Major furniture and bedding retailer Sleep City has announced it has entered into administration.

The chain has 64 stores and 450 employees. Accounting firm PwC has been tasked with overseeing the administration period.

The group has several business names that it trades under, all of which will be included in the voluntary administration by PwC partners Michael Fung, Greg Hall and Gu Edwards. They include Furniture and Bedding Concepts (trading as Sleep City), Everyday Sleep Trading, Uinta Beds, SDM Marketing and Global Victoria.

“The companies will be operating in a ‘business as usual’ mode while we get a clearer understanding of the current state of each business,” explained Fung. “We are still investigating the causes behind the administration; however we believe that the current soft retail environment is a contributing factor. ”

Russell Zimmerman, executive director of the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), claimed in a statement that the demise of Sleep City was a sign that retailers could not cope with weakened consumer demand.

“Sleep City is only the latest victim of a chain of retailers forced to handover to administrators or close their doors for good in the past six months,” he said. “There are now another 450 Australian jobs at risk in an industry providing more jobs than any other private employer.”

Zimmerman went on to condemn the move by the ‘big four’ banks to raise interest rates independently of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), claiming more and more retailers will struggle in what he considers dire conditions.

“We’re calling on the RBA to consider the pressure on retailers and consumers, as well as to go some way in predicting the strategy of the big four banks when they meet next month,” he continued.

“Perhaps the best measure is for the RBA to announce a deep enough reduction in interest rates that it allows for the banks to absorb some of the cut and still pass on a significant reduction to consumers.”