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- Adairs (ADH) will temporarily close all of its Australian stores from March 29 to prioritise the health and safety of staff and customers
- These closures follow suit from New Zealand who closed all six of their stores on March 24
- Stores will be closed for an initial four to six weeks and may reopen depending on a number of factors
- Unfortunately, the majority of staff and customer support team will be stood down, however, they will be able to access their leave entitlements
- Despite this, Adairs expects its online store to remain open
- Company shares are down 8.86 per cent and trading for 72 cents each
Adairs (ADH) will temporarily close all of its Australian stores from March 29 to prioritise the health and safety of staff and customers.
In accordance with Government requirements, New Zealand’s six stores have been closed since March 24.
This temporary closure is a result from the escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak and the requirement to stay at home unless buying the absolute essentials.
Initially, stores will be closed for four to six weeks and reopening is dependent upon a health and safety assessment of staff, the environment, and Government direction.
Unfortunately, at this time the majority of staff and customer support team will be stood down, however, they will be able to access their leave entitlements.
Adairs expects that their online site will continue to operate in Australia during this time and the company has put additional measures in place to manage the health and safety of the staff working in that area.
“We will work to support our people during this time including assisting them in accessing our Employee Assistance Program and any Government assistance that they may qualify for,” CEO and Managing Director Mark Ronan said.
“We are committed to our team returning to Adairs as soon as we believe it is safe to reopen our stores so that we can all go back to doing what we love,” he added.
Going forward, company costs and working capital will be tightly managed in a bid to preserve cash.
Adairs currently has $36 million cash on hand, net debt of $48 million and access to undrawn debt facilities of $12 million.
Company shares are down 8.86 per cent and trading for 72 cents each at 1:56 pm AEDT.
