Mosaic Brand enters voluntary administration, raising doubts about Townsville stores

The collapse of a massive retail group could have future ramifications for several fashion stores in Townsville. See who is affected.

The collapse of the group behind some of Australia’s best-known fashion brands has plunged the future of several businesses operating in the Townsville region into doubt.

Mosaic Brands, the owner of brands including Millers, Rivers, Katies, Noni B and Autograph, revealed that it had gone into voluntary administration in an announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange on Monday.

The group has over 700 stores and 2700 employees across Australia and New Zealand, including one Rivers Mega Store, two Katies, two Noni B, and three Millers in Townsville.

FTI Consulting was appointed as voluntary administrators and will seek offers to recapitalise or acquire the Mosaic Brands Group, while KPMG was appointed to oversee the trading operations of the group as the receivers and managers.

It is understood that the receivers were presently looking to trade the business as usual.

A KPMG spokesman said it was still “early days”, and their team was still looking to stabilise operations and make an urgent assessment of the business.

The future of Townsville’s Noni-B stores hangs in the balance. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Steven Saphore

“The appointment of the external administrators by the board follows what has been a difficult period for the business which has faced a number of structural challenges and disruptions relating to suppliers and inventory management,” KPMG said in a statement.

“The Mosaic Group and the management team, led by CEO Erica Berchtold, see this as a necessary process to reset and a pathway to accelerate its plans to focus on its core brands, resolve legacy issues and right size the store network to ensure the ongoing success of the business.”

Mosaic chief executive Erica Berchtold (centre) has expressed confidence the company can emerge from the restructure and prosper. Picture: Supplied.

There are two Katies stores in Townsville facing an uncertain future. Picture: Supplied.

Millers and Katies released social media statements saying they would continue to ship online orders and they would continue to respond to all online inquiries.

KPMG Australia’s Turnaround and Restructuring partner David Hardy said they were “seeking to stabilise the operations of Mosaic to preserve the underlying value of the business while endeavouring to serve its customers, with support from its employees and suppliers to minimise business interruption”.

There are three Millers stores in Townsville facing an uncertain future. Picture: Supplied.

This latest announcement follows Mosaic Brands decision last month to downsize its operations by closing 200 of its Rockmans, Autograph, Crossroads, W.Lane and BeMe stores to focus on “five core growth brands”.

Of those brands’ six stores in Townsville, only two were still answering the phone – Rockmans Fairfield, who refused to comment, and Autograph Castletown, who confirmed that they would continue to trade through the Christmas period before closing.

Speaking as the managers of Castletown Shopping Centre, a McConaghy Properties spokeswoman said they were working with the administrators to understand the long-term viability of the business.

“At this point we have no further information, other than the Rockman’s store will continue to trade within Castletown,” she said.

Originally published as Mosaic Brand enters voluntary administration, raising doubts about Townsville stores