David Jones has stores at about 38 locations across Australia and New Zealand. T<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The upmarket<\/span> retailer was founded in 1838, half a century after Britain started sending convicts to Australia. The company is named after the Welsh-born immigrant who opened a store in central Sydney.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve changed how we shop, when we shop and where we shop,\u201d said\u00a0Gary Mortimer, a professor at Queensland University of Technology\u2019s business faculty who specialises in retail and consumer behaviour. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a shift online.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Jones has also been hamstrung by long-dated agreements with landlords, which can lumber tenants with unprofitable stores at the wrong locations for years, Mortimer said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCommercial leasing isn\u2019t nimble,\u201d Mortimer said. \u201cMaybe 70 years ago, it didn\u2019t need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Jones Chief Executive Officer Erica Berchtold said in the statement that the company has a \u201cwell-developed plan on how to reset the business for the future.\u201d She didn\u2019t elaborate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The retailer\u2019s failure this week extends a history of diminishing returns from the once-iconic brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Johannesburg-listed Woolworths Holdings bought the chain in 2014 for around A$2.2 billion ($1.5 billion), but struggled to replicate its successful South African upmarket food business. <\/p>\n\n\n\nIconic Brand<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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