St Edmund's College students will return to school on Monday without any new school uniform items after the school tore up a contract with its uniform supplier earlier this year.
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This is despite more than 31,000 pieces of new St Edmund's school uniform sitting in a Mitchell storage unit.
Parents have been voicing their concerns, with St Edmund's principal Joe Zavone asking parents in an email to bring in second hand items for students lacking the correct uniform.
Mr Zavone said after making the decision to sever ties with supplier The School Locker, the school endeavoured to reach an agreement so the remaining stock could be sold to families.
However, The School Locker general manager Phil Rohan said he had been completely blindsided by the school's decision in March and all attempts by the company to negotiate about the remaining stock had been rejected.
"The first we heard about the contract being terminated was a termination letter turning up in my email inbox," Mr Rohan said.
"There had never been a complaint or an issue raised. I've been in business for a long time, I've never been rebuffed so cold-heartedly."
Mr Rohan said he had yet to be granted a meeting or phone call with the school since the contract termination.
He said it was particularly disappointing because the company had spent $1.2 million on product, expecting a partnership for many years.
The company committed such a significant figure, he said, because the contract was signed at a tumultuous time when the school was transitioning to a new uniform and crest and wanted to protect the school's brand.
The decision to terminate the contract meant the company had to let two staff go, redeploy a further two staff elsewhere in the company and has left them with $550,000 worth of stock sitting in storage.
"We don't want parents going without school uniforms and we certainly don't want the kids doing that either, so we're happy to come to a deal and provide those uniforms, they're of no use to us," Mr Rohan said.
"It's just understood when providers change, there's a stock buyback, it's standard practice."
He said the company had offered to sell the stock at cost price to the school but that had been rejected.
However, Mr Zavone said the school had made a number of offers to the company to buy the stock and had also tried to arrange for new supplier, Ranier Design Group, to purchase the stock.
"It was the intention of both the college and the new supplier that stock would be purchased from The School Locker in order to meet uniform supply needs," Mr Zavone said.
He said the decision to end the agreement was not taken lightly but it was the school's belief the new provider would better suit a new direction and reflect the school's needs.
He could not provide a date when new uniforms would be available for purchase.
Mr Rohan said the school offered one deal which was to purchase the uniforms at 50 cents in the dollar, which would have represented a massive loss and he said was unreasonable.
"We have never dealt with a school that is more obstructionist or unreasonable in business," he said.
St Edmund's has been speaking to families about how to manage with the lack of uniform availability.
The School Locker has been fielding numerous calls and emails from parents trying to purchase uniforms directly from them.
In an email seen by The Canberra Times, one parent says her son will be starting at the school next week and was lacking several items. Mr Rohan said the company was attempting to find out if it could legally sell the items to parents after the contract was terminated.
"The real victims are the students and the parents," he said.
"We're very sorry that the parents have been put in this position, we don't want to let down the school community."