Aussie mum behind $6million-a-year company forced to sell the family home and is on the brink of bankruptcy after a $15,000-a-month website upgrade goes horribly wrong

Detailed summary

An Australian entrepreneur says she is on the brink of bankruptcy after a website upgrade with software giant Adobe ended in financial disaster.

Published: 03:02 GMT, 14 November 2026 | Updated: 03:30 GMT, 14 November 2026

An Australian beauty entrepreneur says she is on the brink of bankruptcy after a website upgrade with software giant Adobe ended in financial disaster.

Briony Kennedy founded Adorn Cosmetics in 2008, a Melbourne-based ethical make-up and skincare brand which turned over $6million a year in its prime.

But her once-thriving business faced significant challenges after she upgraded from a basic website to Adobe's Commerce Platform in 2021.

Ms Kennedy signed up to pay $15,000 a month after Adobe projected revenue growth of between 34 per cent and 94 per cent.

A press release issued by Adobe at the time said the platform would allow more targeted marketing campaigns for Adorn's email database and almost 100,000 social media followers.

But Ms Kennedy is now pursuing legal action against the US software company, claiming the transition saw a negative impact on her business.

'I wanted to know that my data was secure,' the mother-of-three told the Daily Mail when asked why she chose Adobe for the upgrade.

'Later down the track, I found out that the website I was already using would have sufficed.'

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Mail. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.