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Aussie Disposals files for bankruptcy

Aussie Disposals

Outdoor and camping equipment retailer Aussie Disposals has filed for voluntary administration, the latest retail casualty taken down by the global coronavirus pandemic, after a horrendous Australian summer of bushfires and severe drought.

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In a filing made with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the company said it had appointed Melbourne-based administrators Magnetic Insolvency to lead it through its business salvage.

Approximately 11 of Aussie Disposals’ 36 stores in Victoria, NSW and South Australia – mostly located in shopping centres — are due to close, with around ten to stay open, in addition to franchisee stores, which account for 13 more stores.

Aussie Disposals’ CEO Mark Purvis blamed a combination of drought, bushfires and the
coronavirus pandemic.

“ln recent times the drought, bushfires and now the coronavirus has taken a massive toll on the business leaving us no alternative but to place the business into Voluntary Administration,” said Purvis, in a press release.

“We are now working extremely hard with our banker’s creditors and suppliers to secure a way forward. Aussie Disposals also has a very loyal large customer base with so many of them supporting our business over so many years. We would like to ensure
them our service will continue as it always has and this is the time we need them the most,” added Purvis.

“The directors along with the administrators have a strong business plan for the future and would hope all affected parties can see their way clear to support us in these most difficult times,” continued Purvis.

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The company said its main focus now is to ensure all 120 staff are looked after and will receive their full entitlement regardless of the business’s future. Purvis’s father Jack Purvis, who opened his first Aussie Disposals store in Moe, Victoria, in 1962, founded the company.