The directors of collapsed fashion brand Nique have put forward a proposal for a revised Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA) since the administrator issued the creditors report in mid-March this year.
The proposal was made at a second creditors meeting in late March, attended by 14 creditors, and a further observer from a local logistics franchise firm.
According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), a DOCA is a binding arrangement between a company and its creditors governing how the company’s affairs will be dealt with.
The DOCA aims to maximise the chances of the company, or as much as possible of its business, continuing, and/or provide a better return for creditors than an immediate winding up of the company.
Ragtrader has reached out to SMB Advisory, which is looking after Nique’s voluntary administration process, for a further update.
Nique fell into voluntary administration earlier this year, after facing net losses since FY2016. The business hit a peak of $2.5 million in net losses in the 2019 financial year, which eventually culminated in the brand’s collapse this year.
The company’s estimated total liabilities were at $9.04 million - including non-current liabilities.
Documents obtained by Ragtrader indicate that Nique’s total net losses were $6,838,528 between FY2019 to FY2023.
The company’s largest yearly expense was salary payments, which were slashed from $2.01 million in 2019 to $1.08 million in 2023. Rent made up the second-largest expense - halved from $1.12 million to $555,586.05 in the same period.
Despite the heavy cost-cutting across the business over the last few years, headwinds continued to ramp up - including international freight costs and Australian Tax Office interest.
Other costly operating expenses included advertising and marketing - at $143,796 in 2023 - and superannuation which crept up to $111,000 in 2023, despite dropping to $89,000 in 2021 from a $189,000 peak in 2019.
These overheads were matched by an ongoing revenue slump since 2019 - dropping from $5.5 million to $2.3 million in 2021, and lifting to just $2.7 million in 2023.