Autolyse closes its Sydney store and bakery

Popular Canberra bakery Autolyse has been forced to restructure and has shut the doors on its new Sydney store just eight months after expanding into the city.

But the store on Lonsdale Street in Braddon remains open and operating successfully and owner Mick Gubas says he's doing everything he can to work things out for the 30 staff employed at the Sydney store and bakery.

Autolyse moved into Chippendale in July last year, opening a bakery and cafe in a shopping centre on Broadway.

A devastated Gubas says the new store, which was a much larger operation than the Braddon bakery, didn't get the traffic that was expected and was forced to shut the doors on Monday.

"It was a bad decision opening up the store in Sydney, it didn't work out the way it was meant to," he says.

"Everybody has come back to Canberra, we're doing everything we can to make the Canberra store work, we're working with the administrators to resolve things. It is still operating and there shouldn't be anything wrong there," he says.

Autolyse quickly established itself as one of Canberra's best bakeries when it opened in Braddon in 2013 and its popular sourdough loaves can be found in about 70 outlets around the capital.

The company's gone into voluntary administration and the administrator, Alan Hayes of Hayes Advisory, will restructure the business as a result of the Sydney store's problems.

The Canberra business remains profitable and Hayes says customers have been very supportive.

Gubas says his focus is now on making sure all the Sydney staff are treated properly and get all the money and entitlements due to them after the closure of the store. "I just want to do the right thing by them," he says.

Hayes says Autolyse in Canberra was going well and the company decided to expand. "They spent a lot of money on a big store in Sydney but the trading has not been what they hoped it would be and it's taken longer to turn into a good business," he says. "Because of Sydney they can't go on in their current format. So they've sought professional help and what they've decided to do is put the company into administration."

Administrators are working on a plan to resurrect the business. "We are very confident that Braddon will continue and will prosper. But to do that what they need to do is restructure the business and that's what we're doing. We're being very well supported by the locals and having tasted the product I have to say it is excellent. The staff have been fabulous and it's worked quite well so far."

Hayes said there would be a meeting of creditors next week and again in the next month. "And there'll be a plan put forward and the creditors will decide whether to agree to the plan," he said.

"We're determining what's owing at the moment. Sydney was not yet profitable and Canberra remains profitable. We're really focused on saving Canberra."