Iconic retailer Fletcher Jones in administration

One-time retail and manufacturing giant Fletcher Jones has entered administration, citing difficulties attracting younger people into their stores and a tough retail environment, capping a remarkable year of rag trade collapses.

Bruno Secatore of Cor Cordis has been appointed administrator of the 93-year-old business, which has hundreds of employees and about 45 stores.

It is continuing to trade while options for the business are assessed.

A Fletcher Jones employee, who declined to be named, told SmartCompany the company had enjoyed a great run but had failed to connect with younger buyers.

“Fletchers has been good to Australia, and Australia has been good to Fletchers,” he says.

“Retail on the whole has not been that rosy, and the same as the other retailers out there, we’ve felt the pinch.”

The staff member said Fletcher Jones has “not quite reached the younger market yet.”

“We were very big in the corporate market in the years gone by.”

Asked what would happen next, the employee said: “The company is on the market and apparently there are some buyers looking at it, so hopefully it will continue on.”

The company started in 1918 when returned soldier Fletcher Jones began tailoring, and eventually grew into a 3000-strong business with a strong commitment to its employee-shareholders.

The first Melbourne store was opened in Collins Street in 1946; stores in Adelaide, Sydney and Hobart followed. The company dressed participants of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne.

Fletcher Jones – a devout Christian – gave shares to his workers and a voice in the management of “Fletcher Jones and Staff.”

The founder died in 1977; his son David went to as managing director of the company. However, the rise of Chinese manufacturing and the slashing of tariffs on local manufacturing hit the company hard.

“We were making a pair of trousers in around about 110 minutes,” David Jones said in the 2006 documentary, ‘The Fabric of a Dream – The Fletcher Jones Story.’

“We gradually got that down to around about 32 minutes, but we were still paying a very high cost per minute compared to what you would pay in China. The Chinese could afford to make those very same trousers in 50 minutes and still end up with a much cheaper product.”

David Jones was voted out in 1991 of the business after massive losses, the documentary recounts, and staff lost their shares. It was later bought by the Dimmick family, who are behind Geelong Textiles.

Fletcher Jones is one of many rag traders to collapse in 2011, following the Colorado Group, Bettina Liano, Satch, Ed Hardy and Brown Sugar. Colorado Group and Brown Sugar were able to restructure.