Speaker 5: of time in Australia. They want to.
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  Speaker 1: Acquire Australia's second largest department.
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  Speaker 5: Store chain called David Jones.
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  Speaker 2: The price tag is 20.5 billion rand.
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  Speaker 5: People in the industry point to the time when South
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  Speaker 5: Africa's Woolworths bought David Jones. They paid a huge amount
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  Speaker 5: of money for the business. They made a few really
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  Speaker 5: key strategic missteps. And I think there's always a challenge
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  Speaker 5: for an international retailer coming into the Australian market or
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: a new market. One of the things they did was
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  Speaker 5: they brought in all their sort of home brand clothing
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  Speaker 5: into David Jones after that because they paid over $ 2
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  Speaker 5: billion for the company. And I think they had the
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  Speaker 5: strategy they could sell a lot of the Woolworths South
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  Speaker 5: Africa clothing and things in David Jones clothes. And I
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  Speaker 5: think what they failed to appreciate is the key to
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  Speaker 5: David Jones's success is their brand was very much recognized
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  Speaker 5: with luxury and associated with that. By putting in sort
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  Speaker 5: of non-label clothing or items into it, it really sort
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  Speaker 5: of took down the prestige aspect of David Jones. And
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  Speaker 5: through that whole period, that really put it on the
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  Speaker 5: back foot. And then there was just problem after problem,
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  Speaker 5: trying to sort that out, other things. It was losing money.
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  Speaker 5: And then Because it wasn't performing well and they really
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  Speaker 5: needed to put money into the business, they had two
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  Speaker 5: really valuable real estate sites that they owned. They owned
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  Speaker 5: the Sydney site in the centre of the city and
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  Speaker 5: the Melbourne site. Well, they put those on the market
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  Speaker 5: and sold them to try and reinvest into the business.
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  Speaker 5: And then they now have rents on those sites and
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  Speaker 5: they don't own any of their real estate. And so
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  Speaker 5: just more rents, you know, it was sort of just
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  Speaker 5: a downhill slope from there. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that selling off of the real estate seems like
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  Speaker 2: a catastrophic decision. Obviously, it would have given them a
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  Speaker 2: short-term cash injection, but now they're a tenant and they
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  Speaker 2: also don't have the flexibility to, you know, tactically close
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  Speaker 2: a store and rent it to someone else to make
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  Speaker 2: some income to support the business.
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  Speaker 1: That's right.
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  Speaker 3: I mean.
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  Speaker 5: Actually, the CBD stores in places like Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane,
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  Speaker 5: they all do very, very well. They're very profitable stores,
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  Speaker 5: but they wanted to expand the business. And then they
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  Speaker 5: opened a lot of malls and shopping centres there. too
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  Speaker 5: many shopping centres, too many places like Parramatta in Sydney
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  Speaker 5: and other places where the demographic wouldn't really be your
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  Speaker 5: typical David Jones shopper. And those stores have not made money.
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  Speaker 5: And then the lease agreements are so long dated and
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  Speaker 5: so onerous that they can't get out of them. So
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  Speaker 5: they're just constantly paying rent on these stores that don't
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  Speaker 5: make money. People say to me in the industry, the
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  Speaker 5: really good business model for a company like David Jones
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  Speaker 5: is just owning a stores and the state capitals and
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  Speaker 5: just having less than 10 that are really profitable, if
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  Speaker 5: they could have done that, they would have been a
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  Speaker 5: very successful business.
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  Speaker 2: It seems to be the landlords who are almost bringing
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  Speaker 2: this to a crisis now. What exactly is going on
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  Speaker 2: with landlords?
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  Speaker 5: Look, I mean, there's a lot of speculation that, oh,
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  Speaker 5: there's discussions and negotiations between the landlords and the You know,
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  Speaker 5: there was an agreement that was going to be struck.
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  Speaker 5: That's not really what I was hearing in the market
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  Speaker 5: at all. I mean, the landlord's view is this is
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  Speaker 5: what rent we're owed. This is what we want to
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  Speaker 5: be paid. You pay it or, you know, we kick
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  Speaker 5: you out and find another tenant, especially the Westfield Owner
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  Speaker 5: Centre Group. Like they've got David Jones in 17 of
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  Speaker 5: their stores. They have bank guarantees. So if David Jones
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  Speaker 5: goes broke, the agreement is the bank has to pay
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  Speaker 5: them rent.
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  Speaker 4: So they don't care.
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  Speaker 5: The landlords have always played hardball from what I understand,
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  Speaker 5: and they've steered these tenants down. And they really have to,
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  Speaker 5: because if they make an exception for David Jones, it
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  Speaker 5: really disrupts their whole business model where other tenants want
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  Speaker 5: favorable terms. So they said that basically a David Jones
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  Speaker 5: store on average is paying less than $ 400 per square
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  Speaker 5: meter in rent. And on average, the tenants pay, I
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  Speaker 5: think it was around $ 900 per square meter in rent.
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  Speaker 5: So These aren't landlords getting loads and loads of money
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  Speaker 5: from David Jones and rent. Some of them would actually
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  Speaker 5: love David Jones to go so that they could lease
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  Speaker 5: the space and get a better tenant in.
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  Speaker 4: Of course, there's others.
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  Speaker 5: You know, it would be a disaster if David Jones
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  Speaker 5: goes because they'd really struggle to lease the space. But
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  Speaker 5: there are a lot that actually say, look, we've got
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  Speaker 5: plenty of demand for our space. And if David Jones
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  Speaker 5: can't pay the rent, we're more than happy to replace them.
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  Speaker 1: The joy of giving. The celebration of Christmas. And at
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  Speaker 1: David Jones, you'll find an extra special range of Christmas
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  Speaker 1: gift ideas.
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  Speaker 2: The timing matters though now, doesn't it? We're going into
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  Speaker 2: the holiday shopping period. I can't imagine walking into a
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  Speaker 2: mall and having an empty David Jones space with the
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  Speaker 2: shutters down. Surely Centre Group wouldn't want that.
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  Speaker 1: Especially at Christmas, there's no other store like David Jones.
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  Speaker 4: Well, this is the key thing. Anchorage Capital.
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  Speaker 5: partners, the private equity firm that owns David Jones now
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  Speaker 5: no longer has control. The administrators have control, but they
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  Speaker 5: keep it trading. Then they run a sale process. Now,
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  Speaker 5: that would be good news for landlords because they would
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  Speaker 5: keep the stores open till Christmas. You know, they could
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  Speaker 5: gradually close stores over time or they, you know, if
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  Speaker 5: there's a buyer for David Jones, they can come up
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  Speaker 5: with a new deal and.
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  Speaker 4: They could do it sort of progressively store by store.
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  Speaker 2: So this could be the pathway out of trouble for
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  Speaker 2: DJ's owner Anchorage Capital. The leases are cancelled and now
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  Speaker 2: DJ's can try again, freed of the low-performing stores and
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  Speaker 2: focus only on the highly profitable city stores, which it
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  Speaker 2: can restyle as premium shopping destinations. So back to the beginning.
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  Speaker 2: On Thursday, DJ's boss Erica Berthold told staff the business
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  Speaker 2: would keep trading in person and online... while the restructuring
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: firm that's been appointed, FTI Consulting, reviews the business. Everything's
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  Speaker 2: up for grabs now, a restructure, a sell-off or the
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  Speaker 2: closure of multiple or all stores. It was the landlords
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  Speaker 2: in the end who did DJs in. Once the business
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  Speaker 2: failed to pay rent for the month of October, landlords,
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  Speaker 2: including Centre Group, which operates the Westfield malls, refused a request.
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  Speaker 1: From DJs to delay rent for three months.
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  Speaker 2: If they'd said yes to deferring the rent, DJs would
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  Speaker 2: have been able to pay its supply and staff and
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  Speaker 2: get through to Christmas and then maybe trade out of difficulty.
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  Speaker 1: No deal. So Anchorage called in the administrators.
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  Speaker 2: I was speaking to a very prominent business person the
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  Speaker 2: other day who said the problems are obvious at David
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  Speaker 2: Jones ever since they stopped having retail expertise on the board.
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  Speaker 2: That's the main issue. And you do wonder when you
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  Speaker 2: go into a David Jones store and you're looking around
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  Speaker 2: for someone to help you and staff are avoiding your
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  Speaker 2: gaze and kind of hiding behind counters or not apparent
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  Speaker 2: at all. Stock has fallen on the floor. It feels
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  Speaker 2: depressing and dark in those stores now. And I really wonder...
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  Speaker 2: Have they kind of doomed themselves by running the business
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  Speaker 2: down like that?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, it's sort of self-fulfilling, isn't it? Because at
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  Speaker 5: the beginning of the year, we were hearing that suppliers
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: weren't getting paid or that there were delays. And then
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  Speaker 5: so the suppliers didn't want to put their stock in.
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  Speaker 5: Suppliers have been nervous about giving their stock. And so
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  Speaker 5: there's less things to buy. And so, you know, it
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  Speaker 5: sort of just goes downhill. And people I've been talking to,
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  Speaker 5: you know, say, they just have gone in to walk
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  Speaker 5: around a bit like you have and just noticed how
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  Speaker 5: depressing it all is. But a lot of people say
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  Speaker 5: with something like a department store or retail, the companies
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  Speaker 5: that seem to do really well are private retailers who
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: really know the business. Like Woolworth South Africa is a
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  Speaker 5: big listed corporate company.
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  Speaker 4: They don't own it anymore. Obviously, Anchorage owns it.
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  Speaker 5: But Anchorage is a private equity firm and they run
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  Speaker 5: it like a finance business. They just want to make
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  Speaker 5: as much cash out of this as they possibly can.
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  Speaker 5: And they're not people who like a Brett Blundy or
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: somebody like that who just knows retail like the back
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  Speaker 5: of their hand and knows how to get shoppers in
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  Speaker 5: the door and what resonates with shoppers and what resonates
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  Speaker 5: with the market. I mean, another one that's actually a
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: Kiwi brand, but the one that people have talked about
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  Speaker 5: has done really well in the Aussie market is Glassons.
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  Speaker 5: And people just said they're so connected with their shoppers.
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  Speaker 5: And so, yeah, I mean, they say about retail, retail
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  Speaker 5: is detail. You really, really need to know the business.
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  Speaker 5: So it's very common when a private equity firm or
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: something like that owns a retail store, it really goes
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  Speaker 5: downhill fast.
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  Speaker 2: There's pressure on the Australian economy in all sorts of
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: directions at the moment. The last thing the economy needs
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: is all of David Jones' staff to be unemployed.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Is that a prospect? Would an administrator demand massive job cuts,
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  Speaker 1: do you think?
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  Speaker 5: My own personal view about what's probably going to play
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  Speaker 5: out is they will close a significant number of stores.
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: So yeah, there will be job losses, definitely. Will everyone
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: lose their job? I think they'll run a sale process.
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: I think someone might pick up David Jones and buy it.
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: because it really needs money reinvested into the business. And
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: if you can run it with fewer stores, it might
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: be profitable. And then some people would keep their jobs. Again,
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  Speaker 5: another really bad possibility is they can't find a buyer
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  Speaker 5: and then they liquidate it.
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  Speaker 4: Because the lender might take the view they can get more.
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  Speaker 5: For their assets liquidated than they can running it as
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: a going concern, which is often quite common as well.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: I think you should run it, Bridget.
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  Speaker 4: No, definitely not.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining me.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks a lot.
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  Speaker 2: Bridget Carter edits The Australian's must-read business column, Data Room.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: You can check it out now at theaustralian.com.au.