Bbq Galore is set to cease trading this month after a rescue deal with suppliers could not be finalised, bringing a rapid end to one of Australia’s best-known barbecue and outdoor furniture chains. Store closures are due to begin on June 16, with the company’s collapse now moving from negotiation to shutdown.
The move will put about 500 employees at risk of redundancy and shut 62 company-owned stores across the country. Bbq Galore has long traded as Australia’s largest barbeque and outdoor furniture retailer, but the attempt to keep it alive through a deed of company arrangement proposal from Gordon Bros could not be signed off after the business could not agree commercial trading terms with suppliers.
The scale of the closure will be felt most sharply in New South Wales, which is set to lose 33 stores. Victoria will lose 19, Queensland 18, Western Australia 14, South Australia five, Tasmania three, the Australian Capital Territory two and the Northern Territory one, leaving only the franchise side of the business outside the sweep of the shutdown. Those 27 franchise stores will not be affected by the closures, a split that leaves the chain with a smaller and uncertain future even as its company-owned network is wound back.
The company was first placed into voluntary administration in February after liquidity issues surfaced, and the failed rescue now turns that warning into a broader corporate retreat. Gift cards will be honoured until June 30, but only if customers spend twice their value in cash, a restriction that underscores how tightly the business is managing its final weeks. What remains unclear is how the franchise network will be managed after the company-owned stores close and whether any stores beyond June 30 will continue to accept gift cards at all.
