Rivers to shut 136 stores across Australia, with over 600 redundancies

Nathan Jolly

January 24, 2025 8:47

Rivers to shut 136 stores across Australia, with over 600 redundancies

Legendary Australian boots and clothing brand, Rivers, has failed to find a buyer, with all 136 of its retail stores closing, resulting in over 600 redundancies.

Rivers was the biggest casualty from the collapse of Mosaic Brands last October, which also saw the Katies brand retired, with 80 stores closing in December.

Mosaic also owns brands Noni B, Rockmans, Millers, Autograph, Beme, Crossroads, and W. Lane. As of last October, it owned 804 stores, nationally, with approximately 7.8 million online members.

The company is being administered by KPMG and FTI Consulting.

“Unfortunately, a sale of Rivers was not able to be achieved,” said KPMG partner David Hardy.

“This means the receivers have made the difficult decision to wind down this iconic Australian brand.

“The receivers would like to thank the Mosaic and Rivers employees who have all worked tirelessly during this difficult period, as well as Rivers’ loyal customer base who have continued to support the brands.”

Rivers had been operating as a shoe maker for 162 years in Australia, selling into David Jones and Grace Bros from 1979, and opening its first standalone retail store four years later. By 2018, Rivers had expanded to over 100 stores, and was purchased by Noni B (now Mosaic) for $31 million.

Last October, Mosaic called in the administrators, $249 million in debt and with a market valuation of $6.3 million.

A note filled with the ASX at the time noted that “plans to restructure, re-align and simplify Mosaic’s operations” were unsuccessful as “a small number of [stakeholder] parties declined to support the restructuring proposal or negotiate a commercial outcome, and a commercially acceptable resolution could not be reached with the ACCC.”

The ACCC launched Federal Court proceedings against Mosaic Brands in March, alleging the fashion retail group failed to meet advertising delivery timeframes on several hundred thousand occasions.