No New Zealand Store Closures

No New Zealand Store Closures

31 March 2011

The Administrators of REDgroup Retail – owners of New Zealand’s biggest book retailing chains, Whitcoulls, Borders New Zealand and Bennetts – confirmed that no New Zealand stores will close as part of the restructuring announced in Australia today.

The second phase of restructuring of the Australian store network was announced today and will result in the closure of 12 Angus & Robertson bookstores in Australia. The closures in Australia will result in 102 store staff being made redundant (31 permanent full-time and part-time; 71 casual).

The Administrator Mr Steve Sherman said the Australian store closures were the next stage in the restructuring of the business and will allow the business to focus on the more profitable stores.

A small number of redundancies have been made at the New Zealand support office, but there will be no changes at store level. Four staff who were employed at the support office were made redundant today.

While the administrators advise that there are no New Zealand store closures currently envisaged as part of the second phase of the Australian restructure, the closure of the Whitcoulls’ K Road store which was planned prior to the appointment of administrators will take place in April 2011. All staff from this store will be relocated within the business.

Mr Sherman said the sale process for the New Zealand business is continuing to progress and he expects to have a clearer view of the business’s prospects after the closure of final binding bids towards the end of April.

ENDS

© Scoop Media