The Glue Store is heading for the exit. Accent Group, the ASX-listed retail conglomerate behind The Athlete's Foot and Hype DC, has confirmed it will shut or sell all 16 remaining Glue Store locations before the end of the current financial year, according to an announcement lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange.
The numbers speak for themselves: the chain recorded an $8.4 million loss in the first half of the financial year, providing little justification for continued investment when more profitable alternatives sit within the same corporate portfolio.
The decision is not entirely a surprise. Accent Group flagged Glue Store's underperformance as far back as mid-2024, when it announced the closure of 17 stores at that time, citing failure to achieve required returns. What has sharpened since then is the strategic direction: the company is now explicitly prioritising growth through its global licence and partnership brands, specifically Lacoste, Hoka and Sport Direct.
Chief executive Daniel Agostinelli pointed to a solid start to the second half of the financial year, with return-to-school trading driving sales up 7 per cent over the first eight weeks compared to the same period last year. Group revenues for the half rose 5 per cent to $816.9 million, a creditable result in a challenging retail environment. The catch is in the profit line: after-tax earnings fell 40 per cent to $28.1 million, with rising costs squeezing margins across the business.
The Cost Side of the Story
Accent Group has not disclosed how many employees will be affected by the Glue Store closures, an omission that deserves scrutiny. Retail workers, many of them younger Australians in casual or part-time roles, bear the most immediate cost when a chain is wound down. The Fair Work Commission sets minimum redundancy entitlements, but casual staff often have limited protections, and the timeline to financial year-end gives affected workers relatively little runway.
From a shareholder perspective, the logic of exiting a loss-making domestic brand to concentrate resources on globally recognised labels with stronger growth profiles is defensible. Hoka, in particular, has been one of the standout performers in premium athletic footwear globally, and holding an Australian distribution position for that brand carries real upside.
The harder question is what the Glue Store closure says about the broader health of mid-market fashion retail in Australia. Cost-of-living pressures have squeezed discretionary spending, and younger consumers, Glue Store's core demographic, are increasingly splitting their attention between international fast-fashion platforms and premium brand experiences. The middle ground is getting thinner.
For investors watching the ASX-listed retail sector, the signal is clear: portfolio rationalisation toward high-margin, brand-led offerings is becoming the dominant playbook. Accent Group's move mirrors similar decisions by other retail conglomerates globally, and it reflects a structural shift rather than a one-off response to short-term conditions. The Australian Bureau of Statistics retail trade data has consistently shown clothing and footwear as among the more volatile categories during periods of consumer caution.
The disruption to affected staff is real and should not be reduced to a line in a financial strategy update. At the same time, businesses that persist with loss-making operations in the name of preserving headcount tend to produce worse outcomes for everyone in the longer run. The genuine tension here sits between the legitimate expectation that a listed company acts in shareholders' interests and the equally legitimate expectation that workers receive fair notice and support when corporate strategy changes beneath them. Both things can be true at once, and how Accent Group handles the transition will say as much about the company as the decision itself.