“David Jones is a work in progress.” That’s the opinion of former Freedom CEO Blaine Callard. While it might seem like an understatement, given the department store’s trail of unpaid invoices and recent collapse, Callard says it’s simply the nature of a business turnaround, which always takes longer than expected and is less visible to outsiders than internally.

“The funny thing about management teams and turnarounds is that it can happen more slowly than you think. You need to persist and push through,” he told Inside Retail. “But the differences from a consumer’s point of view aren’t always immediately visible. They come with time.”

Callard overhauled Freedom during his tenure as CEO from July 2019 until February of this year, including a major rebrand and digital transformation, which helped take the furniture retailer from a $45 million EBITDA loss in FY19 to $19 million EBITDA in FY25. 

Kerry Cusack, former CEO of Modibodi, has also led turnarounds across consumer and retail businesses. In her experience, retail leaders often know what they need to do to fix a business, but they don’t always execute it right. 

“The lesson is always the same,” she said. “The right strategy fails if the business can’t afford to carry it out.”

Inside Retail spoke to Callard and Cusack, as well as department store expert Professor Robert Crawford, to understand not only what David Jones must do to become relevant again, but also what it takes to drive a successful business transformation.

Callard believes David Jones has a decent chance of emerging from administration with a viable structure and strategy for success, but it must avoid the pitfalls that can cause a business transformation to fail.

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