Crikey enjoyed a particularly well-informed tip last Tuesday from a Myer supplier warning that sales were going backwards and key businesses were well down.

One tip does not a fact make, but it confirmed something quite similar one had heard elsewhere, that the blush had well and truly come off the private equiteers’ reign, that the efforts to dress Myer up were turning to rags and there was general sense of trouble at mill.

And now Vanda Carson has acquired an internal report that confirms all that and more:

Almost every category at Myer’s 62 stores is going backwards. Footwear has fallen 15 per cent on last year, homewares are down 12 per cent, and women’s wear and men’s wear are each down 7 per cent.

The only gains across a total of 13 categories are in accessories, which include handbags, belts and scarves, and children’s clothes.

Despite the poor sales results, Myer’s profit is likely to improve, thanks to private equity’s aggressive cost-cutting strategy.

But Crikey’s source behind the counter reckons the profit is not sustainable. “Out of control” was a phrase used about the organisation.

That would mean Myer’s new owner, Texas Pacific Group, would need to flick it on sooner rather than later, if it could find a buyer.

Funny how some worms have turned for the big foreign private equiteers…no game at Qantas, TPG facing difficulties at Myer, and of course the mess CVC has found itself owning at PBL Media. Lovely how markets sometimes work.