Australian fashion business Country Road Group has rejected media speculation that it is attempting to offload its Country Road brand.
A spokesperson for the company told Ragtrader the Country Road brand is not for sale, adding that it has not engaged any advisor to explore a sale.
This comes as The Australian shared a story that cited unnamed sources who are reporting that the Country Road brand is being put up for sale.
According to the publication, sources told its DataRoom that advisory firms have been asked to pitch for a role advising on a potential divestment.
This comes as Country Road Group shrunk its losses in FY26 by more than 80 per cent to around $21 million, amid sales growth of 1 per cent for the full year compared to FY25. This was offset by a 0.5 per cent fall in the second half, with these numbers affected by foreign exchange rates. Country Road Group has a significant market in South Africa as well as Australia and New Zealand.
For the Country Road brand in particular, the group’s overarching parent company Woolworths Holdings Limited reported that Country Road “traded marginally ahead of last year” in FY26.
Witchery and Politix continued to benefit from their repositioning strategies. Witchery reported comparable sales growth of 9.5 per cent, while Politix delivered comparable sales growth of 10.2 per cent
Meanwhile, Country Road reportedly showed "encouraging signs" of improvement through the second half and entered FY27 with new leadership, under Lucy Nutter – who is MD for Witchery and Country Road.
"We've made meaningful progress over the past year to restore the health of the business," Country Road Group CEO Steven Cook said following the FY26 results release earlier this month.
"Each of our brands has a clear role to play, and we'll continue investing in product, customer experience and capability to support sustainable growth across the portfolio."
In its official trading update, WHL reported that the apparel sector in AU/NZ had begun to stabilise in the first half of FY26, but stubborn interest rates and the US-Iran war impeded further recovery.
For Country Road Group, WHL claimed that consumer sentiment, footfall and spend had come under significant pressure as a result.
“The sector remains intensely promotional, as retailers reduce excess inventory levels,” WHL reported.
“The Country Road brand traded marginally ahead of last year, while Witchery and Politix were well up on the prior period, benefiting from the repositioning of their respective brands. There was no material change to the net trading space or online contribution to sales compared to the prior period.”
All this comes amid tough trading conditions for the fashion industry as well as the wider retail sector. It also comes amid heightened M&A activity, including the acquisitions of Glue Store, The DOM and Running Bare this week by Brand Collective, as well as the current sale process of Cue Clothing after it fell into voluntary administration.
KMD Brands has also confirmed today that it is entertaining proposals from a limited number of parties, which followed past speculation it was attempting to offload the Rip Curl business. In FY26, the company did divest from Rip Curl’s manufacturing facility in Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, trading conditions have suffered through the 2026 calendar year, with many fashion-selling entities seeing shifts in trading in the second half of FY26.
KMD Brands and the Myer Group both also reported nine-figure impairment charges for FY26.