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Is this the end of the road for Myer?

By Administrator | 23 February 2018

Things are in free-fall at Myer, Australia’s largest department store chain, with chief executive Richard Umbers resigning abruptly on Wednesday and retail analyst Brian Walker saying “in its current configuration Myer cannot be saved”.

Just days after the company’s third profit downgrade in seven months, the share price, around 54 cents, is barely 14% of the $4.10 share price of its 2009 listing and dissident shareholder Solomon Lew is on the warpath.

“The business has lost all of its retail talent in the past two years, and there is no retail experience of any note on its failed board … Myer is in peril,” Lew said.

It’s a sad litany of woes for the company that was once the byword for shopping cachet; that pioneered modern retailing with advertising that spoke directly to women, traded with a range unrivaled elsewhere and led the move to suburban shopping centres by building Melbourne’s Chadstone in the early 1960s.

Its founder, Sidney Myer (my grandfather’s uncle) won a place in the nation’s hearts, personally funding road construction and Christmas dinners for thousands of disadvantaged people in the 1930’s depression. Now the business that funded his largesse is itself almost on the bread line.

Rod Myer - Smart Company - 16 Feb 2018

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