bardas headquarters po box 289 alexandria 1435 nsw sydney new south wales australia number of locations 27 1 area served australia key people john marshall director andrew michael executive chairman 2 products apparel & accessories owner john marshall and andrew michael 3 number of employees 500 4 parent apparel group website 1 sportscraft is an australian women s and men s clothing brand sold through department stores and over 20 of its own branded outlets . it began with the sportsleigh manufacturing company that grew from the tailoring business founded by russian jewish immigrant wolf bardas in melbourne in 1914 . in 1947 the business branched into retail with the first sportsleigh stores opened in collins street and toorak road melbourne . the name was changed to sportscraft in 1948 . the name reflected a focus on tailored casual wear predominantly jodhpurs slacks pleated skirts and shirts . innovative marketing under the leadership of morris bardas resonated with women in post war australia and became a respected and iconic brand . after his death in 1959 his vision was continued by his son david bardas who succeeded him at the head of the company . over the following decades the business continued to flourish and grow expanding into youth oriented fashion in the 1960s and menswear in the 1970s . by the 1990s the company had grown into a fashion empire that was producing a multimillion dollar turnover from 200 stores and nineteen women and men s fashion labels . in 1994 david bardas lost control of the group when the banks moved to secure the assets that underpinned their outstanding loans . prime among these was the expensive sportsgirl centre in collins street which had put the group under intense financial strain . as a result a south african company truworths was able to buy 90 per cent of the group . however by 1999 declining sales and growing losses resulted in truworths ceasing funding of the business . the company was put into voluntary administration in november that year . the core retail brands sportscraft sportsgirl and david lawrence were sold individually in 2000 to respectively apparel group sussan corporation and webster holdings . 5 6 7 8 9 see also edit sportsgirl david lawrence brand references edit prime space marketing local store sportscraft locations in australia accessed 17 december 2011 apparel group ownership accessed 17 december 2011 apparel group ownership accessed 17 december 2011 linkedin profile marisa firman head of design sportscraft accessed 17 december 2011 marshall investments the australian friday 2 december 2005 p. 20 fashion rebirth of an old favourite georgina safe accessed 17 december 2011 fairfax digital the age company ltd the age 18 february 2007 fashion behind the seams accessed 17 december 2011 frances burke textile resource centre rmit university 2000 updated 2 july 2004 cyberfibres online register of australian fashion and textile design corporate entry sportscraft pty ltd case study 1914 accessed 17 december 2011 apparel group about us brands sportscraft accessed 17 december 2011 webster holdings pty ltd about dl accessed 17 december 2011 external links edit apparel group david lawrence sportsgirl retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sportscraft & oldid 711762714 categories retail companies of australiahidden categories use dmy dates from january 2012use australian english from january 2012all wikipedia articles written in australian englishpages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 24 march 2016 at 18 41 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view