It hung around a lot longer than its international counterparts did, but the future of Toys R Us in Australia now looks exceedingly grim after going into voluntary administration.
The company’s operations in the UK and US collapsed late last year amid spiralling debts, sending grave fears for the toy retailer’s future here in Australia.
However due to Australian operations functioning as a stand-alone business, the local arm remained open for the intervening months.
Yesterday’s decision confirms that directors of the company have agreed to appoint administrators McGrathNicol; one that was reached after the final potential buyer for the Australian arm of Toys R Us withdrew their interest in taking on the struggling business.
While administrators consider options for the sale – or potential liquidation – of the business, all 44 Australian Toys R Us stores will remain open; the stores currently provide work for some 700-odd permanent staff.
There is a small glimmer of hope for the business here in Australia, with some speculation suggesting that the Australian operations could be bundled together with its SE Asian counterpart and sold off in one large bundle; a far more attractive prospect for potential buyers than one region by itself. In this plan, all stores would retain the Toys R Us brand, which remains strong, and business would continue virtually as-normal.
The company’s US arm held an unusual fire sale in which it sold off intellectual property – including branding and trademarks – in order to raise extra capital to pay off creditors. This included a string of very provocative URLs the company owned, including the likes of kinkytoysrus.com and sex-toys-r-us.com; addresses the company purchase and never used to prevent anyone from using them against the company.
