Workers join job queue after Poppets factory closes

By Nicole Hasham
Updated November 6 2012 - 2:25am, first published June 29 2011 - 11:26am
Poppets Schoolwear owner Elizabeth Kingston at the Fairy Meadow factory which shut its doors yesterday. Picture: ANDY ZAKELI
Poppets Schoolwear owner Elizabeth Kingston at the Fairy Meadow factory which shut its doors yesterday. Picture: ANDY ZAKELI

Cheap Asian imports and the high Australian dollar have forced an Illawarra manufacturing icon to close.About 24 workers at Fairy Meadow's Poppets Schoolwear lost their jobs yesterday after the firm went into administration.The company, once the nation's largest school clothing manufacturer, has $395,000 in unsecured liabilities and owes $467,000 in employee entitlements.Poppets was one of the last remaining clothing makers in the Illawarra after the 2009 decision to close Pacific Brands' KingGee and Bonds factories.Owner Elizabeth Kingston said tough trading conditions, including cheap imports and the high exchange rate, had sounded the company's death knell."My husband and I put in so much money to keep this going, but it got to the stage where I didn't know where the next cent was coming from to pay people's wages," an emotional Ms Kingston said yesterday."So many companies are hurting at the moment. Business is not easy at this time."I just feel like crying. Poppets Schoolwear has been like one of my children."The businesswoman established Poppets in the early 1970s. Her daughter Melissah Gervaise was general manager.Ms Kingston also owns Illawarra children's clothing retailer Crystal Bears. She said its five retail outlets were unaffected by the collapse.In an unsuccessful attempt to salvage her sinking business, Ms Kingston put her $2.3 million waterfront home in Austinmer on the market in April. It has not sold.At its peak, Poppets employed 150 workers and produced one million uniforms each year for more than 3500 schools.The company suffered a major blow in 2009 when major clothing franchise Lowes reduced annual garment orders from 200,000 to just 40,000, taking much of its business to China.Soon after, Poppets sacked 49 of its 76 textile workers, and launched a campaign encouraging support for Australian-made garments.Since then, it had fulfilled small orders for Illawarra schools including Wollongong, Corrimal, Warilla and Illawarra Sports high schools.Workers were called to the boardroom just before lunch yesterday to hear the bad news.The mostly female workforce has an average age of 50, and many had served decades with the company."I'm pretty depressed," said one 55-year-old worker, who had been with Poppets for 17 years."I have to look for work or go to TAFE … it's sad, and the prospect of finding another job is very slim."Administrator Jirsch Sutherland said staff entitlements would be paid through the Federal Government's General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme.Workers have expressed fears that unpaid superannuation contributions will not be covered.

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