Iconic Adelaide furniture retailer Le Cornu to close

Iconic Adelaide furniture store Le Cornu will close its doors later this year, as the search continues for a buyer for its Keswick site.

Fantastic Holdings, which owns the company, will close the famous business in the next six months, citing poor trade and an anticipated $4 million loss for the 2016 fiscal year.

The business was bought by Fantastic Holdings in 2008, but in an ASX announcement the company revealed it was no longer profitable.

“For the past few years the Le Cornu business has been profitable. In fiscal year 2016, however, trading has deteriorated and Le Cornu will incur trading losses of $4 million,” the announcement says.

The future of the Keswick store at 10 Anzac Highway is unclear, with no firm buyer emerging for the 35,965sqm site, despite it being on the market since late last year.

The Le Cornu store sits on a huge site 3km from Adelaide’s CBD.

Fantastic Holdings says the potential sale of the property, which it leases, had factored into the decision to shut down.

“The Keswick site, which is leased by Fantastic Holdings, has been for sale since late 2015 with potential buyers of the site understood to be considering various redevelopment options,” the company says in its announcement.

“In view of the likely disruption at the Keswick site, and in consideration of the company’s brand strategies, Fantastic Holdings has determined that it will now be investing in its core brands in the South Australian market.”

The Le Cornu name has been synonymous with furniture in South Australia since the mid-1800s, when Phillip Joshua Le Cornu first established a cabinet-making business in Adelaide.

The Le Cornu site in Keswick is up for sale.

Fantastic Holdings Group CEO Retail, Debra Singh, says staff redundancies will be a part of the store’s closure.

“Our immediate priority is of course to assist all Le Cornu employees. While some redundancies are unavoidable, we will be working to ensure as many employees as possible are redeployed within the group.”

The Le Cornu premises lies 3km from the Adelaide CBD and has three street frontages totalling 890m.

It is being jointly marketed by CBRE and JLL.