Women's clothing chain Amie has gone into receivership, leaving more than 100 jobs at risk with no chance of redundancy.
The former Esprit franchise, deserted last year by Hong Kong-based Esprit Holdings, was also facing Esprit's plans to make a multi-million-dollar comeback to New Zealand.
Esprit Holdings shocked its franchise ownerLewis Group in April last year when it said it was pulling out of New Zealand.
At the time, managing director David Lewis said closing the 23 Esprit stores and abandoning the lease arrangements was not an option. Months later, he rebranded the stores to Amie, but they did not survive the changeover.
PricewaterhouseCoopers receiver David Davidson said it was unusual in retail to have redundancy clauses in contracts.
Amie was now being sold in a "piecemeal fashion," he said. The stores were expected to all be closed by next month.
New Zealand was one of only two countries where Esprit did not own its stores outright.
Rubbing salt into the wound was Esprit's decision to return to New Zealand.
Davidson said selling Amie's stock and its fixed assets would recover some of the money owed to a bank.
Several stores were being sold to other apparel retailers, with the 23 chain stores now down to 15. All were leasehold, he said. Amie's clothes were designed in New Zealand but came from East Asia.
