Just Jeans, Smiggle owner slams Westfield over coronavirus ‘inaction’
The company behind chains including Just Jeans and Smiggle has hit out at the owner of Westfield shopping centres, saying it has put people’s health in jeopardy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
PREMIER Investments has sensationally accused the owner of Westfield shopping centres in Australia of failing to respond appropriately after being informed retail staff were exposed to the coronavirus at one of its malls.
And Premier chief Mark McInnes has accused major shopping centre owners of playing “roulette” with the lives of retail employees and customers, slamming them for not shutting their centres.
The furious assault from one of the nation’s biggest retailers comes amid an increasingly heated standoff between major chains and shopping centre owners over whether rent should be paid during the coronavirus upheaval.
“COVID-19 is a deadly virus and it is unacceptable for landlords to play roulette with the lives of retail employees and customers by not doing everything they can to protect them,” Mr McInnes said today.
“We made the toughest decision to close our stores and stand down our team yesterday because we could not allow our team members, our customers and their families to continue to take the risk posed by our continued trading.”
Releasing a statement that posed a series questions to shopping centre owners, Mr McInnes asked: “Why are your shopping centres open when the Prime Minister has asked all Australians to stay at home and the Premier of Victoria rightly says no shopping trip is worth risking a life?”
“Where you have been made aware of infected customers and workers entering your shopping centres, have you taken all steps to advise all your tenants, all your customers and the entire local community of the risk?”.
Premier — backed by Melbourne-based retail veteran Solomon Lew — owns Just Jeans, Smiggle, Peter Alexander, Jay Jays, Portmans, Jacquie-E and Dotti.
On Thursday, it closed 850 stores across Australia for at least a month and declared it would not pay rent during that time.
Other major retail chains including Adairs, Lovisa, Platypus, Hype, The Athlete’s Foot, Noni B, Katies and Millers have also shut stores this week and told landlords they will not be paying rent.
Mr McInnes said the threat of COVID-19 was “very real” for Premier given its employees had been exposed to the virus in two incidents at Scentre Group’s Westfield Carindale mall in Brisbane.
“In both instances, when Scentre was notified, they took no action,” he said. “We were made aware of these incidents by the affected customers themselves and the Queensland Health department.
“We then notified Scentre, who to our knowledge took no steps to notify the other tenants, customers or the community of Carindale that positive COVID-19 cases had been shopping in the mall.”
Scentre owns Westfield shopping malls in Australia.
An employee of Target and gym member of Fernwood Fitness at Westfield Carindale have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past fortnight. Premier operates seven stores at the centre.
A Scentre spokeswoman said both centre management and Carindale retailers had followed all Queensland Health protocols in dealing with the incidents, including closing “relevant” stores, carrying out deep cleaning and stepping up cleaning across the centre.
“The Queensland Health advice was these individuals posed no risk to any customers, retailers or employees,” she said. “The health and wellbeing of our customers, retail partners and people is our highest priority.
“We have very high standards of cleanliness and hygiene across our centres and have adopted the necessary precautions in our operations.”
The Shopping Centre Council of Australia, which represents major mall owners, late Thursday said its members would not terminate leases for non-payment of rent by small and medium-sized businesses.
But it did not extend the break to large retailers and council chair Peter Allen said “unilateral” decisions hurt “Team Australia” by jeopardising co-ordinated efforts between government and business.
Mr Allen is also the chief executive of Scentre.
MORE NEWS
SMIGGLE, JUST JEANS, PETER ALEXANDER STAND DOWN RETAIL STAFF
DEVASTATING TOLL OF AUSSIE RETAIL CARNAGE