Moves afoot to find buyer for struggling shoe retailer
Administrators have been trading Ziera business for a week, while seeking a sale
The administrators of struggling women’s footwear retailer Ziera Shoes are hopeful they can find a new buyer to take over the business. Ziera, formerly known as Kumfs, has 22 stores throughout New Zealand and 23 in Australia, employing around 250 staff on both sides of the Tasman.
Last week, Ziera Retail, the company behind the Australasian retailer, was placed into voluntary administration, with directors citing difficulties in trade in recent years caused by a rapidly changing retail landscape, consumer trends and issues in their supply chain.
Conor McElhinney and Andrew Grenfell, partners of McGrathNicol, were appointed administrators of Ziera’s New Zealand entities on September 24.
Administrators have been trading the business for a week, while seeking a sale of the business, either in whole or in part.
McElhinney said administrators had already received interest in the business from a number of parties but said it was too early in the process for offers to be submitted. “We hope to sell the business as a going concern,” McElhinney told the Herald.
“There are a number of interested parties that operate footwear retailers and they would be good synergies with those businesses. We hope that they see these synergies exist as well, and consequently, we find a buyer for the business.”
Ziera had been receiving new season stock over the last few weeks, and administrators had yesterday put new season stock on sale both online and in-store, offering discounts of between 10 and 30 per cent on everything.
McElhinney said Ziera staff were “continuing to work hard to preserve the business”.
Many customers only shop at Ziera, due to the specialist technology and health benefits of the shoes, and are worried about where they will get their shoes in the future.”
Ziera was founded in 1946 by David Robertson and Mervyn Adams, and the company sells footwear to independent shoe retailers around the world, including in the United States, Australia and Singapore, as well as through its own retail store network in NZ and Australia.
The retail business was slow to launch its e-commerce business, with its website only going live in 2016.
“Despite over 50 per cent growth per annum in the online stores in New Zealand and Australia, rising rents and staff costs combined with falling sales at Ziera’s bricks and mortar stores have led to the business becoming uneconomical to continue trading,” company directors said last week.
Ziera has also been impacted by the falling New Zealand dollar, the increased cost of manufacturing and the trade dispute between the United States and China, with US tariffs on shoes increasing to 25 per cent which has impacted the profitability of selling into the United States.
There are a number of interested parties that operate footwear retailers and they would be good synergies with those businesses. Conor McElhinney, McGrathNicol