By Claire Reilly
Administrators for the embattled retailer Game Australia have announced the closure of 60 stores across Australia, with 264 store employees and 17 head office employees set to be made redundant.
“This is a difficult time for employees and closing the stores was not a decision we made easily,” said PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and Game administrator, Kate Warwick. “However it is not financially viable to continue to operate at this level at this time.”
“PwC has been in touch with the Federal Government Department that deals with General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS) and will assist the employees with their applications.”
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In a statement released today, PwC noted that “after reviewing the financial performance and profitability of the individual stores, and with regard to current discussions with interested parties, it is not possible to continue to trade these stores”.
While the administrators have not confirmed which stores would be affected, the number of closures represents a significant proportion of Game’s total store network of 92 shopfronts. Today’s news will also see Game lose half of its 500-strong workforce.
UPDATE: Current.com.au has learnt that retailers were notified of the news this afternoon via a conference call with administrators. However, Current has spoken to a number of retail staff that had not been notified of the store closures when news broke. While individual retailers have been asked not to comment on the onging proceedings, Current understands that certain retailers first learnt the news through online news websites which have broken the story this afternoon.