David Jones Enters Voluntary Administration After 188 Years

David Jones, Australia’s oldest department store chain, has entered voluntary administration after 188 years of trading, placing about 6,000 jobs at risk across its 38 stores in Australia and New Zealand. The boards of the retailer and its private equity owner, Anchorage Capital Partners, moved to appoint McGrathNicol as voluntary administrators on Thursday after last-ditch negotiations with major landlords over unpaid rent broke down.

A $95.5 million loss, $153 million in finance costs and an unpaid October rent bill

The collapse was years in the making. Financial accounts revealed a pre-tax loss of $95.5 million in the 2025 financial year, following a $74.1 million loss the year before, and the company spent $125 million on lease and rent costs alongside $153 million in finance costs. It also missed the October 30 deadline to lodge its 2026 accounts with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which had already confirmed the retailer remained under investigation over its 2025 accounts.

The immediate trigger was rent. Scentre Group, which owns Westfield shopping centres and hosts 17 of David Jones’ remaining 38 stores, said the retailer had not paid rent since September 30 and was therefore in breach of its tenancy agreements. The landlord holds $45 million in bank guarantees across the portfolio, with its direct share amounting to $30 million, though the company had paid $45 million in rent over the first nine months of the year. A last-minute lifeline from lender Hilco Capital, reportedly worth around $10 million to stock stores ahead of Christmas, was not enough to avert the filing.

David Jones, a beloved Australian icon and the world’s oldest department store, has entered administration after 188 years, putting 6,000 jobs at risk. Another Australian business buckling. More workers paying the price for Jim Chalmers’ budget and the Albanese Labor… pic.twitter.com/51fAyMW7jh

— https://x.com/PaulineHansonOz/status/2118113820803797081

Scentre’s rejected rescue offer and the ‘breathing space’ of administration

Scentre chief executive Elliott Rusanow said the landlord had tried to keep the chain trading through the Christmas period. His statement that the company made a generous offer to Anchorage — one that would have facilitated David Jones continuing to trade, retained staff and addressed some loss-making tenancies — was rejected by the owner.

We have made a generous offer to Anchorage Capital Partners that would have facilitated the continuation of David Jones trading and that offer has disappointingly been rejected by them,

Elliott Rusanow, Scentre Group chief executive

With McGrathNicol in as administrators and FTI Consulting’s Christopher Hill, David McGrath and Joanne Dunn appointed as receivers and managers, the physical and online stores will keep operating while the business is reviewed. Hill said the appointments give David Jones breathing space and a chance to restructure. Chief executive Erica Berthold told staff the brand had a well-developed plan to reset the business for the future.

David Jones enters voluntary administration | ABC NEWS

Union warns of job losses and super risks

The human cost is concentrated in the 6,000-strong workforce. The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association said its priority was protecting jobs and securing full entitlements if redundancies followed, with national secretary Gerard Dwyer pointing to the Federal Government’s payday super reforms as a safeguard against workers losing up to three months of unpaid superannuation. Reports suggest up to 26 of the 38 stores could be affected, and the retailer had reportedly been weighing a cut from 38 stores to about 12 flagships.

Shoppers face their own exposure. Consumer Policy Research Centre chief executive Erin Turner urged gift card holders to spend them immediately, warning that in an administration they can be treated as unsecured creditors and may recover only a fraction of their money. Meanwhile the brand’s supplier base has thinned: Country Road Group plans to reduce its concessions from early 2027, and luxury labels including Dior and Gucci have withdrawn some products while Chanel has cut its offering.

David jones collapse insta — Photo: oversixty.com.au

From ‘the Aussie version of Harrods’ to a 188-year-old casualty of online retail

Founded by Welsh immigrant David Jones in Sydney in 1838, the chain survived two world wars and the Great Depression — during Queen Elizabeth II’s first Sydney visit in 1954 the then-27-year-old monarch dined at a banquet on the seventh floor of the Elizabeth Street store. Jana Bowden, who teaches marketing at Macquarie University’s Business School, described it as once the epitome of glamour shopping in Australia — the Aussie version of Harrods, a place to marvel at premium luxury labels and feel you’d made it. Her verdict on the collapse: the death knell for the department store format, with suburban stores now mundane and lacking glitz.

South Africa’s Woolworths Holdings paid $2.1 billion to acquire the listed group in 2014; Anchorage Capital Partners paid $100 million when it bought the retailer. The wider sector is under strain too: rival Myer announced in September that it lost $276 million in the 2026 financial year. Whether David Jones can trade out of administration as a smaller, sustainable business — through the Christmas period and beyond — is the question administrators now own.