Whitcoulls, Borders contracts

Will Whitcoulls Lambton Quay be trading on 31 January 2012? [www.ipredict.co.nz]

Will Whitcoulls Queen Street be trading on 31 January 2012? [www.ipredict.co.nz]

Will Borders Lambton Quay be trading on 31 January 2012? [www.ipredict.co.nz]

Will Borders Queen Street be trading on 31 January 2012? [www.ipredict.co.nz]

What a classic contract. Definitely getting into this once i get some more liquidity

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4834628/Whitcoulls-stores-safe-from-closure

New Zealand Book Retailers Sold



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2011 03:50AM by mrh.

[www.stuff.co.nz]

Quote
The stores - five in Auckland, two in Wellington and Christchurch and one in Rotorua - were to be renamed under the new owner's Relay brand.

In this case this stock seems great for shorting at over 80c.

This stock says to close at $1 it needs to have the word Whitcoulls in the name.

Relay? or Whitcoulls Relay? Thats the question...

I assume "Relay" will be the name used. Yet I can't find any information on this brand.

Read the article more carefully. It is talking about the 10 airport stores that are being renamed to Relay, not the general Whitcoulles and Borders chain. These stores were sold last month, and the renaming has been publicised before now.

Initially I had the same interpretation as you - slack writing on the part of the journal.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2011 04:00AM by Lanthanide.

Oh yes I see now - They have since totally update the article.

When they say "The stores - five in Auckland, two in Wellington and Christchurch and one in Rotorua - were to be renamed under the new owner's Relay brand " Its rather confusing as I know they don't have two in Wellington Airport and Five in Auckland.. lol.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2011 09:36PM by rotamota.

"The new New Zealand owners of the Whitcoulls and Borders bookstores have confirmed they will retain the iconic Whitcoulls name but are less certain about the ailing Borders brand."

[www.stuff.co.nz]

Whenever I visit Borders in NZ and Whitcoulls, I love my Kindle. I have this thing for reasonable prices.

''The Borders stores are likely to be rebranded to a larger format Whitcoulls store. It is envisaged that these stores will combine the strength of the Borders offer with the strengths of Whitcoulls.''

[www.stuff.co.nz]

On Morning Report this morning (about 8:50am), they had a short interview with a big-wig at the new owners.

The Whitcoulles on Lampton Quay will be shut down "early next year" and the Borders will be re-branded as Whitcoulles.

Lanthanide Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> On Morning Report this morning (about 8:50am),
> they had a short interview with a big-wig at the
> new owners.
>
> The Whitcoulles on Lampton Quay will be shut down
> "early next year" and the Borders will be
> re-branded as Whitcoulles.

Now it's all a question of timing.

I wonder how the license to use the Borders brand works, and whether there is any financial incentive to stop using it as soon as possible.

It's beyond me why the Borders stock is rising. Booksellers have a traditional quiet patch in January, before the stationary sales in February. Seems like January, after the Christmas/Boxing Day/New Year sales and before the back to school sales, is the perfect time to switch the brands "early next year".

mjm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's beyond me why the Borders stock is rising.
> Booksellers have a traditional quiet patch in
> January, before the stationary sales in February.
> Seems like January, after the Christmas/Boxing
> Day/New Year sales and before the back to school
> sales, is the perfect time to switch the brands
> "early next year".


yes your right....but after xmas,new years sales. late feb....march are logical times for re branding. especially just before march 31st. write down costs....depreciate capital in following year. depending on their balance date of course.

Borders in Chch closing on August 11th. Not officially released to the press yet.

[newsbankruptcy.wordpress.com]

Recent sale of Borders trademarks to Pearsons may signal some necessary action ??

If by 'action' you mean closing the stocks, no, not until the names of the listed stores actually change.

Also I think Borders internationally is a distinctly separate company from Borders in NZ, so any trademarks being sold by the international company probably have no impact on NZ operations. Borders has been going down the plughole in the US for several years now but the NZ stores were relatively unaffected until the whole buyout happened.

I just meant action relating to the decision to change the store names. The article cites the sale of NZ and AU IP to Pearson's who bought the online arm of Borders in the sell off.

Wow, someone got wind of something at 5pm about Borders Wellington... but not Auckland?

Damn, wish I'd picked up on that.... guess this stock will be closing soon.

[joan-druett.blogspot.com]

maxb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Damn, wish I'd picked up on that.... guess this
> stock will be closing soon.
>
> [joan-druett.blogspot.com]
> tamorphoses-into-whitcoulls.html


Hmmm, me too. I've been out of Welly today, and yesterday I caught the bus at the end of Lambton Quay rather than my usual stop outside Farmers...

The stock unfortunately doesn't seem to have a provision for closing early at $0 except when the store permanently closes.

I don't think anyone would object to it closing early, though. I guess admin could contact management and enquire if the name change is intended to be permanent?

I suppose there's a 0.00001% chance they'll change the name back to borders before 31 January

Or the Normans sell it to WHSmith and rebrand it again.

Or they institute a lockout of their workers and we all have an argument about whether that means the contract closes at $0 or $1.

Or that the whole company and its owners are sunk by a giant ponzi scheme.

(This is fun.)

The contract is ambiguous on closing under these conditions (doesn't provide a rule either way) and I think it reasonable to close now unless there is an indication of a change back. To confirm.

Confirmed, no intention to change back (and open confusion at the question), contract closed at $0. Thanks for the heads up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2011 08:25PM by admin.

Looks like Borders on Lambton Quay has rebranded as Whitcoulls now. Don't know about Borders but Whitcoulls has in recent years done the big Boxing Day sale thing. Largely to offload the Christmas leftovers. Perhaps they will focus that sale in the non-Borders store and use the increased traffic to shift other sale items as well in preparation for a change.