Thousands of David Jones jobs are at risk after the retailer entered administration for the first time in its 188-year history.
The collapse followed failed negotiations over restructured rents between its owner, Anchorage Capital Partners, and its main landlord, Scentre Group. Scentre Group chief executive Elliott Rusanow said David Jones had failed to pay rent since September, breaching its tenancy agreement, and that Anchorage had rejected an offer that would have allowed the retailer to continue trading.
The chain began when the Welsh-born merchant David Jones opened a store in Sydney’s city centre in 1838. It has traded continuously under its original name and is described as the world’s oldest continually operating department store still using that name.
Its Elizabeth Street flagship in Sydney has been part of that long history. Queen Elizabeth II attended a banquet dinner on the store’s seventh floor during her first visit to Sydney in 1954, when she was 27 years old.
Anchorage bought David Jones from South Africa’s Woolworths in 2023.
The retailer then faced years of losses, weak consumer spending and underperforming stores. It reported a $95.5 million loss in 2024/2025, following a $74 million loss in 2023/24, while lease and rent costs reached $125 million in the 2025 financial year and finance costs totalled $153 million.
David Jones operates 38 stores across Australia and New Zealand, including 17 in Scentre’s Westfield shopping centres. Scentre received $45 million in gross rent from David Jones in 2026, about 1.8 per cent of its total rent.
The company had been trying to shrink that network, seeking to shed poorly performing suburban locations and reduce its store estate to about one-third of its current size over the longer term.
After rent payments stopped in September, Scentre sought payment and the two sides began talks on new lease arrangements.
David Jones proposed handing over nine stores from February. Its plan would have retained three stores with rent set at 8 per cent of sales, kept five stores on their existing terms and released $45 million in bank guarantees in return for equity.
Rusanow said Scentre had made a “generous offer” to Anchorage, which had been rejected. The company’s own proposal was also rejected by Scentre, according to the account of the negotiations, leaving the parties unable to reach a deal in the final talks.
On Wednesday evening, David Jones chief executive Erica Berchtold and directors Phillip Cave and Simon Woodhouse met to consider voluntary administration. Berchtold said the retailer had a “well-developed plan” to “reset the business for the future”.
By Thursday morning, the board had appointed McGrathNicol as voluntary administrators and FTI Consulting as receivers. Staff were told of the McGrathNicol appointment on Thursday.
Christopher Hill of FTI said the process offered “an opportunity to restructure the business”. He added: “We will manage this process carefully, mindful of the impact on some stakeholders but also recognising the need for difficult decisions.”
David Jones had said on Tuesday that all 38 stores were continuing to operate. Its physical and online stores remain open while the receivers review the business, administrators seek a buyer or fresh capital, and a strategic review proceeds.
Analysts expect any closures to fall most heavily on outer suburban and regional mall stores, while premier central business district flagships are expected to be more likely to survive.
Gerard Dwyer, national secretary of the SDA, said the chain could yet have a future on a smaller scale. “We do not want to see the end of David Jones, so perhaps it is a smaller model that then rebuilds and goes from there,” he said.
Prof Robert Crawford, an advertising expert at RMIT University, said: “The David Jones model has really struggled to adapt to modern retailing.”
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