EziBuy placed in administration by Mosiac Brands

Mosaic Brands has announced that EziBuy has been placed in administration. EziBuy is a New Zealand based multichannel clothing and home goods retailer founded in 1978, that operates throughout New Zealand and Australia online in a catalogue model, with six physical stores in New Zealand. Mosiac Group purchased Ezibuy in late 2019.

Mosiac Group today announced in a market update that the performance of EziBuy has, ‘been at odds with the strong and continued digital growth across Mosaic’s omnichannel brands.’ EziBuy recorded profitable years in FY21 and FY22, however the return to instore shopping post the pandemic lockdowns impacted EziBuy, with total sales in the first half of FY23 down 51 percent compared to the prior corresponding period.

As a result of the Board’s Strategic Review Ezibuy has appointed Katherine Elizabeth Barnet and Damien Mark Hodgkinson as Administrators. According to today’s media release,  Mosaic intends to propose a restructure to the administrator that would see EziBuy emerge as a simplified, profitable, cash-generative online-only operation, and one that is more strongly aligned with the Group’s successful digital strategies across its other brands.

The Board believes this process to restructure EziBuy is in the best interests of the Group’s shareholders as it will improve the Group’s overall net asset position and operating cashflow.

Released at the end of February, Mosiac’s first half results for FY23 are positive (besides EziBuy). Mosaic sales were up 23 percent, delivering $267m revenue. Group EBITDA grew 195 percent on last year to $15.8m. The first six weeks of H2 as reported by Mosiac saw a 33 percent comparable in-store growth on pcp. And online sales for the Group (excluding EziBuy) now account for 23 percent of revenue and are up 68 percent against pre-pandemic levels.

“Throughout the half, Mosaic’s trading rebound continued to gain momentum as customers increasingly returned to instore shopping,” said Group CEO Scott Evans in the February update. “This, along with a completely reformed business cost structure and online sales revenue from our omnichannel brands that did not decline from COVID highs, allowed the Group to achieve comparable store growth resulting in an EBITDA 195 percent higher than the prior period.”

Today’s announcement has no impact on any other of the nine retails brands within the Group’s portfolio including Millers, Rockmans, Noni B, Rivers, Katies, Autograph, W. Lane, Crossroads and Beme.

On whats ahead for the company, Mosiac Group are capitalising on their customer segment’s return to in store shopping and will be fostering the ongoing online growth. “Certainly, our customers are showing they’re strongly supportive of a true omnichannel approach to retail,” said Mr Evans in February. “Mosaic’s online brands now have over 7.7 million members with the Group planning to open a further 130 stores over the next 12 months.”

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