Embattled retailer Mosaic is escalating a dispute with at least one of its suppliers owed more than a million dollars as it axes five of its nine brands and hundreds of staff amid a scramble to keep the unprofitable business afloat.
Mosaic chief executive, Erica Berchtold, said the group would shut down the brands – Rockmans, Autograph, Crossroads, W.Lane and BeMe – nationally, as part of a broader effort to simplify the retailer’s portfolio, and instead focus on its remaining stores including Katies, Noni B, Rivers and Millers.
Mosaic declined to confirm the exact number of stores that would close or how many staff would be affected. The company has hundreds of stores spanning those brands across the country: Rockmans has 150 stores, Autograph has 49 stores and W.Lane has 32 stores, coming to 231 in total. Each of the stores and their websites would be shut down.
Mosaic Brands owns Rivers, Katies, Rockmans and Noni B.
Mosaic has also been in negotiations for the past two months with dozens of its global suppliers in Bangladesh, India and China, who are owed tens of millions of dollars, seeking to renegotiate payment terms.
Some suppliers, who have been asked to accept reduced payments, have declined. In some instances, those suppliers have been asked by Mosaic to accept terms where they would be paid half or one-third of what they were owed in monthly instalments over three years.
Mosaic is understood to owe as much as $US15 million to suppliers in Bangladesh.
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Omar Chowdhury, managing director of Bangladeshi garment manufacturer Hydroxide Knitwear, said Mosaic sent him a proposal on August 19, where it offered to pay $US787,395 it owed his business in four instalments.
He declined stating that the agreement offered no guarantee Hydroxide Knitwear would be paid. Chowdhury, whose company has engaged ERA Legal in Australia, said after he refused the proposal he received a letter from Mosaic dated September 25, in which it made a counterclaim against Hydroxide for $US1.38 million.
