The owner of embattled furniture retailer Incy Interiors says the business will keep trading until it completes its supplier contracts, despite pledging to close down after a ‘final’ sale in August last year.
The announcement comes as the brand deals with ongoing customer complaints and the removal of its Facebook page.
Incy Interiors is a popular Australian retailer of cots, change tables, and childrens’ furniture, with families across the country using its webstore to outfit their homes.
But the business has struggled in recent years, with some customers waiting months for their furniture to arrive, and others complaining of delayed refunds for overdue orders.
Difficulties within Incy Interiors were made public in January 2024 when founder Kristy Withers placed Incy Interiors Pty Ltd into liquidation.
Speaking to TheLotCo podcast, Withers later claimed the business was rocked by a deal it signed with a major retailer, which ultimately left the smaller business out of pocket and stuck with excess stock it struggled to move.
Tom Fitzpatrick, Withers’ brother and long-time Incy Interiors employee, acquired the Incy Interiors brand from liquidation and now trades the business through Impressive Imports Pty Ltd.
Shipping delays continued, and Fitzpatrick claimed the business handover itself pushed the delivery of some containers back by eight weeks before they reached Australian customs authorities.
After a host of customer complaints, Fitzpatrick in August pledged to close the business after a ‘final’ sale and the fulfilment of existing orders.
But as of today, the business is still trading.
The retailer’s ‘final’ sale has evolved into a Black Friday sale, a Christmas sale, and an ongoing Boxing Day sale.
The reason Incy Interiors did not shut down after August, said Fitzpatrick, is because it could not cancel the original orders guaranteeing furniture from its suppliers twelve months in advance.
According to Fitzpatrick, Incy Interiors and its suppliers have now reached an agreement requiring the retailer to sell down a certain number of units before walking away.
While Incy Interiors needs to sell less furniture now than under the original deals, Fitzpatrick said there is still a considerable amount of stock to sell down.
“We have unfortunately had to commit to quite a bit of stock to obviously get out of those contracts with them and end the arrangements, so that they aren’t out of pocket as well,” Fitzpatrick told SmartCompany this week.
“At this stage, we are hoping the remaining stock will be sold within the next 1-2 months,” he continued.
Consumer complaints continued rolling in after August.
NSW Fair Trading received 14 formal complaints about Incy Interiors in October 2024 alone, all related to the supply of goods and services.
That month, A Current Affair also reported NSW Fair Trading was investigating a total of 116 formal complaints against Incy Interiors.
“Whether it be NSW Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs Victoria, VCAT, any of that, we reply to them directly, we liaise with those guys,” said Fitzpatrick.
Separately, a petition brought to federal parliament in September, bearing 308 signatures, called on lawmakers to investigate Incy Interiors’ business practices.
The petition is yet to receive a formal response.
As the business continues to trade, Fitzpatrick maintained the delivery estimates Incy Interiors is providing to customers are “as accurate as we can possibly have”.
The Incy Interiors Facebook page, a pillar of its online presence with more than 120,000 followers, also appears to have been removed by Facebook itself.
Fitzpatrick believes the brand’s Facebook page was deleted in late December after a “mass reporting event” from disgruntled customers.
He is attempting to reinstate the page, telling SmartCompany the page will help Incy Interiors share important information with its clientele.
The deletion “does unfortunately limit the way we are able to provide customer service, so we would like to get it back, so we have as many forms of communication for customers to be able to reach us” as possible, said Fitzpatrick.
Incy Interior’s profile on Instagram, operated by Facebook owner Meta, remains online, but comments are limited.
SmartCompany has contacted Meta for comment.
After pledging to finalise outstanding orders and shutter the brand, Fitzpatrick said Incy Interiors is still trying to make good on the promises made in August.
“I’d love to sell it [all] tomorrow, but realistically, that probably won’t happen. So I’m being realistic,” he said.
“I’m trying to work through it all as quickly as possible with as little impact on as many people as possible… I just want to get as many customer orders out as quickly as possible, that have been waiting, so that we can close this chapter.”
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Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
