Local fashion brand M)phosis shuts all its S'pore outlets

SINGAPORE - Fashion brand M)phosis, once cited as among the more successful home-grown labels, has shut all its stores here.

The Straits Times understands that all its outlets in Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia - more than 10 of them - are also currently in the process of folding.

Only its stores in China are still open.

"In China, we are still in the marketplace," the brand's director Hensley Teh told The Straits Times yesterday.

"We were having a severe cash flow situation. We were not able to continue despite wanting to. We did everything we could," he said, adding that all staff have been retrenched.

"We thank our customers who have supported us all these years."

The last M)phosis (pronounced "emphasis") outlet to shut here was the one in VivoCity on Aug 25, but now many former customers are expressing anger about being unable to redeem the vouchers they had bought.

Cecilia Yeo, 37, said she was sold vouchers in April and was a "lifetime member" of the chain.

"I am supposed to get 10 per cent discount for a lifetime," the sales executive said, adding that she had $60 in vouchers unused. She would buy an M)phosis item every few months.

"When I bought (the vouchers), staff told me not to worry about the expiry date. They may have already known that they were going to shut down and they still sold the vouchers. That's not right."

Mr Teh said that he was "deeply sorry" that not all redemptions were honoured.

The chain had tried to reach out to as many customers as they could to ask them to make redemptions before the last outlet shut, he said, adding: "We don't take the matter lightly. But we are not in the position now to make any promises."

M)phosis first opened here in 1994 at Change Alley. Catering to women aged 18 to 35 and selling clean-cut designs in solid colours, it soon expanded to more than 10 outlets here.

By 1998, it had four stores in Jakarta and two in Kuala Lumpur. In 2009, it opened its first boutique in China. Since then, it had expanded into Dubai, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Hong Kong and the Philippines. The Dubai, Japan, Australia and Hong Kong stores shut several years ago.

At its peak, the brand had more than 30 outlets both here and overseas.

Sarah Lim, a senior retail lecturer at Singapore Polytechnic, said that stiff competition in the retail market was likely to blame for M)phosis' downfall.

"The brand sells many clothes in classic cuts and colours. But there are so many brands out there that sell the same thing. Large international names like Zara have similar items at lower prices with better designs," she said, adding that the firm may have spread itself too thin during the expansion phase.

Seah Seng Choon, executive director of the Consumers Association of Singapore, said that it would be difficult for customers to get refunds for unused vouchers.

"If the shop has already shut down here and there are no other places to redeem the vouchers, there is not much customers can do," he said, adding that they can choose to hire a lawyer to sue the firm.

"But doing this is costly and doesn't make sense. Also, even if they do that and win, the company may not have assets available for claiming and cannot honour the vouchers anyway."

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