SA retail titan’s warning amid David Jones chaos
Warning over DJ’s demise as a department store historian fears an Australian legacy may disappear.
Adelaide Economic Development Agency chair and Maras Group CEO Steve Maras has called on Adelaidians to go out and shop at local bricks-and-mortar stores after news emerged today that major department store giant David Jones had appointed administrators this morning.
The boards of David Jones and its owner, Anchorage Capital Partners, held a crisis meeting on Wednesday night and Maras feared it was a signal of worse to come for the retail sector.
Maras hoped the company could be restructured and purchased by “another group who will see value in it”, saying “I’m hoping for it to be salvaged in some way”.
This morning, the retailer appointed McGrathNicol as administrators and FTI Consulting as receivers for the iconic 188-year-old brand with three stores in South Australia. FTI will run the business until it is restructured and put up for sale.
Its more than 6000 staff across the company face an uncertain festive season, but physical and online stores will continue to trade while its owners aim to “reset the business”.
Maras, whose Maras Group has a large landholding in the city’s East End, said his message to shoppers was to “support bricks and mortar”.
The high-profile businessman, who also chairs the City of Adelaide’s economic development arm, said he was a “tragic nostalgic” about the department store that has previously dominated Rundle Mall trading.
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“It’s very sad to think that a group like David Jones – who everyone has some sort of connection to – is going to close,” he said.
“It’s going to cause some sadness, distress and all the rest of it. This is not a South Australian thing. This is a national issue.”
Maras hoped something could be salvaged out of the business, noting his background was in insolvency and that “there’s no comparison between what’s happening now and what was happening in the early ’90s” when Australia went through a recession.
“I started my career back in the early ’90s, and that’s when we had the recession, so I remember all of this,” he said.
“We haven’t seen anything yet. You’ve got to be 50 and over to know what a recession is.”
‘Something radically different’
Author and retail historian Paul Flavel said today’s news was “devastating”.
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In 2024, Flavel wrote ‘John Martin’s: The Story of South Australia’s Beloved Department Store’, chronicling the rise and ultimate closure of SA’s own department store company.
He also worked at David Jones for almost five years in Victoria between 2009 and 2014, and said he was “really upset that we’re potentially going to be losing such a legacy brand”.
“David Jones and Myer still have sales of billions of dollars,” he said.
“However, the operating model is clearly not profitable.”
He said that “whatever emerged out of David Jones will be something radically different on a smaller scale”.
“Perhaps we lost David Jones long ago, the one we grew up with that was upmarket and had the food halls and the piano man; that’s long gone,” he said.
“The department store has become a shell of its former self.
“What we’ll see in the future, if it does survive beyond administration, will be a smaller model, probably more focused on e-commerce and servicing CBD areas.”
He said that in the past department stores “haven’t survived” administration, but had high hopes for DJs.
“I think it will survive. It will just be on a much smaller scale, still with a premium offering,” he said.
“But there will be a lot of caution from suppliers that still have outstanding debts.”
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