Friday, May 22, 2009

Dymocks Head Office has shot itself in the foot


Unbelievably Dymocks Sydney Head Office was responsible for the wind up of both the Takapuna and Wellington stores this last two weeks. The stores were behind in their franchise fees (6% of turnover) so they get wound up up, never mind what New Zealand suppliers will lose from it. Dymocks Group chief executive Don Grover was reported in the NBR as saying Dymocks planned to open another smaller shop in Wellington, under their ownership. He also said the chain was also looking for another franchisee in Auckland for the small Smales Farm store in Takapuna which it put in liquidation earlier this month. "The store was on a non-traditional site -- an office area rather than a shopping centre -- and the owners had struggled to attract customers since opening in September last year," Mr Grover said. Are you dreaming, Mr Grover? Do you seriously think any local publisher is going to support any further company owned store unless you make good on their bad debts? And do you seriously think any new franchisee is: a) going to have to pay you franchisee fees in return for no support from Sydney, only the threat of being wound up by you; b) have to pay cash up front for every order to a NZ supplier because of the track record you have now created?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Smales Farm was not wound up by the Franchisor, and were not behind in their fees.
Otherwise you are correct in your other thoughts I would say.

transpress nz said...

This store lasted about 7 months before folding; apart from the obviously unsuitable location it was owned by a woman named Jane Townsend who had been a midwife for 11 years and clearly knew nothing about books including the fact that book publishers and distributors expect to be paid for their supplies. What was Dymocks Head Office thinking?

Anonymous said...

In Australia the Dymocks franchises have the worst record of any booksellers of going under - publishers here have learned to be wary of them.