David Jones has put to rest suggestions the Wollongong store is slated for closure, labelling reports to the contrary ‘‘completely incorrect’’.
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The Wollongong store was named as one of three in NSW that ‘‘may close’’ in a report on national television news this week. In fact the company plans to review a section - the homewares department on the opposite side of Crown Street Mall to the rest of the store - and only in the lead-up to October 2015, when the lease with GPT ends.
A spokeswoman for David Jones said the placement of the homewares section would depend on the next set of lease terms.
‘‘We may consider not renewing that specific lease and moving our homewares categories into our main Wollongong store,’’ she said.
The department store operator this week reported profit after tax down 13.5 per cent to $73.5 million, and a slight fall in sales to just more than $1 billion.
The Wollongong Home store was one of six locations named as coming up for review because they had leases expiring within the next five years and were in ‘‘less robust demographies’.
Other stores were the Birkenhead Point outlet store, Harbour Town outlet store at Queensland, West Lakes in South Australia, Glen Waverley in Victoria and Macarthur Square, in Campbelltown.
David Jones reported all 37 stores were profitable.
