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 AUSTRALIA
FRANCHISE NEWS ARCHIVE
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: : Jan-Jun 2000
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Retail sales stay flat for third month in row. Australian
retail sales remained flat for the third consecutive month, according
to the Byvan-Australian Financial Review retail sales index for May.
.... 29/6/00
Pizza war's first casualty. They take cheese
very seriously in the pizza game. So seriously, in fact, that Pizza
Hut and rival Domino's have become embroiled in a bitter battle over
just which chain has the most cheese - and meat - on their pizzas.
.... 29/6/00
Century 21 to launch in Asia. The Australian arm of
the global real estate chain Century 21 is extending its project marketing
business, with plans to launch into Asia in the next three months.
.... 28/6/00
E-tailer links to BP for parcel pick-up. The fledgling
e-tailer, wishlist.com.au, has struck a landmark $5 million deal with
BP Australia to enable customers to pick up parcels from BP petrol
stations in all major cities. .... 28/6/00
Harvey World Travel keeps franchisees on side and on net. Funnelling
resources away from the traditional network and into online sales
is rarely welcomed by a franchise owner so when retail travel company,
Harvey World Travel, listed on the ASX in December, fresh internet
funding was high in the company's mind. .... 27/6/00
Rod gets the bun's rush from 'feudal' McDonald's. Fast-food
giant McDonald's ran a "feudal empire" under which its Australian
arm tried to force out a Melbourne franchisee for blowing the whistle
on the franchise system, the Victorian Supreme Court heard yesterday.
.... 27/6/00
INTEREST - TheSpot looks to have sunk into David Jones' locker.
Online retail pioneer TheSpot is believed to have joined the
dot com casualty list, falling into the hands of "bricks and mortar"
retailer David Jones after the withdrawal of major shareholder, f2
Investments. .... 23/6/00
Retail confidence takes a GST dip. Australia's leading
retailers are less optimistic than they were six months ago, according
to the just released Survey of Retailer Sentiment from Jones Lang
LaSalle. .... 22/6/00
Freedom finds an MD inside the square. Furniture retailer
Freedom Group has promoted retail director Mr Rod Walker to managing
director, ending a three-month search to replace Mr Barry Scott. ....
21/6/00
Retailers look to tough times. Confidence among Australia's
retailers has collapsed in the wake of rising interest rates, price
increases, the introduction of the GST and the prospect of a post-Olympics
sales slowdown. .... 19/6/00
GPG suspected of stalking Freedom. Speculation has
intensified that a corporate predator is building a position on the
register of beleaguered furniture retailer Freedom Group Ltd, with
volumes in the stock surging over the past seven trading sessions.
.... 19/6/00
Aussie isn't for sale, says founder. Aussie Home Loans
managing director Mr John Symond has scotched industry rumours that
he is preparing to sell the business, while conceding the company
will need to review its capital structure in the next year. .... 16/6/00
Shopping centres 'good for small business'. Australia's
shopping centre industry, with $34 billion worth of malls and supermarkets
across the country, attracted $50 billion in retail sales last year
to capture 40 per cent of the nation's total retail turnover. ....
16/6/00
It's no go for Gohs in bid to lift Rebel stake. Singapore's
Goh brothers will pursue other options to bolster their stake in Rebel
Sport after withdrawing from a deal which would have handed them a
38 per cent holding in the sporting goods retailer. .... 15/6/00
Harvey Norman holds big hopes for Slovenia store. Retailer
Harvey Norman plans to use Slovenia as the base for its push into
Europe over the next five to ten years. .... 12/6/00
Don't underestimate the enemy, Gerry. Gently humming
Gerry Harvey's theme song while browsing the great man's Web site
in search of a Toshiba Satellite 2650 W98 Notebook computer, I noticed
a curious anomaly: Gerry wanted $5,199 for his laptop. .... 7/6/00
Sizzling electricals defy trend. Electrical goods merchants,
led by Harvey Norman, are enjoying "extremely strong" trading conditions
in defiance of both soft demand in the broader retail sector and an
anticipated sharp decline in sales in the lead-up to the GST. ....
5/6/00
Goh initiative clouds Rebel's best profit. Rebel
Sport has issued its best annual profit since listing seven years
ago but the result failed to distract large investors from their attempts
to stop Singapore's Goh brothers from acquiring a major stake in the
retailer. .... 3/6/00
There's plenty more in store at Harvey Norman. While
Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd's core business of selling computers, furniture
and electrical goods continues to boom, the retailer has not been
resting on its laurels. .... 3/6/00
The tax time bomb that could destroy John Howard and Peter Costello.
Lyall Howard did not need an Australian Business Number to
operate his service station in the Sydney suburb of Dulwich Hill.
.... 3/6/00
Retailers can shop around for e-tailers. Yesterday's
slow-moving bricks-and-mortar retailers are set to become tomorrow's
winners as e-tailers struggling to survive the fallout of the dot
com crash prepare to sell up. .... 30/5/00
Fels, Video Ezy star in GST court clash. Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Dr Allan Fels strongly
warned businesses against price rises not directly related to the
GST as he launched a court action on Friday against Video Ezy for
alleged price exploitation. .... 27/5/00
Cyber store looks at getting physical. Online retailer
dstore expects to branch out into owning physical stores this year
as part of its multi-channel approach and predicts it will turn a
profit from its core business by mid-2002. .... 26/5/00
INTEREST - Boo's demise sent shock waves through dot.coms. BOO.COM's
collapse last Friday has Irish dotcom directors chewing the ends of
their pens, and analysts expect further casualties as Darwinian law
applies itself to the burgeoning sector in the near future. .... 26/5/00
Easter fails to ignite retail sales. National retail
sales continued to disappoint in April, despite the month benefiting
from the impact of Easter. .... 25/5/00
Book sellers prepare to take on the Amazon. Two local
Internet retailers are preparing to tackle US book site Amazon.com's
dominance of Australian sales by expanding their supply of titles
and linking with well-known bricks-and-mortar brands. .... 19/5/00
Book site opens trans-Tasman chapter. Amazon.com has
emerged with a strategic stake in an ambitious online book play that
will span the Tasman after the merger of Australian e-tailer TheSpot
and New Zealand internet "supersite" FlyingPig. .... 19/5/00
Dymocks wins fight for site. Dymocks Holdings, franchisor
of about 80 Dymocks Booksellers stores, has won a Supreme Court declaration
that it owns the loss-making Web site dymocks.com and its franchisees
have no share in it. .... 16/5/00
Dymocks' e-tail plan brought to book. Dymocks Holdings
has been told by the NSW Supreme Court to pay substantial damages
to three franchisees it has cut out of its internet business ahead
of a planned initial public offering. .... 16/5/00
Freedom expects leaner half. Furniture retailer Freedom
Group expects recent interest rate rises and waning consumer spending
to slow sales and earnings growth during the company's second half.
.... 11/5/00
Three agencies punt on AFG mortgages. Three
of Australia's largest residential real estate agencies - Century
21, PRD Realty and Nationwide Realty - have decided to help sell mortgages
through agreements with one of Australia's largest mortgage wholesalers,
Australian Finance Group. .... 8/5/00
Sale time as shops battle the elements. Early warning
signs that the economy has dropped a couple of gears have started
to appear in shopfronts around the country, with sale signs being
plastered across store windows as retailers embark on strategies to
lift generally flat sales. .... 2/5/00
Dymocks, franchisees in ad dispute. Dymocks' attempts
to advertise and sell books over the Web have been a failure, losing
$632,000 since its site was set up in 1997, and it wants its 90-odd
franchisees to help defray the cost, arguing that the site provides
advertising which benefits them all. .... 18/4/00
Dymocks goes to court on website rights. The nation's
largest bookseller, Dymocks, has sought a court order cutting its
franchisees out of its website ahead of a proposed float of the internet
business. .... 18/4/00
Franchisees and shaky market threaten CBA bid. The value
of Commonwealth Bank's $9 billion bid for Colonial is under question,
with concerns about the impact of any fall in the sharemarket and
fears that CBA will not be able to retain Colonial State Bank's franchisees.
.... 17/4/00
Retailers lose site of net potential. Many Australian
retailers are focusing too much of their information technology investment
on business-to-consumer (B2C) sales drives when they could make more
profits by using IT to enhance the value of their existing assets,
including property, according to a visiting retail expert from the
US. .... 11/4/00
Goh brothers take Rebel route to dstore. Speculation
is rife that the Singapore-based Goh brothers intend to either seek
a merger with online department store, dstore, or make a play for
the group. .... 11/4/00
Harvey Norman success always nicely surprises. With
a certain amount of perversity investors have greeted almost all of
Harvey Norman's usually spectacular sales and profit numbers with
an impending sense of dread. .... 7/4/00
Rebel slice could be on the Goh. The category-killer
retailer Rebel Sport is set to come under the control of Singapore
investors if its shareholders approve a deal that would let Sussan
Corp sell out of the company. .... 5/4/00
Colonial's franchisees face a deal of uncertainty. The
continuity of franchising agreements struck between Colonial Ltd and
87 operators of its branch network is up in the air as a result of
the proposed merger deal with Commonwealth Bank of Australia. ....
3/4/00
Key up for grabs in hotel lockout. When the managing
director of Radisson Hotels & Resorts gets locked out of a meeting
in his own hotel, you know something is wrong. .... 1/4/00
Luxury homes have high price tag for Games. Companies
such as Reebok, IBM, McDonald's and Telstra will spend up to $100,000
each a week to accommodate their executives during the Sydney Olympics,
most lengthening their stay to five weeks. .... 20/3/00
Net retailers 'don't have a hope.' Harvey Norman Holdings
Ltd chairman Gerry Harvey yesterday poured cold water on Internet
retailing in Australia, saying his company's online sales were disappointing
so far. .... 20/3/00
Harvey predicts e-collapse. In two television
interviews, he also said the company's fledgling internet operations
were not performing as well as hoped. He predicted the collapse of
most so-called "e-tailers". .... 20/3/00
Booming Harvey Norman ready to double size. Harvey Norman
has set itself a rigorous program of store openings across Australia
and Asia that could double the company's current size by 2005. ....
15/3/00
Harvey gets going on profit boost. Shares in Harvey
Norman Holdings Ltd yesterday surged 6.4 per cent after it reported
a 58.9 per cent jump in interim net profit and indicated full-year
sales growth from franchised Harvey Norman stores and the group's
own trading would at least meet its 15 per cent target. .... 15/3/00
Stores corner the time poor. Remember the corner shop?
Today, the convenience store is staging a comeback, though with giants
like Woolworths and Coles chasing the just-in-time buyer, the outlets
are far more sophisticated than a generation ago. .... 11/3/00
Analysts puzzled as Freedom's Scott quits. Freedom
Furniture's managing director, Mr Barry Scott, has quit the company,
leaving abruptly to pursue "new personal commercial interests". ....
11/3/00
Marriott leads running for Surfers resort. The aggressive
US hotelier is understood to have ousted Singaporean investor Mr C.K.Ow
and British-bankrolled Hilton International from the bidding fray
on the 330-room hotel. .... 9/3/00
The miracle is starting to fray at the edges.
The slide in retail sales in December and January suggests, beyond
reasonable doubt, that the economy peaked in late 1999 and is on track
for a slowdown in 2000. .... 2/3/00
Hard sell against the death penalty. Is Benetton's
death row "catalogue" social commentary or crass advertising? ....
1/3/00
Harvey spreads wings up north. Aggressive retailer
Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd is bolstering its Brisbane presence with
a string of new outlets, including its first CBD store in the country.
.... 24/2/00
A ritzy deal for Mr Ow. Singaporean hotel magnate Mr
C.K. Ow has completed his purchase of Sydney's Ritz-Carlton hotel
and is rumoured to be in the running for the purchase of the Marriott
Surfers Paradise. .... 15/2/00
Locals out to make big starbucks. North America's largest
coffee shop chain, Starbucks, has signed up with Australian partner
Mr Markus Hofer and will open its first outlet in the next few months.
.... 13/2/00
Retailers urge clarity on price tags. Retailers demanded
yesterday that the Federal Government urgently clarify its policy
on the display of "before and after" prices during the transition
to the GST. .... 9/2/00
Bass basks in its added regional firepower. Bass Hotels
and Resorts' $315 million acquisition last month of Australia's second-largest
hotelier, SPHC Group, didn't raise many eyebrows in the local industry.
.... 9/2/00
McDonald's Fined Over Resteraunt Death. McDonald's
has been fined £106,000 after an employee was electrocuted in one
of its Australian restaurants. .... 4/2/00
Marks Spencer puts paid to staid. Struggling British
retailer Marks & Spencer will shed its dowdy past and unveil sleek
new storefronts that change by night and day as part of an extensive
image overhaul, people close to the company say. .... 8/2/00
Pizza Express Tops Up Profits. A serving of extra restaurants
helped Pizza Express report a strong set of half yearly results with
profits and sales both ahead by around 15%. .... 7/2/00
Sour notes ruin Eck's symphony. Harvey Norman is cruising
along, David Jones seems to have finally begun to show signs of a
better-than-usual sales performance and Woolworths is also sailing
along well. .... 4/2/00
Freedom has never had it better. Strong consumer spending
and acquisitions boosted Freedom Furniture's sales 54 per cent in
the first quarter. .... 1/2/00
Can't trust the chook? That's betrayal, Colonel. Starbucks
Corp. said earnings for its fiscal first quarter will exceed earlier
expectations. The Seattle-based company, which operates or licenses
nearly 2,700 coffee shops worldwide, expects. .... 27/1/00
Retail sales up 4.7pc. Retail sales grew 4.7 per cent
in December, driven by the success of department stores in repositioning
themselves for survival in Australia's intensely competitive retail
market. .... 27/1/00
Colonial's retailers ring up the sales. Christmas was
kind to Colonial First State Property Group, with the newly merged
vehicle's retail assets turning in strong sales growth. .... 22/1/00
Amway can see the benefits of moving its network online. Global
network marketing company Amway will launch an Australian website
in April to squeeze further value from its warehousing operations,
president Mr Dick DeVos said yesterday. .... 19/1/00
Harvey soars on sales high. Shares in Harvey Norman
Holdings continued to sprint higher yesterday, after the retailer's
announcement of record half-year sales on Friday. .... 18/1/00
Five-star Marriott Surfers next on the shopping list.
If you're already committed to spending $317 million, what's
another $65 million?. .... 18/1/00
Bass checks into hotel chain. United Kingdom-based
Bass Hotels and Resorts has signed up for the £128 million ($315 million)
acquisition of rival hotelier SPHC Group, as consolidation continues
to sweep the hotel industry. .... 18/1/00
Good start for Harvey Norman. Robust Christmas spending
underpinned by a buoyant economy helped power Harvey Norman Holdings
Ltd to a 21.3 per cent increase in first-half sales, setting the scene
for a solid reporting season for Australia's retailers. .... 15/1/00
Mortgage Choice to go for insurance. Fast-growing home
loan broker Mortgage Choice is preparing to expand its brokering service
into other financial products, starting with insurance. .... 12/1/00
New Poland takes on the West's focus: capitalism.
"Spotkajmy sie w McDonald's!' reads the distinctive red and yellow
banner stretched across Warsaw's central railway station. ("Let's
meet at McDonald's.") .... 9/1/00
David Lawrence fits into jigsaw. The company
that brought the UK-based Jigsaw women's fashion label to Australia,
M Webster Holdings Pty Ltd, has boosted its retail presence with the
acquisition of the David Lawrence store network from the failed Sportsgirl
Sportscraft Group Pty Ltd. .... 5/1/00
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