{"id":811901,"date":"2026-07-20T09:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811901\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T09:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:03:15","slug":"stax-collapse-embattled-activewear-brand-owed-6-7-million-to-staff-ato-and-suppliers-before-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/811901\/","title":{"rendered":"Stax collapse: Embattled activewear brand owed $6.7 million to staff, ATO and suppliers before collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/business-news\/most-difficult-chapter-of-our-lives-owners-of-collapsed-activewear-brand-stax-issue-public-apology-20260714-p60f9l.html\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Collapsed Australian activewear brand Stax<\/a> owed a total of $6.7 million in unpaid debts to staff, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/australia-news\/australians-set-to-be-slammed-with-336-billion-tax-bill-20260715-p60fck.html\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tax office <\/a>and suppliers before it was placed into receivership.<\/p>\n<p>The brand\u2019s dire financial health has been laid bare in documents filed to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/australia-news\/asic-sues-directors-of-530-million-shield-fund-after-thousands-lost-superannuation-in-collapse-20260626-p60afd.html\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC<\/a>), which revealed the company\u2019s list of secured and unsecured creditors.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Don Robertson holds up one of the early versions of his STAX. products in 2015.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d7c7bc14a376e858432d553b6d84ea9d28022116.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">Don Robertson holds up one of the early versions of his STAX. products in 2015.\u00a0Instagram<\/p>\n<p>According to ASIC, Stax owes more than $453,000 to staff before its collapse, including $63,556 in superannuation, $89,209 in annual leave and $128,683 in redundancy payments.<\/p>\n<p>Stax also owes other creditors another $6.2 million. <\/p>\n<p>This includes $123,858 to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) in Business Activity Statement (BAS) payments, $500,000 to Google, $328,845 to Meta, and $1.9 million in unpaid fees to Ningbo Mingna Garments.<\/p>\n<p>The debts were listed in a document lodged to ASIC on July 17.<\/p>\n<p>Stax was placed into\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/australia-news\/stax-activewear-brand-receivership-20260624-p609sj.html\" class=\"sc-eRZcwA dNXoqI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">receivership in June<\/a>, with Brian Raymond Silvia and Michael Charles Hird of Cascap Advisory were appointed joint liquidators for the brand and its entities, including Stax Retail, Stax GPT and Stax Westfield.<\/p>\n<p>The brand paused orders and closed its two stores on Sydney\u2019s Pitt Street and Liverpool Westfield.<\/p>\n<p>Stax co-founders Don Robertson and Matilda Murray\u00a0broke their silence last week with an emotional statement to social media.<\/p>\n<p>The couple described the past few weeks as \u201cthe most difficult chapter of our lives\u201d and acknowledged that customers are \u201cfrustrated, disappointed and understandably upset\u201d that orders have not been fulfilled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want you to know that we have heard you,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Stax store in the CBD, which appeared to have closed early after the company went into receivership.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784032698_489_0b7691a5fa0fbade1ccdbd848f7a930b7e8928561ac5c290d60caa2fbb58076e.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">The Stax stores in Sydney CBD and Liverpool have closed.\u00a0Nicole Douglas<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst and foremost, we\u2019re truly sorry for this and for not communicating earlier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStax was built over more than a decade with an incredible community and knowing that so many of our customers have been impacted is something we carry every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Robertson and Murray said that the company is now in the hands of receivers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"STAX activewear brand founders Don Robertson and partner Matilda Murray at their design warehouse in Banksmeadow, Sydney, Thursday 14 July, 2022.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/acb3ddad87f582a2c2813e420b0bf3073990c6de5e52c2281004147015d395d8.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">The brand was founded by Rich-Listers Don Robertson and Matilda Murray.\u00a0James Brickwood<\/p>\n<p>Any decision regarding outstanding orders remains under their remit.<\/p>\n<p>The couple told customers to contact their credit card or bank to \u201cask about the options available to you\u201d, including initiating a chargeback process.<\/p>\n<p>They went on to thank their community for sticking by Stax for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you as well to those who have shown us kindness during what has been the most difficult chapter of our lives,\u201d Robertson and Murray added.<\/p>\n<p>The brand is now urgently seeking a buyer to save it from being shuttered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collapsed Australian activewear brand Stax owed a total of $6.7 million in unpaid debts to staff, the tax&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-811901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}