Bevilles kept 27 large stores through three losing years — landlords blocked its rescue

Bevilles was an 80-year-old, family-owned Australian jewellery group founded by Michelle Beville's grandparents, running 27 stores across Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide with 477 staff. In early 2013 it launched an extensive rebrand: drop giftware, shrink store footprints, and sell jewellery and watches only. Two pilot stores — Highpoint in Melbourne, opened October, and Westfield Liverpool in Sydney — showed the format worked.

On 1 April 2014 the group was placed in voluntary administration with PPB Advisory. Trading losses had exceeded $12.3 million since July 2011, including $3.57 million in the current financial year; sales had fallen from $83.5 million to $71.9 million, and total liabilities stood at about $14 million. The administrators' report cited continuing losses, overdue taxes and poor creditor relations — and the strategic cause: landlords refused to allow the chain to re-engineer around smaller, fewer stores, so the proven new format could not be rolled out fast enough to stop the bleed.

The Beville family reacquired the business through a new entity, Bevilles Corp, buying 16 stores and retaining 237 staff under a deed of company arrangement voted on 11 May. Eight stores closed immediately and three more by 30 June. The surviving chain converted to roughly 90-square-metre jewellery-only stores — the same format its landlords had refused to make room for.