Thousands of Brosa customers without orders despite sale to Kogan

Thousands of customers of collapsed furniture business Brosa may never see the products they ordered despite the company being rescued from administration by electronics retailer Kogan last year.

Brosa became the latest victim of tough post-COVID trading conditions when it collapsed into voluntary administration in December 2022. The business was then bought by Kogan in a deal worth $1.5 million. 

At the time, administrators at KordaMentha called Kogan a “white knight” for the company and customers who were awaiting delivery of furniture they had already paid for at the time of the Brosa’s collapse.

Kogan has confirmed it intends to relaunch the business and said it would provide support for customers with orders that had not yet been delivered.

But the sale agreement did not cover delivery for every customer who had an order in with Brosa at the time of its collapse — only those that had paid for products that can be located by administrators in the company’s warehouses.

Brosa’s products were made overseas in a range of countries including China, Indonesia and Vietnam. The company regularly took orders for products several weeks or even months in advance of delivery.

Because of these arrangements, some of the company’s customers may miss out on receiving the purchases because the products they ordered were still being manufactured at the time of the group’s collapse or are currently offshore.

Customers who have what is called “unallocated stock”, that is stock that has been ordered but can’t be found within the business’ stock, have been advised to claim a chargeback from their bank or credit card provider if possible, or otherwise must register as an unsecured creditor of Brosa.

At this stage, administrators believe around 2,500 orders have been identified as “allocated”, or being in Brosa’s warehouses, while around up to another 2,500 orders are “unallocated”, meaning they cannot be found.