Shoes retailer treads a tightrope

LUXURY shoe retailer Sneakerboy is facing a new threat to its existence, with finance firm Banjo Loans lodging windingup orders against two companies in the group.

This most recent action brings the number of windingup applications lodged against three companies in the Luxury Retail Group to 10 over the past three years, with the most recent actions against Sneakerboy Retail Pty Ltd and Luxury Retail Group (LRG) Pty Ltd itself.

Sneakerboy reportedly launched a surprise online warehouse sale last week, with discounts of more than 70 per cent on some items. However, links to that sale now appear to be dead.

Sneakerboy’s main website is still operational, and features high-end shoes including $1300 Moncler snow boots and Balenciaga sneakers for $1550.

LRG is owned by Melbourne-based Nelson Mair, 50, and Theo Poulakis, 60 – the former owner of up-market menswear retailer Harrolds.

The company, which is also licensed to sell Mulberry in Australia, has faced several legal actions over the past year or so, including a $1.2m claim from the Australian Taxation Office for unpaid superannuation and taxes, and a $148,000 claim from Adidas, which sought to have the group wound up early last year.

Sneakerboy closed its Brisbane store and removed its listing from its website in early April, leaving it with three stores in Victoria – at Southwharf DFO, Chadstone Shopping Centre and a flagship store on Little Bourke St – and one in George St, Sydney. Calls to all stores, as well as to the Luxury Retail Group phone number, went unanswered on Thursday.

The amount of the debt being pursued by Banjo is not clear at this stage.

In mid-april Sneakerboy’s Queensland landlord, AMP Capital Shopping Centres, had also filed an application to wind up one of the group’s companies – Sneakerboy Pty Ltd – alleging it had failed to pay rent for more than a year, according to media reports.

Banjo Loans declined to comment.