Good evening,

Leadership uncertainty, a murder scene of a P&L and mass job losses. What happened to everyone’s favourite preppy fashion retailer Country Road?

The Woolworths Holdings subsidiary whose eponymous duffel bag is up there in the nostalgia stakes alongside Mimco crossbody bags swung to a $61 million after-tax loss last financial year. This is despite pulling in over $1 billion in sales.

At the same time, sources told this column that Country Road has terminated 90 of its 98 IT workers as it seeks to outsource the operation and divested a handful of properties linked to the group. This column can also reveal chief executive Raju Vuppalapati is on his way out with Spencer Stuart’s headhunters tapped to conduct an executive search.

It’s not surprising interested parties are starting to get their ducks in a row and do industry due diligence on the brand. A spokesperson declined to comment.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

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The sharemarket reset a six-week low on Wednesday as risk-off sentiment hit Australia’s mining companies and investors sold off Woolworths.

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