It’s bye-bye to Bardot

Fashion chain’s Westfield store may shut within days

IN the middle of the Christmas shopping frenzy, another city retailer is preparing to shut its doors.

Bardot Geelong could close within days, as a mega clearance sale continues after the popular fashion chain announced it had gone bust.

The Westfield store on

Malop St is set to shut by the end of January, but will close down immediately if its stock sells out before then.

The closing-down sales come after the women’s brand announced it had gone into voluntary administration last month.

According to the Bardot website, 42 stores will shut across the country, with just 18 to remain open. The retailer, which employs about 800 staff over 72 stores across Australia, blamed increasing competition and a “challenging” domestic market for its collapse.

“Despite double-digit growth in online sales, and our highly successful expansion into the US and Europe, Bardot’s retail stores in Australia are competing in a highly cluttered and increasingly discount-driven market,” CEO Basil Artemides said in a statement.

“Operating a national retail network in its current state is no longer sustainable.

“We have appointed administrators KPMG to lead a company-wide restructure, which will enable us to redefine local market presence, ensuring that Australia is, and will always remain, the heart of the Bardot business.”

The closures follows a horror two years in retail, with a string of businesses either going bust or being forced into major restructures including discount chain Dimmeys, Harris Scarfe and fashion retailers Roger David, Oroton and Esprit.

Bardot Geelong currently has an “everything must go” 40 per cent off sale, with local shoppers making a beeline to bag a bargain.

Other Victorian stores to close include Werribee, Fountain Gate, Chapel St, Craigieburn, Eastland, Spencer St Outlet, Chadstone Junior, Doncaster Junior, Emporium Junior and Eastland Junior.