Gift and homewares wholesaler Oxford Lane has gone into administration right before Christmas as a result of the tough retail trading conditions.
Foremans Business Services have been appointed as administrators and administrator Mathew Gollant told SmartCompany the wholesaler got caught with stock it was not able to sell.
“As you would be aware retail is doing it tough and orders for stock were not coming in that you might ordinarily expect coming into the Christmas season,” he says.
“No proposal has been put forward at present we expect the company will go into liquidation at the second meeting of creditors.”
Gollant says Oxford Lane had only been trading for 18 months and has debts of about $700,000 with the investors in the company left as the major creditors.
Oxford Lane’s collapse is likely to impact on SME retailers as Gollant says the wholesaler’s clients were a variety of small homeware and giftware stores with “no major contractors”.
Oxford Lane had three employees who have all had their employment terminated.
Gollant says the collapse of Oxford Lane has been followed by another collapse in the giftware sector this morning of Jomena Pty Ltd.
As the business has just collapsed Gollant does not have any further details at this stage however he says it does point to the problems in the retail sector.
“Jomena is in the giftware space and again retail conditions have not assisted it from a trading perspective,” he says.
Cara Waters is a former SmartCompany editor. Previously, Cara was a senior reporter for the Financial Times’ website and worked for The Sunday Times in London.
