New Zealand Redgroup stores safe - for now
Redgroup Retail administrators Ferrier Hodgson say no New Zealand bookstores will be closed in the initial part of the company's restructuring.
Redgroup Retail administrators Ferrier Hodgson say no New Zealand bookstores will be closed in the initial part of the company's restructuring.
No New Zealand bookstores will be closed as part of the initial phase of Redgroup Retail’s restructuring, administrators Ferrier Hodgson said today.
As a result, there are no redundancies planned in New Zealand as part of this restructure.
Redgroup, owned by private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners, has 76 Whitcoulls, five Borders and nine Benetts bookstores in New Zealand.
While this is good news for New Zealand Redgroup staff, their Australian counterparts aren’t so lucky.
More than 300 Redgroup staff have been made redundant following the announcement of the closure of 38 bookstores (37 Angus & Robertson stores and one Borders store).
Fifteen stores will close in Victoria, 11 in New South Wales, seven in Queensland, two in ACT and Western Australia and one in South Australia.
“While book retailing has been difficult for some Redgroup outlets in Australia, there is no present requirement for us to close any stores in New Zealand,” administrator Steve Sherman said.
“I think this is a reflection of the New Zealand community support of the Whitcoulls brand.”
He said the 38 stores picked for closure were the least viable of the 260 Redgroup retail outlets.