In April, half of a 40ft shipping container loaded with premium water bottles, coffee tumblers, wine coolers, Eskies and other drinkware was dispatched to David Jones’s flagship stores, marking a major achievement for fledgling Australian brand Beysis.
For co-founders Ariana Hendry and Jessica Bryce, the restock worth tens of thousands of dollars showed how well the products were selling at Australia’s premier upmarket department store.
To keep cashflow moving, the Sydney-based small business agreed to a substantial price cut on the goods in return for 14-day payment terms.
Two weeks came and went. Then a month. Three months.
“The most frustrating part was the lack of communication,” says Hendry.
“I started trying to escalate it…