PE-owned Australian swimwear brand enters administration

The company has 44 stores in Australia and 12 overseas. Administrator KordaMentha said in a statement that the business would continue to operate as normal while its prospects were assessed.

Seafolly was founded in 1975 close to Sydney’s Bondi beach by husband and wife Peter and Yvonne Halas. It produces a range of swimwear, casual clothing, and accessories. Their son Anthony Halas took over as CEO in 1998 and L Catterton paid A$70 million ($48 million) for a 70% stake in 2014. The goal was to pursue international expansion and develop Seafolly into a full lifestyle brand.

At the time of the acquisition, Seafolly had some retail exposure in southern California but had found further growth difficult in the face of competition from more well-known local brands. With L Catterton’s help, it opened five stores in California to test the market, joining an existing two. Distribution partnerships were also established with local retailers including Nordstrom and Amazon.

Other geographies also emerged as expansion targets. In 2017, Seafolly bought Colombian beachwear brand Maaji for a reported A$50 million. Seafolly had previously looked at the company but lacked sufficient understanding of the South American market to pursue a deal. Meanwhile, expansion continued in Southeast Asia through retail stores and partnerships with distributors.

Seafolly is not the first private equity-owned Australian retailer to go bankrupt, with COVID-19 often exacerbating preexisting problems. Crescent Capital Partners’ swimwear brand went into administration in March, following a collapse in sales. However, stresses were apparent in the business before the crisis emerged.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Consumer
• Write-off
• Australia
• L Catterton