Receivers plan to sell 20-year old Andrea Moore fashion label

Receivers for Kiwi fashion brand Andrea Moore will make arrangements to advertise its sale today, following a move by one unknown creditor.

The shareholders of the company moved the iconic label into liquidation on Monday with Wayne Deuchrass and Keith Harris appointed. According to Companies Office records, designer Andrea Moore and managing director Brian Molloy hold a majority 61% share of the company between them.

However, receivers Conor McElhinney and Andrew Grenfell of McGrathNicol were later appointed at the request of a creditor. The receivers have control of the business and say stores will continue to trade as they make decisions about the sale process. The fashion label has seven stores in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and employs 22 staff.

In a statement, Mr Molloy blamed the label’s problems on a “perfect storm” with damaging late deliveries, creditor defaults and roadworks outside its retail stores limiting trade.

Mr Molloy acknowledged the company should have considered consolidating its bricks and mortar stores and focussed on parts of the business which were profitable.  

He says the fashion label has a loyal customer base of more than 30,000 but its problems were linked to the hugely capital-intensive nature of the industry, and discounting affected margins.

Andrea Moore had created a fashion following by using bold prints and colour, and in recent years had created a mass market label, “I am,” sold at Farmers outlets.

In August 2016, the label raised $750,000 through crowdfunding site Snowball Effect. At the time it claimed it had excellent historical earnings growth with financial year revenue of $4 million and an ebitda of $300,000.  

Andrea Moore said it was forecasting continued growth in the 2017 financial year, with revenue of $4.8 million and ebitda of $600,000.