Fraser Live: From David Jones to the dump

Trent Nathan’s popular nephew, Shane Barr, dropped out of the upmarket fashion business three years ago when the company, along with its labels, was sold to Gazal – which then tied up an exclusive department store deal between stylist/manufacturer Gordon Smith and David Jones.

What happened to Shane after that? He says he was busy playing indulgent dad to his two kids and “doing a bit of real estate”. How successful he was at either endeavour is not clear but now he’s turned his hand to a web-based business which connects surplus goods at can’t-refuse prices to a grateful public.

The website is iDumpit.com.au and it offers goods in 16 different categories. You can get bargains in wine, stereo headphones or a heavy-duty rope toy for your dog or cheetah. But what we might have expected to see on Shane’s website is missing: clobber.

That’s not because he doesn’t like schmuttas anymore but simply because he needs a jack-in-the-box young person to rampage among garment suppliers who want to rid themselves of stock at better than jobber prices.

If such a person is out there, Shane wants to hear from you. Possible earnings, he says, could be very juicy. Possible work, I say, could be very taxing. Will Shane build this up and eventually find himself in possession of a zillion-dollar competitor to eBay? Only time will tell.

The way the website works is the owner of the stock sends details, including price, to iDumpit, which places it on the site. When there is a sale, the purchaser makes his credit card payment, via the likes of PayPal, and the supplier dispatches the goods.

Shane pays the supplier (minus a marketing fee) and presumably everybody is happy. Shane likes this business because, unlike the Trent days, he has no stock, no staff and no creditors. Nor does he have to pump out the basement when it rains. His main expense is advertising, lots of it, so far on television.

Maurice closes a chapter

Maurice Lubansky, founder and CEO of the Stafford Group, Australia’s leading wholesale menswear operation, is prematurely retiring. After all, he’s only been in charge of the company (of which he has been principal shareholder) for 63 years.

Some of Stafford’s labels include Anthony Squires, Stafford Ellinson, Giotto, La Casa Parini, London Park, International Club, Sax Altman, Studio Uomo, Stafford Corporate and Bendigo Gold.

Maurice says that “at 85 enough, is enough – there are other things I want to do”.

What other things, I wondered? Menswear has consumed him with such intensity for so long that it is difficult to imagine him in any other role.

His first new role came unbidden when his wife took a fall and broke her hip. So, for a while, Maurice will be on the front line of carers while she recovers. After that, he wants to follow an interest he’s had for a long time in the law.

“We’ve got a system of laws but they don’t necessarily deliver justice,” he says. “I want to put some time into doing what I can to bring one into line with the other.”

His favourite buzz word is ‘obfuscation’ which means to obscure, confuse, bewilder and stupefy – all of which describe many of the laws under which we live.

Maurice hasn’t decided how he’ll tackle this project yet. It may mean obtaining a fringed canvas bag with a shoulder strap and going off to uni. How would he dress, one may ask? With more than six decades of encouraging good taste dressing for men, he could find a conflict in trying to look like your typical scruffy student with purposely mismatched clothing.

However, that’s all in the future. When we look in Maruice’s rear vision mirror we see how far he, and the Stafford Group, have come since 1893 when CA Cohen was established in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.

The tiny company was bought by the Lubansky family in 1946; by then there were only six employees left. In 1948 the business was renamed Stafford Clothing Co and by 1954 Stafford employed over 100 people and moved administration and distribution closer to the Melbourne CBD.

In 1958 the Lubanskys spent over $1 million (a clothing industry record at the time) to take over a major menswear manufacturer, Ellinson Bros, and the company became known as Stafford Ellinson Pty Ltd. It floated as a public company in 1962 but returned to private ownership in 1983.

Throughout its history the company and its management have collected a swathe of awards as they concentrated on top brands and excellent quality – but always with an eye to keep their menswear affordable.

The retirement of Maurice Lubansky closes a chapter – although not the book – on one of Australia’s outstanding clothing enterprises.