Michael Hill to close three asyetunnamed NZ stores

CORONAVIRUS has taken a toll on Michael Hill International, which said yesterday it was closing nine stores, three of them in New Zealand.

The business posted an update on the NZX explaining the impact of the pandemic on the business.

‘‘The company has decided that it will not reopen some underperforming stores across all three segments, to date, five in Australia, three in New Zealand and one in Canada. Further store closures are likely across all markets, based on store performance and the outcome of landlord negotiations,’’ it said.

The location of the three New Zealand stores was not revealed but Michael Hill has an outlet in hardhit Queenstown and some in the market wondered yesterday whether that store would remain open.

But Chris Wilkinson, of First

Retail Group, did not think Queenstown would shut.

‘‘I imagine it will be stores where there is an overlap — there might a lease expiry ahead or sites in older centres or malls without a likely successful future. It won’t be Queenstown, because this serves as a positioning piece for the Australian and New Zealand market.’’

A company spokesman said from Australia: ‘‘We still have not quite covered all the staff involved and we’re hoping to be able to redeploy the vast majority of them, so until we’ve done that we don’t want to say where the stores are.’’

Michael Hill International said that in late March, all 301 stores globally had temporarily suspended operations. It had been actively planning their reopening, placing great consideration on reevaluating the network, customer demographic and store profitability. — The New Zealand Herald