Many of whom have given years of loyal service to the business.
For eighty years, Lincraft wove itself into the fabric of everyday creative life across New Zealand and Australia — a place where people touched, chose, and carried home the materials of their making. Now, battered by the slow tide of online commerce, rising costs, and shifting habits, the company has announced the closure of all its physical stores, including six in New Zealand. What remains is a digital presence in a crowded marketplace, and the quiet absence of something that once felt permanent.
- An 80-year retail institution is shutting every physical store across New Zealand and Australia, ending an era that outlasted wars, recessions, and decades of disruption.
- Over 300 employees face job losses as closures roll out progressively across six New Zealand locations — Thames, Taupō, Upper Hutt, Riccarton, Linwood, and Dunedin.
- Low-cost international e-commerce rivals, rising operating costs, and a pandemic-accelerated shift in consumer behaviour combined into a pressure the company could no longer absorb.
- Management has acknowledged the human weight of the decision, with staff who gave years of loyal service now facing an uncertain transition with few specifics offered about support.
- Lincraft will pivot to online-only operations, but enters that space as a small player in a vast, low-margin arena where survival is far from assured.
Lincraft, the fabric and craft retailer that has anchored community shopping across New Zealand and Australia for eight decades, will close all of its physical stores in the coming months. Six New Zealand locations — Thames, Taupō, Upper Hutt, Riccarton, Linwood, and Dunedin — will shutter progressively as lease arrangements allow. The company will continue operating online, but the physical retail presence that defined it for generations is finished.
The decision was driven by a convergence of forces that have reshaped retail across the developed world: prolonged difficult trading conditions, changing consumer behaviour, climbing operating costs, and fierce competition from overseas e-commerce platforms offering prices traditional retailers cannot match. For Lincraft, these pressures proved insurmountable.
The human cost is immediate and significant. More than 300 employees across New Zealand and Australia will lose their jobs. Managing director John Maguire acknowledged the weight of the decision, noting that many staff had given years of loyal service to the business. The company said it would support affected employees through the transition, though no specifics about severance or retraining were provided.
Lincraft's story is emblematic of a wider contraction in physical retail. The company endured for eighty years through extraordinary upheaval, but the combination of pandemic-accelerated online shopping, thin margins, and relentless global competition proved too much. Its future now rests entirely on its ability to compete in a crowded digital marketplace — a far smaller stage than the one it has occupied for most of a century.
Lincraft, the fabric and craft retailer that has operated physical stores across New Zealand and Australia for eight decades, will close all of its brick-and-mortar locations over the coming months. The company announced the decision this week, marking the end of an era for a business that once anchored craft shopping in communities from Thames to Dunedin.
Six stores in New Zealand will shutter: locations in Thames, Taupō, Upper Hutt, Riccarton, Linwood, and Dunedin. The closures will unfold gradually, store by store, as lease agreements allow. The company will maintain a presence through an online platform, but the physical retail operation—the core of what Lincraft has been for generations—is finished.
The decision reflects pressures that have reshaped retail across the developed world. Lincraft's leadership pointed to a sustained period of difficult trading conditions, shifts in how people shop, climbing operating costs, and relentless competition from overseas e-commerce retailers offering rock-bottom prices. These forces have been grinding away at traditional retail for years. For Lincraft, they proved insurmountable.
The human toll is substantial. More than 300 employees across New Zealand and Australia will lose their jobs as the stores close. Managing director John Maguire acknowledged the weight of that reality in a statement, noting that many staff members had devoted years to the business. "This has been an extremely difficult decision, particularly because of the impact on our team members, many of whom have given years of loyal service to the business," he said. The company said it was working to support affected employees through the transition, though the statement offered no specifics about severance, retraining, or other assistance.
Lincraft's closure is emblematic of a broader contraction in physical retail. The company survived wars, recessions, and technological disruption for eighty years, but the combination of pandemic-accelerated online shopping, thin margins, and global competition proved too much. The shift to e-commerce was not a choice the company made enthusiastically—it was a necessity imposed by market conditions it could no longer withstand.
The closures will begin in the coming months. For customers who have relied on Lincraft's physical stores to browse fabric, yarn, and craft supplies in person, the transition to online shopping only will be a loss. For the employees who have worked there, it is a more immediate and pressing one. The company's future now rests entirely on its ability to compete in the crowded, low-margin world of online retail—a world where Lincraft will be one small player among thousands.
Citações Notáveis
This has been an extremely difficult decision, particularly because of the impact on our team members, many of whom have given years of loyal service to the business.— John Maguire, Managing Director
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did a company that lasted eighty years suddenly decide to close everything at once?
It wasn't sudden, really. The pressures had been building for years—online shopping, rising costs, thin margins. But at some point, the math stops working. The company couldn't make money from physical stores anymore, so they had to choose: keep bleeding money or shut down and go online.
But couldn't they have kept a few stores open, maybe in the bigger cities?
Possibly, but that's not how retail economics work at that scale. A few stores scattered across the country are actually more expensive to run than a network. Once you decide to exit physical retail, you exit completely.
What happens to the 300 people who worked there?
That's the hardest part. The company said they're "working to support" them, but the statement doesn't say how. Severance, retraining, job placement—none of that was detailed. For people who've been there for years, it's a sudden loss of income and identity.
Is Lincraft actually going to survive online?
That's the real question. Online retail is brutal—thin margins, massive competition, high shipping costs. Lincraft will be competing against Amazon, Etsy, and a hundred other platforms. They have brand loyalty and customer relationships, which helps. But whether that's enough? Nobody knows yet.
So this is just what happens to old retail companies now?
More or less. If you built your business on physical stores and you don't adapt early enough, you get caught between two worlds—too expensive to run stores, too late to build a real online presence. Lincraft had eighty years of success, but success in the old model doesn't guarantee survival in the new one.