Efinity Group, owner of e-commerce sites MyCatwalk, Thread People and Baby's Got Style, has responded to claims its companies are in financial strife.
Efinity Group, which bought the fashion sites in June this year, is owned by Multiplex founder Andrew Roberts’ investment company AR Management.
The group has recently sent the industry rumor mill into overdrive following media reports which suggested that all but six Efinity staff had been made redundant and that all MyCatwalk stores, with the exception of the flagship store at Double Bay in Sydney, would close.
However, Efinity executive chairman Joseph Sponholz has since commented on reports it is closing its bricks-and-mortar businesses and operating on skeletal staff.
Speaking exclusively to Ragtrader, Sponholz addressed questions on the recent redundancies and provided further details.
“We have brought staff numbers down to 23 across the three businesses,” he said.
However, Sponholz denied recent coverage in The Australian Financial Review which suggested MyCatwalk’s online sales may have fallen 40 per cent in the last year.
“Since joining earlier this year, we have been working on maximising the efficiencies that we can achieve with three online operations and upgrading customer services such as websites and our store configuration,” he said.
“The new www.mycatwalk.com.au website is now up and running smoothly, with only a small impact of less than five per cent on sales during the transition period. We will also open an additional MyCatwalk pop-up store in The Strand, Sydney, on August 15.”
The company declined to respond to claims, from several sources which have communicated to Ragtrader, that Andrew Roberts' investment company AR Management had lost $13.7 million.
