There's no other store like David Jones to its founding family

More than 60 years ago, two young siblings were front and centre at a jam-packed opening ceremony in Sydney's west, as the department store founded by their great-great-grandfather, David Jones, expanded into Sydney's suburbs.

An estimated 4,000 people gathered outside the building in Parramatta, trying to catch a glimpse of seven-year-old Susanna de Vienne cutting the ribbon inside.

Looking back, Ms de Vienne recalls being "overwhelmed" seeing the crowd.

"I remember coming in … and people were just glued to the door," she told 7.30.

"And I thought, 'Oh goodness, why would all these people be here?' It was a big, big deal."

A photo of the historic moment shows the little girl and her younger brother Charles E Lloyd Jones surrounded by eager faces peering through the glass doors.

Decades on, a receiver for David Jones has confirmed the Parramatta store is one of 19 on the chopping block amid a restructure.

Administrator McGrath Nicol is now racing to find a buyer and hoping the "urgent restructure" will save the iconic 188-year-old brand.

Speaking before the restructure was announced, Ms de Vienne told 7.30 she felt sad for David Jones staff after the company entered voluntary administration last week.

But she hoped the retailer — which was owned or run by her family for more than 140 years — would be rebuilt as "David Jones 2.0".

Her brother, Mr Lloyd Jones, also believed the department store would survive but said if it did not, he would still feel "fortunate to have been part of its history".

A history of retail firsts 

As children, the siblings were too young to understand the significant role their family had played in shaping Australia's then-skyrocketing retail landscape.

Their great-great-grandfather started the first store in Sydney in 1838, more than six decades before Australia became a nation.

It started as a drapery business on the corner of Barrack and George streets, before their grandfather, Sir Charles Lloyd Jones, expanded it to new buildings in Market and Elizabeth Streets in the 1920s.

Mr Lloyd Jones said his grandfather's time as chairman was a new era of innovation for the department store.

"The store had the first escalators in the Southern Hemisphere," he told 7.30.

"They did aeroplane parcel deliveries to country customers. They did a lot of things that no one was doing."

In the 1940s, David Jones hosted the first-ever Christian Dior fashion parade outside of Paris.

In 1954, Sir Charles and his wife held a royal banquet for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, as the couple became the first serving British monarchs to visit Australia.

One of Ms de Vienne's earliest memories was seeing an exhibition of circus animals inside the Elizabeth Street store in the 1950s.

"It was so impressive that the elephant was on the lower ground floor,"

she said.

"I was just blown away by that as a child."

As a teenager, Mr Lloyd Jones worked in the David Jones toy department as a Christmas casual.

He would later go on to manage multiple stores, as the fifth and final generation of his family to work for the firm.

Mr Lloyd Jones feared he would lose his job at David Jones after a hostile takeover by Adelaide Steamship in 1980.

"I thought having the name 'Lloyd Jones' might not be good," he said.

"But the managing director at the time … said to me, 'If you perform and you do the job, your name is not a hindrance to your career here'."

Can David Jones survive? 

The company has since changed hands multiple times, and has been owned by private equity firm Anchorage Capital for the past three years.

As receivers move to close down half the company's 38 stores by the end of the year, the administrator is calling for expressions of interest from prospective buyers by the end of this week.

Retail restructuring expert James Stewart told 7.30 there was no question David Jones could be saved.

"Anything can be saved … the question is, does it have a long-term place in the market?"

Mr Stewart said it was clear the David Jones brand still resonated, after a wave of nostalgia and record foot traffic following confirmation it had entered voluntary administration.

But he also believes it will take more than store closures for the brand to last longer term.

If a suitable buyer is found, he estimated it would take 12 to 48 months to turn the company around.

"There are a lot of people who love the David Jones brand," he said.

"It's just that the brand has let them down … the brand has become a shell of what it was."

"Right now, what you're seeing is a bunch of customers saying, 'We actually like you. We love your brand. We want you to be here, but you need to do more for us to actually create a compelling reason for us to visit your store'.

"I don't think just repeating what you've done and being smaller is a successful, sustainable opportunity.

"I think experience matters more than anything right now in this market."

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