The headline on The Australian Gift Guide article is disappointing: Seven major retailers facing collapse.
Why is this news? It reads as speculation. Why is this business magazine reporting it? Do they want to talk down retail?
The article offers no evidence for the core claim:
It’s all doom and gloom for some Australian retailers as they are facing extreme risk of financial ruin over the next 12 months according to a report by SV Partners.
The well-known retailers have an annual turnover of more than $100 million and include a large clothing retailer, two computer retail giants, one big supermarket/grocery store and a large newspaper/book retailer.
While the article goes on to quote numbers, it does not tie this back to the headline claim.
It is articles like this that cause bankers, landlords and others on whom small business retailer rely to look at us with suspicion. Thanks a lot Australian Gift Guide. Bad job.
I agree baseless speculation can be self fulfilling and hope SV Partners prove to be wrong. We are an industry populated with eternal optimists, glass half full / empty and doom merchants. It is difficult to guage how the market is until the benefit of hindsight.
Our shop is going through dire period. Sure we have some local issues, yes we double down on our efforts as the numbers disappoint. But life is very tough and if we are not lone sufferers, then SVP might be horribly correct.
Colin, you are not alone. The industry as we know it is finished and there is nothing on the horizon that will reverse that position. As a failed Newsagent all I can offer you is there is a better life out of the industry rather than inside it. The hardest decision is to know when its time to quit and get out. My administrator gave this advice “As soon as you cannot compensate yourself for your time….close it down” Under this advice probably half the industry would be gone tomorrow. You are not lone sufferers, just honest ones.
Ken your situation is different. My opinion is you ran your large distribution business and your retail businesses business badly, with little control over key parts. You and I discussed the lack of appropriate control several times. We also discussed marketing groups and your view was you knew better. It turns out you did not.
Yes, there are businesses in the channel that are in trouble. They can resolve their troubles by being data driven retailers rather than agents. That advice has not changed in more than ten years.
Ken
My post was about retailing in general not specifically newsagents. Sure there are some bad newsagents, especially those who do not invest or evolve, where the frontage is like a living photo archive from the 70’s.
I agree about the living wage. There are a couple of non newsagents very close to me who need this message.