David Jones suppliers left with unpaid invoices

Suppliers to David Jones say they could see the "writing on the wall" about the department store's financial position for months, as unpaid invoices stacked up and phone calls went unanswered.

The 188-year-old department store entered into voluntary administration on Thursday morning. 

But administrators McGrathNicol and receivers FTI Consulting said the company would continue trading while they reviewed operations.

The news sent gift-card holders rushing into stores, but for many suppliers the news was an unsurprising development.

Payments delayed

For Sydney-based personalised accessories brand Beysis, landing a deal to put their stock in David Jones last September was a major milestone.

"To be approached and signed as a stockist was a bit of a signal to other retailers that we are capable of being a national in-store brand," said co-founder Ariana Hendry.

They started supplying David Jones in 2019 under an agreement that stated their invoice would be paid within 14 days of delivery to the store.

"In exchange for paying within 14 days, they'd apply a discount off the value of the invoice," Ms Hendry said. 

"So we would never get paid in full. But we had negotiated those terms. So it was a discount in exchange for receiving payment in 14 days."

But after April, payments started to drift beyond 30 days, and questions to the finance department went unanswered.

"There was actually just no communication back in terms of when they foresaw that they would be in a position to pay," Ms Hendry said.

"We commenced legal proceedings because we were concerned the writing was on the wall, and we're an unsecured debt. 

"So we know we're very, very far down the pecking order."

As well as products that David Jones buys off suppliers, the department store has concession stores within its floors, where brands retain ownership of the stock and staff, including luxury brands and Australian labels.

This will be throwing curveballs for these companies as they figure out what to do with stock, with reports of some brands pulling out stock from David Jones.

An estimated 6,000 people work in the company's 38 stores, some of them not directly employed by David Jones, but through the concession brands.

Long-running saga

Victorian company Creswick Woollen Mills began stocking their goods in David Jones in 2001.

"The first 50 years of our life, we made unbranded fabric and yarn and that transition to David Jones was this incredible transition of branding our products," executive director Boaz Herszfeld said.

A few years ago, the company withdrew its stock from physical stores and only traded through David Jones online stores, seeing no future in physical retail through the large department store.

"It is very sad because it was an established mechanism to communicate and relate with a really important customer segment in Australia and it also provided a certain amount of status for those brands that were in there," Mr Herszfeld said.

Mr Herszfeld said, like other suppliers he had spoken with, over the course of this year, payments for invoices kept getting longer and questions about it went unanswered.

"Not significant, but unpaid invoices nevertheless. I've got quite a few businesses that I'm aware of that have been trying to get payment for quite a few months," he said.

Painful demise

Ms Hendry was dealing with the stress of managing a small business with reduced cash flow, but said it was sad to see a retail icon in this state.

"Being someone in my 40s, David Jones played a role in many shopping occasions, ever since childhood," she said.

"It's just such a shame."

Creswick Woollen Mills said "David Jones 2.0" would be their own e-commerce and in-store sales channels.