Children’s clothing brand Oishi-m to shutter as retail struggles

Oishi-m’s struggles are reflected in figures published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Friday, which show turnover at clothing retailers fell 1.2 per cent in September, capping off a torrid year for the sector as it struggles under sluggish wages growth.

Every time shops have shown signs of rebounding in a three-month period during the past year-and-a-half, the gains have been wiped out the following quarter.

The figures are set to further dent confidence among physical retailers in the lead-up to the crucial Christmas shopping period, where further revenue is expected to leak to the surging online marketplace not counted in the bureau’s data.

Across all categories, retail turnover rose just 0.2 per cent. It has now been nearly a year since the growth figure nudged above the decimal point.

NSW shops had the largest national fall, dropping 0.4 per cent in September – their sharpest decline since December. Spending in Victoria was stronger, up 0.7 per cent.

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Cafes and food retailing remained the only bright spot among otherwise sluggish figures, with Australians preferring to spend more on food than clothes.

The categories rose by 0.5 and 0.4 per cent respectively.

That left department stores, household goods and other retailing going nowhere, recording 0 per cent growth in seasonally adjusted terms.

Oishi-m has a cult following among its customers, with the Australian-designed and largely Australian-made clothing line regularly selling out and so-called “unicorn” products in hot demand on various Oishi-m buy, swap and sell groups.

Profit struggles

However, despite the demand for Oishi-m’s clothes, Ms Fallshaw said the business had struggled to make a profit so she had decided to shut early next year once the next two collections, which were already in production, were released.

“We have given it such a mbadive go but the unknown of what is ahead of us and how long we might have to ride out the downturn in retail was the problem,” Ms Fallshaw said.

“The cost of doing business is increasing, but largely for us, a lot of our customers are family with one or two incomes and when there is doom and gloom about housing and petrol prices, choices need to be made on consumption.”

Ms Fallshaw said the retail sector had been hit hard, with a lot of major stores discounting and independents like Oishi-m having to choose whether to match this. The fluctuating Australian dollar and increasing cost of wages has also had an impact on Oishi-m.

We have given it such a mbadive go but the unknown of what is ahead of us and how long we might have to ride out the downturn in retail was the problem.

“The shift to Afterpay in the last year is a mbadive one,” she said. “They take a huge percentage – they take a 5 per cent cut as opposed to 1 per cent for a credit card.”

Ms Fallshaw said around one-third of Oishi-m customers now used Afterpay.

“Another mbadive one is the tap and go culture, debit cards are a hugely cheaper method of bank fees than a credit card but everyone converting to tap and go has increased fees to business,” she said. “Even rising postage costs have hit us.”

On her own terms

Ms Fallshaw said she wanted to close Oishi-m on her own terms.

“At the moment, if we can find a buyer with similar values and a similar mission, that would be a great situation to hand the baton on,” she said. “Otherwise, we will close the doors early next year, knowing that we have gone out on a high. Running a business is so much bloody hard work.”

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