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Direct Factory Outlet (DFO) is a brand of
factory outlet An outlet store, factory outlet or factory shop is a brick and mortar or online store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached to a factory or warehouse, sometimes allowin ...
shopping centres in Australia. They are large-floor
warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of citie ...
buildings containing partitioned stores where retail outlets sell excess or previous seasons' stocks at reduced prices.
Vicinity Centres Vicinity Centres , previously known as Federation Centres and Centro Properties Group, is an Australian Real Estate Investment Trust specialising in ownership and management of Australian shopping centres. As at December 2021, it had stakes i ...
have full or partial ownership of seven of the eight stores.


History

Direct Factory Outlet was founded in 1997 by Liberty Oil founders David Goldberger and David Wieland. The first centre was opened at Moorabbin Airport in 1994. Other shareholders were property developer Geoff Porz and former
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Trad ...
chief Graeme Samuel through a
blind trust A blind trust is a trust in which the trust beneficiaries have no knowledge of the holdings of the trust, and no right to intervene in their handling. In a blind trust, the trustees (fiduciaries, or those who have been given power of attorney) ...
. Valued at A$1.5 billion, in early 2010 the business was put up for sale with a number of retail investment funds expressing interest. DFO centres have traditionally been located around airports: a side effect of the Airports Act of 1996, the
Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...
has planning control over the land, meaning state planning legislation can be bypassed by developers. In addition the property developer is able to exploit the cost difference between retail and industrial rents, gives outlet centre operators a distinct advantage over traditional shopping centres. A survey by ''
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'' in 2007 found that in all three DFO-owned centres, most shops carried at least some full-price, current-season stock, available at normal shopping centres. By 2008 five legal challenges to DFO developments have been made by competing retail developers and the Shopping Centre Council of Australia, all being unsuccessful. On 16 August 2010, lead bank
Suncorp-Metway Suncorp Group Limited is an Australian finance, insurance, and banking corporation based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is one of Australia's mid-size banks (by combined lending and deposits) and its largest general insurance group, fo ...
, along with
St George Bank St.George Bank is an Australian bank with its headquarters in Sydney. Since a 2008 merger, the bank has been part of Westpac, having previously been an independent legal entity. In 2010, St.George was deregistered as a company and ceased to be ...
,
National Australia Bank National Australia Bank (abbreviated NAB, branded nab) is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia (colloquially referred to as "The Big Four") in terms of market capitalisation, earnings and customers. NAB was ranked 21st-la ...
and
Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds Banking Group is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Ban ...
, issued a notice to parent company
Austexx Direct Factory Outlet (DFO) is a brand of factory outlet shopping centres in Australia. They are large-floor warehouse buildings containing partitioned stores where retail outlets sell excess or previous seasons' stocks at reduced prices. Vicini ...
demanding repayment within 24 hours of the A$450 million they are owed. The South Wharf centre was under an A$500 million debt, with work on completing the centre stopped after workers placed bans over non-payment. Parent company Austexx was understood to have had total debts of A$1.2 billion, with the four relatively successful DFO sites used as cross-collateral for bank-funded expansion into five other less successful locations including
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
,
Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...
and
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/ Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
. The group of banks appointed insolvency specialists
KordaMentha KordaMentha is an Asia-Pacific advisory and investment firm that provides specialist consulting, forensic, real estate, restructuring and investment services. The business was formed in April 2002 by Mark Korda and Mark Mentha. KordaMentha has ...
as advisers, with the entire group facing receivership. Negotiations continued until a deal was struck on 19 August, the four banks extending their funding to allow the South Wharf development to be completed. The ten DFO shopping complexes were then be sold off separately to repay the $1 billion owed to the banks. In September 2010, CFS Retail acquired the
Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League United King ...
, Homesbush and Moorabbin centres and a 50% shareholding in
South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Alber ...
. All four passed to
Vicinity Centres Vicinity Centres , previously known as Federation Centres and Centro Properties Group, is an Australian Real Estate Investment Trust specialising in ownership and management of Australian shopping centres. As at December 2021, it had stakes i ...
when it merged with CFS Retail. Vicinity would acquire the
Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
centre in May 2016.Vicinity acquires strong performing Outlet Centre DFO Brisbane
Vicinity Centres 23 May 2016


Locations

, there were eight centres located in four states. Vicinity Centres have a 50% shareholding in two of centres, and 100% in another five.Direct Portfolio Property Book December 2021
Vicinity Centres


Brisbane

DFO Brisbane is located at
Brisbane Airport Brisbane Airport is the primary international airport serving Brisbane and South East Queensland. The airport services 31 airlines flying to 50 domestic and 29 international destinations, in total amounting to more than 22.7 million passe ...
about north-east of the
Brisbane central business district Brisbane City is the central suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It is colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD" or "the city". It is located on a point on the northern bank of the ...
, It opened in 2005. , it has 144 tenants on of gross lettable area (GLA). It was acquired by Vicinity Centres in May 2016.


Essendon

DFO Essendon is in the Melbourne suburb of
Essendon Fields Essendon Fields is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Moonee Valley local government area. Essendon Fields recorded no population at the 2021 census. Ess ...
, approximately north of the
Melbourne central business district The Melbourne central business district (also known colloquially as simply "The City" or "The CBD") is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city la ...
. It opened in October 2005. On 21 February 2017, an aeroplane crashed into the centre. A
Beechcraft Super King Air The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin- turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Model 200 and Model 300 series were originally marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was dropped in 1996 ...
on a passenger charter flight bound for
King Island, Tasmania King Island is an island in the Bass Strait, belonging to the Australian state of Tasmania. It is the largest of three islands known as the New Year Group, and the second-largest island in Bass Strait (after Flinders Island). The island's popu ...
crashed shortly after takeoff from nearby
Essendon Airport Essendon Fields Airport , colloquially known by its former name Essendon Airport, is a public airport serving scheduled commercial, corporate-jet, charter and general aviation flights. It is located next to the intersection of the Tullamarin ...
with all five people aboard killed. As the crash occurred before the centre opened for the day, only staff were present, all of whom were accounted for.


Homebush

DFO Homebush is located in Homebush, about west of the
Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or city centre is often referr ...
. It opened in 2002.


Jindalee

DFO Jindalee is located in the Brisbane suburb of Jindalee. It was constructed in 2007, and was sold by Austexx Group to Chin Yin in 2016 to be managed by Geon Property. It is one of two DFO centres that Vicinity Centres has no ownership in, the other being Carins. It underwent a major refurbishment from 2019 through 2021.


Moorabbin

DFO Moorabbin is in
Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
, about south-east of the Melbourne central business district. Originally Fairways Leisure Market, the centre opened in 1994 on land adjacent to Moorabbin Airport. In 1997 the centre was purchased by the Austexx Group as the group's first DFO shopping centre. The centre had approximately 45 stores on . Since opening, the centre has expanded to .


Perth

DFO Perth is situated at
Perth Airport Perth Airport is an international, domestic and general aviation airport serving Perth, the capital city of Western Australia. It is the fourth busiest airport in Australia measured by passenger movements and falls within the boundaries o ...
, approximately east of the
Perth central business district Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
. The shopping centre opened on 3 October 2018 with 113 retail outlets and 1,500 parking bays. Vicinity has a 50% shareholding with the remainder owned by Perth Airport Development Group Investments. It has 111 tenants on of GLA. It opened in 2018.


South Wharf

DFO South Wharf is located in
South Wharf South Wharf is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. South Wharf recorded a pop ...
, about south-west of the Melbourne central business district. It opened in 2009. In April 2019, Vicinity Centres became the sole shareholder after buying out the
Plenary Group Plenary Group is an Australian infrastructure investment business specialising in public–private partnerships. It was founded in 2004 by three former ABN Amro employees, with Deutsche Bank taking a 20% shareholding. Operations Projects which ...
.Vicinity takes control of DFO with $141 million deal
''Commercial Real Estate'' 16 April 2019


Uni Hill

DFO Uni Hill is in
Bundoora Bundoora is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Banyule, Darebin and Whittlesea local government areas. Bundoora recorded a population of 28,068 at th ...
, approximately north-east of the Melbourne central business district. It opened in 2008. Vicinity has a 50% shareholding with the remainder owned by
MAB Corporation MAB Corporation is an integrated property company that creates, owns and manages property assets and built environments throughout Australia. The company was founded in 1995 by Michael Buxton, who began his career working in his family's busin ...


Essendon Centre plane crash

Just before 9am on 21 February 2017, a
Beechcraft Super King Air The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin- turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Model 200 and Model 300 series were originally marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was dropped in 1996 ...
on a passenger charter flight bound for
King Island, Tasmania King Island is an island in the Bass Strait, belonging to the Australian state of Tasmania. It is the largest of three islands known as the New Year Group, and the second-largest island in Bass Strait (after Flinders Island). The island's popu ...
crashed shortly after takeoff from nearby
Essendon Airport Essendon Fields Airport , colloquially known by its former name Essendon Airport, is a public airport serving scheduled commercial, corporate-jet, charter and general aviation flights. It is located next to the intersection of the Tullamarin ...
. All five people aboard the flight were killed. As the shopping centre had not opened yet, only staff were at the centre, all of whom were accounted for. The incident was the worst aviation accident in
Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...
for 30 years.


See also

*
The District Docklands The District Docklands (previously known as Harbour Town) is an indoor/outdoor shopping centre in the suburb of Docklands in the inner-west of Melbourne. History The District Docklands opened on 21 October 2008 as Harbour Town. Following the H ...


References


External links

* {{Vicinity Centres, state=collapsed Outlet malls in Australia Retail companies established in 1997 Retail companies of Australia 1997 establishments in Australia