Godfreys Collapses After 93 Years of Operation

A leading retailer of vacuum cleaners in Australia and New Zealand has collapsed due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and challenging economic conditions. On Jan. 30, Godfreys Group, which operates a chain of 141 retail vacuum cleaner stores (with an additional 28 stores managed by franchise), announced that it had entered into voluntary administration, with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) appointed as the administrator. The business was founded in 1931 in a small family’s furniture store by Godfrey Cohen and later evolved into a large corporation with 600 staff. However, challenging economic conditions in the past few years have brought the well-known business to its knees....