Borders and Whitcoulls put under administration
Book chains Borders and Whitcoulls have been put under administration in Australia and New Zealand.
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Book chains Borders and Whitcoulls have been put under administration in Australia and New Zealand.
Australian parent company REDgroup Retail, which manages operations in both countries, this afternoon called in voluntary administrators to the business, The Melbourne Age reported.
The jobs of up to 2500 staff are now in doubt, the newspaper said.
REDGroup is controlled by private equity group PEP.
Ferrier Hodgson partners have been appointed voluntary administrators of the group.
Partner Steve Sherman said as far as possible it would be business as usual while the administrators conducted an urgent assessment of the business's financial status, according to a statement.
30% of Borders stores to close in the US
Borders sold its international business after the company came under financial pressure, with RedGroup picking up it Australasian stores.
Ironically, the US Borders chain also collapsed this week.
The Wall Street Journal reported that around 30% of Borders stores would be closed in the US.
New Zealand's Whitcoulls chain comprises of 65 stores, 40 of which are located in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, according to its website.
It was first established as Whitcombe and Tombs in 1888 and Coulls Somerville Wilkie in 1871.
Online, e-book pressure
Although RedGroup had no cross-ownership with Borders in the US, the two companies have been partners in the Kobo e-book reader project.
Kobo was a move to counter Amazon's Kindle reader, and associated e-book download service.
The Journal judged Kobo as too little, too late.
It came under particular pressure in the US late last year as Kindle released a new, budget Kindle (the first Amazon tablet to gain New Zealand release) and Borders US, and RedGroup here, were forced to cut the price of the Kobo.
More pressure came from the iPad, which can accommodate a software version of Amazon's Kindle reader.
But while e-book sales have been rising, easily the greatest pressure has come from consumers' ability to buy old-fashioned books from sites on the web.
NZPA and NBR staff
Fri, 18 Feb 2011
Fri, 18 Feb 2011
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Borders and Whitcoulls put under administration
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