Women’s clothing retailer Seduce collapses into voluntary administration

Women’s clothing retailer Seduce has entered voluntary administration and its Australian bricks-and-mortar stores have closed, just weeks after being hit by a wind-up notice from its landlord.

Administrators from Deloitte were appointed to Seduce Pty Ltd on August 16, with Michael Billingsley and Neil Cussen acting as joint administrators.

Billingsley and Cussen were subsequently appointed as voluntary administrators or liquidators of a number of related entities, including as voluntary administrators of parent company Seduce Group Australia Pty Ltd on August 22.

Subsidiary companies Seduce Parramatta Pty Ltd, Seduce Burnside Pty Ltd, Seduce Enex 100 Pty Ltd, Seduce Shellharbour Pty Ltd, Blue Juice Pty Ltd and Katherine Pty Ltd were all placed into liquidation between 16 and 18 August.

Seduce specialises in fashion items for women aged between 25 and 35, which it sold via nine Australian stores. All of the Seduce stores in Australia were closed prior to the appointment of administrators and liquidators.

However, the retailer’s online store appears to still be trading, with Seduce alerting its 32,000 Facebook fans to a 30% storewide online sale on Sunday afternoon.

Seduce has been operating for more than 20 years. The brand has stores in Dubai and China and also supplies a number of other retailers, including Myer and The Iconic.

Seduce was the subject of a wind-up application from Melbourne Central Custodian, a subsidiary of landlord GPT, at the end of July and records from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show Melbourne Central Custodian also applied to have the company wound up in April 2015.

Seduce Pty Ltd was also the subject of an unsuccessful wind-up application from property group Charter Hall at the start of this year, while another application to wind-up the business was filed by Scentre Management and Reco Whitford in July.

At the time of Deloitte’s appointment, Seduce Pty Ltd was the subject of two wind-up applications and Seduce Group Australia was the subject of one wind-up application.

Administrator and liquidator Michael Billingsley told SmartCompany “it is still early days as far as our appointment is concerned, and particularly regarding Seduce Group Australia Pty Limited”.

“We are continuing our investigations and will report to creditors in the ordinary course of the various administrations,” he says.

SmartCompany contacted Seduce for comment on multiple occasions but did not receive a response prior to publication.