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General Pants has closed more than one store every month in a “turnaround” year during which it struggled against high rents, tougher competition, declining relevance and wind-up attempts from former suppliers.
Over the past 13 months, parent company Alquemie Group reduced the youth fashion retailer’s overall number of stores from 62 to 47 across Australia and New Zealand. It has shut 16 stores – including its flagship George Street store – and opened a new one in NSW on Monday.
General Pants has closed more than a dozen stores in the past year.Credit: Angela Wylie
Asked about the chain’s shrinking presence, a spokesperson for its private equity owner said Alquemie had been “progressing the turnaround of General Pants for the past 12 months, which is now well advanced and largely complete.”
“This has been necessitated in part due to increased competitive pressures from low-cost international players including Shein, Temu and Amazon,” the spokesperson said.
“As part of the turnaround process, a number of unprofitable stores were closed, together with stores at the end of their lease where landlords were seeking uncommercial rent increases. This is normal practice for any retail business.”
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The store footprint is starting to increase again, the spokesperson said, with “a number of store openings” scheduled between now and Christmas. Alquemie opened a new General Pants store in NSW’s Green Hills, 30 kilometres from Newcastle, earlier this week. The company declined to name any other stores in the pipeline.
“We now look forward to growing General Pants as a significant player in the youth fashion apparel sector.”
Retail consultant Brian Walker described the youth fashion retailer as a “legacy brand” and said a brand’s lifespan is becoming shorter as trends move faster.
“The core for all retailers, particularly in apparel, is to build very high relevance to be cool. To put it simply, General Pants was once very cool … mainly because it was the main game in town,” Walker said.
“At their zenith, General Pants was the go-to, particularly for Baby Boomers and early Millennials.”
To contrast, Walker pointed to rival retailer Universal Store – which outperformed larger peers by notching a remarkable 15.5 per cent sales lift in fiscal 2025 – as “on trend” and “sharp with product”. The new, younger generation of shoppers is seeking relationships with brands through experiences, social media, and a sense of social purpose, Walker added.
“Some of the retailers will say it’s a lot to do with cost of living. Well no, it’s not, it’s more to do with being relevant.”
General Pants is one of the last remaining retailers operated by Alquemie, founded by retail investor Richard Facioni, chairman of the now-collapsed budget retailer Mosaic Brands.
A senior retail executive, speaking under condition of anonymity, said General Pants had been floated for sale more than once but had not received any satisfactory offers.
Alquemie sold beachwear brand SurfStitch and womenswear label Ginger & Smart in May under the direction of chief executive Scott Evans, who moved over from Mosaic to head the firm.
The two brands had been acquired when they fell into administration in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and fell into administration again shortly after Alquemie sold them. A partnership with National Geographic ended in October last year, and the Pumpkin Patch brand has disappeared.
Alquemie remains the retail partner of Lego Australia, which is performing well after notching a profit increase to $11 million in 2024, though the toy brand closed its Bondi store on August 10.
General Pants has struggled with profitability for two years. In 2023, this masthead revealed it slid into losses of $2 million and axed about 80 staff.
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Disputes with suppliers over outstanding debts have resulted in two wind-up attempts. Freight provider Mainfreight launched a wind-up order in June last year that was later dismissed. Shortly after Alquemie sold SurfStitch and it fell into administration, Nike Australia issued a claim for $237,760.
In July this year, product distributor UCC Australia issued a wind-up order, which has been settled, but not before a “supporting creditor”, ADT Security, attempted to piggyback on the court matter with its own claim of $22,000, which this masthead understands has also been resolved.
Some creative professionals engaged by Alquemie, such as photographers and models, told this masthead in 2023 of their struggle to have their invoices paid by the company, an issue acknowledged in an auditor’s report. A former employee claimed that General Pants was relying on weekly sales for sufficient cashflow to pay staff.
General Pants’ Sydney flagship store in the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) on George Street initiated a storewide sale before closing its doors for good in late July. A shopper who posted about the store sale on TikTok, said “even [staff] said they didn’t know” when it was due to shut.
The company declined to respond to further questions from this masthead.
With reporting by Ricky Blank
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