46-year-old clothing retailer Burdines collapses

An empty Burdines storefront in Moonee Ponds

A women’s clothing retail chain that has been operating for 46 years has collapsed into voluntary administration.

Twelve Burdines clothing stores were located in the Melbourne suburbs of Frankston, Moonee Ponds, Ivanhoe, Doncaster East, Croydon, Glen Waverley, Ringwood and Hampton, as well as regional stores in Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat and Albury.

Robyn Erskine and Peter Goodin of Brooke Bird were appointed as administrators of Burdines on January 12 and at least two stores have already shut.

Just days before administrators were called in, the Border Mail reported the Albury store, which was one of the regional town’s oldest retail businesses, was closing.

The Burdines store in Moonee Ponds has also closed and all stock and fittings have been removed.

According to the Border Mail, the Albury store was one of the first outlets to open when the Burdines business was founded in 1969.

The company confirmed the closure to the Border Mail on January 7 but a spokesperson declined to say why.

“It is a family company and a family decision,” the spokesperson said.

The URL for the Burdines website is currently redirecting visitors to a placeholder site. The first meeting of Burdines creditors took place on January 21 and a second meeting is scheduled for February 9.

The collapse of Burdines follows several other Australian clothing retailers entering administration in the second half of 2014.

Man to Man collapsed into voluntary administration in late December 2014 and administrators Ferrier Hodgson closed 20 “underperforming” stores in January. The administrators are currently calling for expressions of interest in the business.

Earlier in the year, high-end designer retailer Mynetsale.com.au was liquidated after its French backing company also collapsed.

Brian Walker, chief executive of the Retail Doctor Group, told SmartCompany the “margin for error” for fashion retailers is now smaller than ever before.

“In years gone by, a fashion retailer could still get by with two or three bad seasons, but now that has been reduced to one season for many,” Walker says.

Walker says the continued growth of large shopping centres, and the discount department stores in them, is also affecting retailers such as Burdines and Man to Man, who have traditionally relied on their local communities.

“These offers are not especially hard to copy and that makes them very vulnerable,” he says.

Walker says medium-sized retail chains are also vulnerable as they are “too big to be small and too small to be big”.

“This is a classic example of the middle ground crumbling,” he says.

“These businesses that have between eight and 16 retail stores, a turnover of say $12-15 million, are vulnerable. They don’t have the scale to build a really strong brand and they have to rely on a local market that is changing dramatically.”

SmartCompany contacted Brooke Bird on multiple occasions but did not receive a response prior to publication.