Massmart-owned electronics retailer DionWired is gone. The troubled Walmart-owned retail group said on Thursday that all DionWired stores will cease trading at 6pm on 19 March.

The electronics and white-goods retailer ceased taking online orders effective 8.30am on Thursday. A notice on its website redirected customers to sister retailer Game where, it said, they could still get all their “favourite brands”.

Various Game stores have been assigned the responsibility to help DionWired customers with any queries, including collecting products booked in for repair.

It said it will fulfil all outstanding orders placed online before 19 March. Game will honour these delivery commitments, it added.

Massmart announced in January that it would close the 23-store DionWired chain as well as 11 Masscash wholesale outlets.

The move marked the first significant act by Massmart’s new CEO, Mitchell Slape, who arrived from Walmart in September, Bloomberg News reported at the time.

Economic downturn

About 1 440 employees could be affected, Massmart said in a statement in January.

The company, which also owns Makro, slumped to a loss in the first half of last year as shoppers stayed away amid an economic downturn. — (c) 2020 NewsCentral Media