David Jones, Australia's 188-year-old department store, is placed into voluntary administration
David Jones, the Australian department-store chain founded in Sydney in 1838, was placed into voluntary administration on Thursday 5 November 2026 after talks with its biggest landlord, Westfield owner Scentre Group, over unpaid rent broke down. The board appointed McGrathNicol as voluntary administrators, and the retailer's main financier installed FTI Consulting as receivers and managers to run its 38 stores in Australia and New Zealand while the business is restructured and prepared for a recapitalisation or sale. The stores and online shop will keep trading for now, and chief executive Erica Berchtold says the company has a plan to 'reset' the business. Which stores may close, and what happens to the more than 6,000 jobs, has not been decided.