PHOTO: The voluntary administration of Smiths City sent shockwaves through Christchurch and regional centres. INSIDE RETAIL NEW ZEALAND
2025 was meant to be the year businesses finally caught their breath.
Instead, it became the year many ran out of runway.
From legacy department stores and national furniture chains to hospitality, e-commerce and events operators, a string of high-profile business failures has left empty shopfronts, disrupted leases, and landlords rethinking what retail property looks like in New Zealand.
This isn’t just a list of closures — it’s a snapshot of how commercial and retail property is being reshaped.
📉 A year that exposed structural cracks
Rising costs, weak consumer confidence, falling discretionary spending and changing shopping habits all converged in 2025.
For commercial landlords, the result has been:
🏚️ Vacant flagship stores
📉 Falling foot traffic in CBDs
🔄 Rapid tenant churn
🧾 Lease renegotiations and early exits
The businesses below didn’t just fail — they left holes in the retail fabric.
🧾 GrabOne: the digital storefront that disappeared
The collapse of GrabOne in October rattled more than voucher holders.
Once a digital powerhouse for local businesses, GrabOne struggled with declining relevance, reduced brand investment, and fierce competition for online attention.
🔹 Property impact:
While not a bricks-and-mortar retailer, GrabOne’s failure highlights how digital platforms that once drove foot traffic to physical stores no longer guarantee it — weakening the value proposition for many retail tenants.
🍳 Kitchen Things: premium retail feels the squeeze
Kitchen Things entered receivership in August, citing weak consumer demand and intense competition.
Selling high-end appliance brands, the chain was exposed to:
Deferred big-ticket spending
Softer renovation activity
Customers trading down or delaying upgrades
🔹 Property impact:
Large-format specialty retail spaces are becoming harder to fill — particularly those reliant on aspirational spending.
🛋️ Smiths City: regional retail under pressure
The voluntary administration of Smiths City sent shockwaves through Christchurch and regional centres.
Founded in 1918, the chain operated nine stores nationwide.
🔹 Property impact:
Regional big-box retail — once considered defensive — is now under strain as consumers cut back and online competition intensifies.
🏙️ Smith & Caughey: the end of a Queen Street era
The closure of Smith & Caughey marked the end of nearly 150 years on Queen Street.
Despite scaling back and closing Newmarket earlier, declining foot traffic, parking costs, and new mall competition proved fatal.
🔹 Property impact:
CBD retail is being fundamentally reset. Large heritage spaces are no longer viable under traditional department-store models.
🍺 Fortune Favours: hospitality hits the wall
Wellington craft brewer Fortune Favours closed its flagship bar, citing the cost-of-living crisis.
Garage Project taking over the site reflects a broader trend: only the strongest hospitality brands are surviving prime locations.
🔹 Property impact:
Hospitality leases are shortening, margins are thinner, and landlords face higher risk in food and beverage tenancies.
Fortune Favours No More – Kiwi Businesses Collapse as Families Struggle to Survive
🛒 NZSale: online retail retreats
NZSale closed to NZ orders in November, with parent company OzSale following.
🔹 Property impact:
The collapse reinforces that online retail is not immune — and the “online will save us” narrative no longer supports inflated warehouse and logistics rents.
🎤 Timeless Events: festivals and flexible space fallout
Timeless Events, behind Juicy Fest, went into liquidation after regulatory and licensing issues.
🔹 Property impact:
Event-driven venues and temporary commercial spaces are increasingly exposed to regulatory risk and insurance costs.
🧴 The Body Shop: global brand, local collapse
The liquidation of The Body Shop wiped out all NZ stores and 70 jobs.
Although a new franchise has since emerged in Richmond, the collapse underscores how international brand weakness flows directly into local retail property pain.
🔹 Property impact:
Mall landlords can no longer rely on legacy global brands as anchor tenants.
🥪 Libelle Group: government contracts aren’t a shield
School lunch provider Libelle Group collapsed despite holding government-linked contracts.
🔹 Property impact:
Industrial kitchens, food prep facilities, and logistics sites tied to single contracts now carry higher perceived risk.
👜 DFS: luxury retail pulls back
Luxury retailer DFS closed its Auckland and Queenstown stores in September.
🔹 Property impact:
Tourism-linked luxury retail is proving volatile, particularly as international visitor spending patterns shift.
🧭 What this means for NZ commercial & retail property
The failures of 2025 reveal clear structural shifts:
✔ Fewer large-format retail tenants
✔ Shorter, more flexible leases
✔ Higher vacancy risk in CBDs
✔ Stronger focus on mixed-use and experiential retail
✔ Greater scrutiny of tenant balance sheets
For landlords, tenant quality now matters more than brand recognition.
🔮 The reset is underway
Retail property in New Zealand isn’t dying — but it is being rewritten.
2025 forced a reckoning:
Old retail models failed
Consumer behaviour changed faster than leases
Landlords are adapting, not waiting
The survivors of 2026 will look very different from the anchors of the past.
SOURCE: 1NEWS