General Pants has been relying on cash injections from shareholders to stay operating as it racks up tens of millions in losses, axes hundreds of staff and grapples with customer complaints.
The street, surf and skate wear chain has become the last retailer still run by Alquemie Group, which once had a stable of six brands including Ginger & Smart, SurfStitch, National Geographic and a lucrative partnership with Lego.
Alquemie Group accumulated losses of nearly $59 million between the 2023 and 2025 financial years, during which it received $22 million in funding from the company’s shareholders, private equity firms ACTA Capital and Alceon, and loans from related parties surged nearly tenfold to $43.8 million.
The financial slide began in 2023 when Alquemie swung to a loss of $2 million, dragged down by underperforming brands SurfStitch and Ginger & Smart, following a profit of $3.2 million the year before.
Losses blew out to $29 million the following year and management was forced to book $4.4 million in impairments for the loss-making National Geographic brand. In October 2024, Alquemie quietly shut down the chain’s four stores and website.
The numbers are contained in Alquemie’s financial reports up to 2024-25, the latest of which was lodged with the regulator in April. The financial reports, lodged with the corporate regulator, are designed to comply with corporate accounting laws and do not necessarily provide a full picture of a company’s finances.
Alquemie pulled the pin on SurfStitch and Ginger & Smart in May 2025, and wrote down the value of the General Pants brand by $13.3 million to $38.2 million, representing a sharp decline in the retailer’s value since Alquemie acquired it for over $60 million in 2022.
More than 300 staff were axed from Alquemie’s workforce between fiscal 2024 and 2025, taking employee numbers from 1246 to 929. Over the same period, executive pay rose 55.6 per cent to $2.1 million after a new chief executive was appointed to lead the turnaround.
Alquemie was licensed to operate toy retailer Lego in Australia, a chain of about 25 stores and the biggest moneymaker in the group, but in May this year sold it to luxury watch businessman James Kennedy in a deal exceeding $50 million, The Australian Financial Review reported.
General Pants’ national footprint has shrunk over the years from more than 60 outlets last year to 42 today in what a spokesperson previously said was a “turnaround” that was “now well advanced and largely complete”.
The group’s strategy was to “organically grow its core business and explore growth opportunities through acquisition, merger and new licence partnerships,” executive chairman Richard Facioni stated in the 2025 financial report.
For at least three years in a row, company auditors from accounting firm BDO have signalled doubts about Alquemie’s ability to continue trading.
“The financial position and performance of the group, the ongoing reliance on financing facilities and financial support of shareholders, the inherent uncertainties attached to current macroeconomic customer sentiment that could impact forecast revenue targets and trends across the broader retail industry, indicate that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern,” BDO audit director John Bresolin wrote.
Alquemie breached banking covenants across fiscal 2024 and into 2025 and debt maturity dates were pushed forward to prevent triggering a default.
Alquemie Group declined to comment.
Fashion retailers have been a key casualty as shoppers watch their budgets more carefully amid higher interest rates and cost-of-living pressures. Rival youth streetwear chain Glue permanently shut 16 remaining stores last month, following a spate of closures in 2024 that closed 17 underperforming stores.
General Pants Co. was founded by Tom and Bronwyn Tsipris in 1972, specialising in local and global streetwear, surfwear and denim labels. It was sold to Melbourne family office Smorgon Group and acquired by Alquemie in May 2022.
Some customers have left comments on General Pants’ social media accounts reporting issues with delayed orders or unresponsive customer service, many of which have been hidden by a moderator.
NSW Fair Trading received eight complaints since the beginning of last year about missing or incomplete orders and is urging customers to report similar concerns to the department. Queensland’s Fair Trading office received two customer complaints, but these were handled by the company.
Facioni is chief executive and founder of shareholder and investment firm ACTA Capital and chairman of Mosaic Brands, which collapsed in October 2024 with debts of nearly $200 million and is in the process of liquidation.
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Jessica Yun is a business reporter covering retail and food for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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