Sacked Kennedy luxury empire staff consider legal action as more ultra-exclusive brands sever ties
Last week we revealed the Kennedy luxury empire is being chased for millions. Now, sacked staff are talking legal action as the high-end retailer ends associations with more ultra-exclusive brands. Is Melbourne’s own Kim and Kanye’s lifestyle under threat?
Page 13
Don't miss out on the headlines from Page 13. Followed categories will be added to My News.
House of Kennedy, or House of Cards, as sacked staff seek advice on taking legal action against the luxury watch and jewellery retailer.
Last week, a Page 13 investigation revealed the group was involved in a number of legal disputes with its creditors and suppliers.
A mass culling of Kennedy’s marketing team gave an exclusive insight into the world of high-end retail.
KENNEDY LUXURY EMPIRE CHASED FOR MILLIONS
NATALIE PORTMAN TO BRING GLAMOUR TO NGV
“Mr” Kennedy, as James Kennedy, 39, prefers to be addressed, told Page 13 at the time there was no issue between his company and their top-end watch supplier Patek Philippe.
“I don’t know anything about that,” he said when asked if there was a rift.
“I’ve been a partner with Patek Philippe for over 30 years now, so don’t know where that rumour is coming from.”
Tick, tock!
On Friday Mr Kennedy announced that his association with Patek Philippe in the luxury Sydney watch market will come to an end in January.
Page 13 might not have enough spare change for a Patek Philippe watch (think up to $3.3 million) but we do know how to tell the time.
Just a day after the French champagne flowed in the million-dollar House of Kennedy marquee at Kennedy Oaks Day at the Spring Racing Carnival, Mr Kennedy was at Crown’s Rockpool restaurant with his then managing director, Martin Rainer, and Patek Philippe’s Swiss-based Australian connection, vice-president of sales Yves Cavadini.
Just how exclusive and private the third-generation Geneva watch brand has become can be judged by its stellar clients.
US president John F. Kennedy was a collector along with another of Marilyn Monroe’s many suitors in New York Yankees baseball star Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio.
A former Kennedy employee told Page 13 Patek Philippe and Rolex watch sales make up the majority of the company’s revenue.
One cashed-up Melbourne client was interested in buying a $3.3 million Patek Philippe, but was knocked back by the snooty Swiss watchmaker. Who was he, they wondered?
He then tried buy a $2.2 million watch and settled on what was described as a “consolation prize,” a $1.1 million watch and a flight to Geneva for a getting-to-know-you tour of the company.
That would make him a “friend of the brand” and he could then be considered as a purchaser of a more expensive watch.
The mind boggles at this sort of wealth, but our source said demand is so high “a chimpanzee could sell the watches with no selling technique required and a waitlist longer than your arm.”
Patek Philippe, he said, prides itself on a code of “humility, decorum, discretion and modesty.”
From all accounts, none of these attributes was displayed at the Crown meeting on Friday after Oaks Day.
Patek Philippe had slipped in a mystery buyer to see if the House of Kennedy was following the rules about the prestige brand’s exclusive selling rights.
Page 13 has seen internal Kennedy correspondence outlining the so-called “technical breach.” It details how a watch, in the low-end price range around $60,000 was sold without observing the proper licensing arrangements through Kennedy’s Perth outlet.
It’s also understood Patek Philippe was none too impressed by the histrionics displayed at the Rockpool meeting. More like a drowning.
Kennedy’s now former managing director Martin Rainer confirmed the meeting to Page 13 saying Patek Philippe’s Cavadini gave a review of how the House of Kennedy performance over the past few months and raised several worrying issues.
The marketing team was dismissed two business days later.
These dramatic events seemed to have been forgotten by Mr Kennedy when Page 13 spoke to him last week.
But not by the marketing team, who met this week to discuss whether to take legal action against their former employer.
An internal email seen by Page 13 (pictured below) shows Kennedy ordered and wiped the contacts and private contents of the staff phones, apparently without their knowledge.
Again, this was something Mr Kennedy could not recall.
“I don’t know anything about that,” he said when asked if staff phones had been cleared following their sacking.
“I wasn’t in the room when that happened,” he said. “Couldn’t tell you the specifics other than that staff were made redundant in the normal course of what the law says you are supposed to do.”
One sacked staffer’s phone had personal photos of deceased relatives that can never be retrieved
Another could not call parents to tell them they had been sacked after contacts and numbers were wiped.
Patek Philippe is reportedly not the only brand under the Kennedy umbrella showing signs of nervousness.
Page 13 can reveal another brand has also jumped ship from the stable.
Mr Kennedy on Friday confirmed to Page 13 the fashion label Kenzo had left, spinning the label had returned to luxury global distributor LVMH.
“LVMH, in conjunction with us have made the decision to take Kenzo back in-house in Australia,” Mr Kennedy waxed.
Asked why he did not confirm to Page 13 there was an issue with Patek Phillippe, Mr Kennedy said “at the time we spoke it wasn’t clear.”
Asked why he told Page 13 he had no idea staff phones were wiped he reiterated he “didn’t know the detail”.
“As I now understand it, what happened is part of any standard exit processes in most businesses, where company e-mail access is removed from phones and so on. But I wasn’t present at the time and left the detail to our HR department who are accountable for that.”
Staff say the flamboyant lifestyle of Mr and Mrs Kennedy is viewed with pursed lips.
Perhaps it was fortuitous that plans were scrapped to install what were described as specially-made “thrones” for the couple in a renovated corporate box at the MCG.
James and Jaimee Belle Kennedy were married in a lavish ceremony in Florence this year at the same exclusive venue as Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Got something to tell us? Email page13@news.com.au
Buddhist Brett Sutton’s calm response to wild rumour
Brett Sutton met rumours of his sacking with a gag and continues to win fans (and hearts) with his silver fox looks and calming presence at the grim daily press conferences. So how does a man with such a tough job stay so smooth? Put it down to his Buddhist training.
Silver fox Brett Sutton the silver lining in COVID stress
Brett Sutton has emerged as an unlikely sex symbol during the dreaded COVID-19 presser and sobering numbers game each day, with online fan groups describing him as ‘Chief Swoon Officer’ and ‘Dr Brett McHunk’. Take that, McDreamy.