Footwear chain Accent to close 522 stores and stand down over 5000 staff

Accent, owner of chains like The Athlete’s Foot, will shut over 500 stores for at least a month as virus shutdowns wreck retail.

An Athlete's Foot store. Picture: Alison Wynd

Australia’s largest footwear chain owner, Accent Group, whose stores include The Athlete’s Foot, Platypus and Hype, is the latest corporate casualty of the coronavirus pandemic, announcing it will close all its 500 stores on Friday.

More than 5000 workers will be stood down with no pay.

Accent, which also distributes popular footwear brands such as Dr Martens, Vans and Skechers, will close stores Friday afternoon for at least four weeks.

It said its workers’ health and safety was a top priority.

“This also means that all of the company’s retail employees and the majority of support office employees will be stood down without pay for that period,’’ the company said.

Restrictions imposed to try to beat coronavirus have left the retail sector in turmoil, with tens of thousands of jobs snuffed out in the last few days.

This week pubs group ALH closed and stood down 8000 workers, jeweller Michael Hill announced the loss of 2500 jobs and fashion retailer Mosaic Brands said 6800 jobs were in jeopardy.

More retailers are set to follow as people are urged to stay home and shopping centres resemble ghost towns.

Accent said it will continue to trade through its 18 websites and its wholesale business.

During the stand-down period, employees will continue to accrue entitlements and may access their annual and long service leave entitlements.

Accent Group CEO Daniel Agostinelli said: “It is with a heavy heart that we have made this decision, but we believe this to be in the best interests of the health and wellbeing of our team members.

“The company intends to do everything possible to return the business to normal operations when environmental conditions normalise while always prioritising the safety and wellbeing of our team”.

Accent posted a 10 per cent gain in half year sales to $507.9 million and a net profit of $35.3m, up 9.7 per cent. At the end of the first half it had 522 stores.