$2 million giftware retailer Pylones Australia collapses into voluntary administration

The Australian subsidiary of a French giftware retailer is for sale after the company collapsed into voluntary administration earlier this week.

Pylones International, trading as Pylones Australia, operates three retail stores in the Sydney CBD, the Melbourne CBD and Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

Pylones is a French giftware brand that designs, produces and distributes brightly coloured personal and home accessories, including clocks, photo frames, some jewellery and gifts for children. The company has been operating in France for 30 years and has retail stores across Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East. The Australian subsidiary was established in 2011.

However, administrators HLB Mann Judd said in a statement on Wednesday the Australian business has “not performed in Australia as expected due to a number of factors including the current difficult retail trading environment”.

HLB Mann Judd partners Todd Gammel and Barry Taylor have been appointed as administrators and will continue to trade the three Pylones stores while the seek expressions of interest in the business and or its assets. Meanwhile, a 30% off sale is underway at the three stores.

Gammel told SmartCompany this morning Pylones Australia employs 17 people across the three stores, with another three workers employed in the back office.

The retailer turned over $2 million last year and Gammel says it was on track to record the same level of sales this year.

But like other “smaller guys struggling to compete for the same dollar”, Gammel says the current structure of the business meant Pylones Australia was not achieving the level of sales needed to remain viable.

An advertisement for the business appeared in today’s edition of The Australian Financial Review, with Pylones three retail stores up for sale, as well as “significant stock across complete category range” and a “wholesale and online client database”.

Gammel says the administrators have already begun to receive interest in Pylones from established Australian retailers and it would make sense to “bolt on” the business to an existing retail operation.

While Gammel says the company’s directors would consider restructuring the business, their preference would be for “another solution or option with someone out here”.

“That would make sense from where we are too,” he says.

“There’s a lot of interest in the brand. It is a stable, global brand. Someone just needs to work out how to make money with it.”