Ed Harry jobs in firing line

GEELONG jobs will be among 500 at risk with menswear chain Ed Harry, which has stores in Corio and Leopold, collapsing after a poor Christmas.

Accounting firm KPMG has been appointed voluntary administrator and will launch a clearance sale of stock.

Ed Harry operates 87 stores across Australia, including 15 in Victoria, and employs 498 staff. Its head office is located in Adelaide.

The chain was founded in 1993. It fell into voluntary administration in 2011 with a network that covered 130 stores.

It was bought and relaunched later that year by Specialty Men’s Apparel with a network of 78 stores.

Specialty Men’s Apparel managing director David Clark said attempts to attract new sources of funding to revive and grow the chain had failed.

“Competition both in local bricks and mortar and online has been fierce in our sector for some time now,” Mr Clark said yesterday.

“The directors had been exploring options for funding to enable Ed Harry to continue to compete and grow, however to this point have been unsuccessful.

“Today is a difficult day for all our hard-working employees and loyal customers.”

KPMG partner Brendan Richards said a poor Christmas trading period had been the final straw.

“Like many other Australian retailers, after a strong period of growth, it has faced a challenging environment over the past 12 months — and a particularly tough Christmas sales period,” Mr Richards said.

“It has also become clear that shopping centre footfall has been significantly weaker than expected.”

Mr Richards said the chain would trade as normal and administrators would explore all options, including a sale of the business.

Gift cards will be honoured for one month.