Barbeques Galore is set to cease trading this month after a rescue deal with suppliers could not be finalised, bringing a drawn-out administration process to a close and putting 62 company-owned stores on the path to shut their doors. About 500 employees are facing redundancy, and staff are expected to be told on Tuesday afternoon.
The closures are slated to begin on June 16, leaving the retailer’s remaining weeks in trade to be measured in notices, stock and handover dates rather than recovery plans. For workers, the timing turns a long-running uncertainty into something immediate: the business they have been trying to save is now moving to exit.
That outcome follows Barbeques Galore’s voluntary administration in February, when liquidity issues first pushed the business into distress. A deed of company arrangement proposal from Gordon Bros was expected to offer a path through, but the deal was never signed off after the company could not agree on commercial trading terms with suppliers.
The collapse will not hit every part of the network in the same way. News Corp understands 27 franchise stores won’t be impacted by the closures even as the 62 company-owned stores are wound down, a split that leaves part of the brand trading while the larger corporate footprint is dismantled. Customers still holding gift cards have until June 30 to use them, though redemption comes with a catch: they will only be accepted if shoppers spend twice their value in cash.
Barbeques Galore is described as Australia’s largest barbeque and outdoor furniture retailer, and the scale of the closures shows how far the failure of the rescue effort reaches. New South Wales will bear the brunt with 33 stores shutting, followed by Victoria with 19, Queensland with 18 and Western Australia with 14. South Australia will lose five stores, Tasmania three, the Australian Capital Territory two and the Northern Territory one.
What happens next is already fixed in part and uncertain in the rest. The store closures start on June 16, employees are due to learn their fate on Tuesday afternoon, and the company-owned business will effectively stop trading this month. The franchise network lives on for now, but the broader brand is being cut back to its surviving edges.
