Late last year IBS-STL went into administration. Just prior to Christmas Baker Tilly Restructuring & Recovery announced that the Australian Christian Bookseller Koorong had purchased the Wesley Owen brand, web domain, and eight stores. Koorong also purchased the Authentic and Paternoster publishing imprints, although the Authentic music division has been purchased by Kingsway.
The Bookseller: Competitors Save 14 Wesley Owen branches
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/107475-page.html
Wesley Owen has confirmed that 14 stores have been saved after its parent company IBS-STL went into administration, with “a healthy degree of interest” in the remaining 26. IBS-STL’s other businesses—Authentic Media and STL Distribution—have been bought separately.
Russell Cash, partner at Baker Tilly Restructuring & Recovery, said this morning (21st December) that eight stores had been bought by Christian bookseller Koorong, as well as the Wesley Owen trading name and website domain. The firm went into administration on Friday (18th December).
Koorong has bought Wesley Owen stores in Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Bromley, Colraine, Derby, Glasgow and York. Bookselling chain, Christian Literature Crusade International (CLC) has bought a further six stores including Bolton, Cambridge, Coventry, Guildford, Kingston and Stockport.
Christian Retailing Dot Com: Australian retailer’s ‘learn as we go’ approach
http://www.christianretailing.com/index.php/newsletter/latest-etailing/20603-australian-retailers-learn-as-we-go-approach
Paul Bootes, managing director of Koorong, said that the company–which has 18 stores across Australia–would be adopting a “learn as we go” approach with the eight Wesley Owen stores it purchased last month as part of the breakup of IBS-STL UK.
…“Our market share in Australia is around 60% of the market, and we felt that an overseas opportunity would enable us to grow more quickly than at home,” Bootes told Christian Retailing. “As Australians, we have an historical and cultural relationship with the U.K., and when the STL opportunity came up, we thought we may be able to do something.”
He added: “Clearly some of the Wesley Owen sites were not profitable because of the high rents that are charged in the U.K. We are focusing on the bigger stores with more established volumes of sales. We have always been specialist retailers, so hopefully we understand the business as well as anyone. All that being said, it is certainly going to be hard work to make it work well.”
Press Release from Koorong, December 22, 2009
http://www.wesleyowen.com/WesleyOwenSite/cm/koorong_press_release.htm
“It is with great excitement that I announce Koorong’s acquisition of eight Wesley Owen retail stores, wesleyowen.com and Authentic Publishing. The stores will continue to trade under the Wesley Owen brand. The publishing company will continue to use the Authentic and Paternoster imprints. We are all very excited about this development, but a little daunted by the work involved.” Paul Bootes, Managing Director.
The Wesley Owen stores purchased are located in Glasgow, York, Coleraine, Bath, Birmingham, Bromley, Derby and Bristol. The next few months will be busy as we settle into our new role in the UK and join with the staff and management to continue and expand this high street Christian ministry and web store wesleyowen.com. We look forward to the future with our new team in the UK as we remain committed to spreading God’s Word and building up the body of Christ by offering an extensive range of Christian books, Bibles, music, software, DVDs, gifts and more at the best prices.
WesleyOwen.com will continue to be one of the leading Christian e-commerce websites in the UK. Customers can continue to place orders with confidence. Service and availability will improve greatly during 2010, and we are looking forward to new and exciting developments to the site.