Do we like them?

Do we like Myer?

Australian department store chain, with Just Jeans, Portmans and other apparel brands, based in Melbourne.

Our score: 5 out of 10. Mixed. We found no recent big scandal, but the workers' rights record is patchy and money is tight. Our search turned up little on recent conduct, so we'd hold off.

Myer is an old Aussie department store. In January 2025 it bought Solomon Lew's Premier Investments apparel brands (Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Portmans, Dotti and Jacqui E) for 890.5 million new Myer shares. Lew became its biggest shareholder after a long campaign to get a say in the business.

Olivia Wirth, a former Qantas Loyalty boss, took over as CEO and executive chair in June 2024. She joined the board in 2023 and has leaned hard on the MYER one loyalty program. The ABC reported that Lew finally joined the board as a non-executive director in September 2026.

The latest numbers are mixed. Sales topped $4 billion for the first time in FY26, but the ABC reported a $276 million statutory loss. That came after roughly $280 million of writedowns, and the ABC said consumer sentiment had a 'material downturn'. Profit and losses aren't good or bad deeds, but they show how stretched Myer is.

On conduct, the main black mark we found is old. In 2015 the Fair Work Ombudsman looked into claims that cleaners at Myer stores were underpaid by subcontractors. ABC reported that Myer turned down an offer of a formal compliance deed. Myer said it was 'extremely concerned' and ended one contractor's contract.

We give it a middling 5. There's no big recent scandal in what we found, and it's a long-standing Australian retailer. But the workers' rights record is patchy, and we found little proof of strong good deeds. It would take clearer evidence on pay, supply chains and the environment to tip us towards backing it.