The Daily Edited’s founder sold the brand before placing the company in liquidation
One of the founding startups of the personalisation phenomenon, The Daily Edited (TDE), is in liquidation after eight years.
The brand has been sold and continues to trade, with the remains of TDE Pty Ltd now in the hands of Sydney liquidators Chifley Advisory, appointed following a September 30 meeting that voted to wind up the business.
TDE began life as a blog in 2011 by Perth-based Alyce Tran and Tania Liu, corporate lawyers who ultimately left their day jobs in 2014 to focus on their startup fashion brand, offering monogrammed leather products such as diaries, bags, phone cases, wallets and key rings. It became a cultural phenomenon, embraced by young women, with celebrity sparkle from the likes of Lara Bingle and Hailey Baldwin.
Just three year on, in 2017, they sold a 31% stake to heritage fashion brand Oroton for $4.5 million. The following year they bought it back for less than half that figure, paying $2.2 million.
Revenue for the business peaked at $27.54 million in FY18 before dropping around $2m annually to $23.56 million in FY20.
The business appeared to successfully straddle online and bricks and mortar retail through a collaboration with David Jones alongside TDE stores in New York, Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne in 2018, and last year, after being mired down in 2021’s winter lockdown in Sydney, a store in the Queen Victoria Building.
But five years into the adventure, the relationship between Tran and Liu broke down and the former lawyers found themselves back on old ground when Liu commenced NSW Supreme Court legal proceedings in early 2019 alleging her cofounder, Tran, had misused company funds on personal expenses, home repairs and other business interests.
Tran cofounded homewares brand In The Round House in 2018.
Tran denied the allegations and filed cross-claim against Liu, but the matter ended in abruptly in May 2021 when Tran sold her 50% stake in the business to Liu for an undisclosed sum.
While the previous two years were torrid for the retail sector more broadly, Tania Liu, CEO and only director of The Daily Edited, seemed positive in November last year as sole owner appointing MAXMEDIALAB as the company’s communications and influencer agency.
“The team is just as passionate as we are to continue to elevate The Daily Edited as we transition through our new brand refresh and approach for 2022,” she said at the time.
Gavin Moss from Chifley Advisory was appointed as liquidator on September 30, after the business of the company had been sold.
The Daily Edited continues to trade.
A spokesperson for Chifley Advisory said that in initial discussions with TDE’s director, she cited challenges from the pandemic and competition as reasons for the company’s difficulties.
Moss has yet to investigate into the financial affairs of the company and verify the information provided by the director.
“The Liquidator will investigate into the above matters and submit a report to all the creditors of the Company and also to the ASIC, to provide an update on the outcome of his investigations,” the Chifley Advisory spokesperson said.
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