Male grooming salon linked to former AFL player goes into administration

A men’s grooming salon in South Australia linked to former AFL player Tony Gray has been placed in voluntary administration.

Administrators Alan Scott and Stuart Otway of BRI Ferrier were appointed to manage the voluntary administration of DFM Unley, which formerly traded as ‘Destination for Men’, on July 22.

The first meeting of the company’s creditors will take place on August 3 in Melbourne.

Destination For Men, a hair salon on Unley Road in the inner Adelaide suburb of Parkside, was billed as a place for men to get anything from a hair cut to a barber shop shave, massage or skin treatment while relaxing “in comfortable leather lounges in front of the multiple large TV screens while enjoying a complimentary beer, mixed drink or cafe latte”.

It was placed into liquidation in April last year following a failed franchising deal.

The salon later relaunched, with Gray telling Glamadelaide.com in August the salon had undergone a revamp.

Administrator Alan Scott of BRI Ferrier told SmartCompany this morning Destination for Men and DFM Unley were related companies but not the same, with “common interests” connecting the two.

Scott confirmed Gray was a director of DFM Unley but says the company has different shareholders to the liquidated business.

He says DFM Unley has gone into administration for not making “sufficient money” and for trading at a loss, but there were still hopes the business could be sold and BRI Ferrier is hoping to find a buyer.

 “The business has a value,” he says.

Scott says one or two staff at the salon had been “laid off” as a result of the administration.

Destination For Men had unpaid debts of almost $1.1 million before it was placed in administration, mostly owed to Gray himself.