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Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Retail (Specialty) Pop-up Retail Bookstores Online shopping |
Founded | 1998 |
Defunct | February 2011 [1] |
Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
Owner | Pacific Equity Partners |
Number of employees | 2,500 [1] |
Divisions | Borders (Asia Pacific) Angus & Robertson Whitcoulls |
Website | redgroupretail.com |
REDgroup Retail was the former parent (private equity) company of the Australian and New Zealand divisions of Borders. It also owned other retail entities such as Angus & Robertson in Australia and Whitcoulls in New Zealand.
REDgroup Retail also owned a number of specialty retail stores such as the Pop-up Retail chain, the Calendar Club in Australia and New Zealand along with the Supanews chain. [2]
REDgroup Retail went into administration in 2011. Angus & Robertson and Borders Australia stores were closed or sold; the names and websites were sold to Pearson. [3] Whitcoulls was sold to the James Pascoe Group.
Borders is a book and stationery retailer operating in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates by the Al Maya Group. It was founded in the United States in 1971 by brothers Tom and Louis Borders, who opened their first bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
WH Smith PLC, trading as WHSmith, is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery.
The Warehouse Group (TWG) was established by Stephen Tindall in 1982 and is the largest retail group in operation in New Zealand. It is a corporate conglomerate that consists of The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery and Noel Leeming.
Dick Smith Electronics Holdings Limited was an Australian chain of retail stores that sold consumer electronics goods, hobbyist electronic components, and electronic project kits. The chain expanded successfully into New Zealand and unsuccessfully into several other countries. The company was founded in Sydney in 1968 by Dick Smith and owned by him and his wife until they sold 60% to Woolworths in 1980, and the remaining 40% two years later.
Habitat is a brand of household furnishings in the United Kingdom and the main homewares brand within the Sainsbury's group.
Go-Lo was a chain of Australian discount variety stores with hundreds of stores throughout Australia. It was part of the largest discount retailer group in Australia. It was owned by Jan Cameron's Retail Adventures along with Sam's Warehouse, Crazy Clark's and Chickenfeed stores.
Oporto Holdings Pty Ltd is an Australian fast food restaurant franchise with a Portuguese theme. Oporto specialises in Portuguese style chicken and burgers. It is a owned by parent investment firm PAG Asia Capital, which also owns the Red Rooster and Chicken Treat restaurant chains.
Farmers Trading Company Ltd is a New Zealand mid-market department store chain. Headquartered in Flat Bush, Auckland, Farmers operates 59 stores across New Zealand, specialising in family fashion, beauty, homewares, furniture, large appliances and whiteware.
Angus & Robertson (A&R) is a major Australian bookseller, publisher and printer. As book publishers, A&R has contributed substantially to the promotion and development of Australian literature. The brand currently exists as an online shop owned by online bookseller Booktopia. The Angus & Robertson imprint is still seen in books published by HarperCollins, a News Corporation company.
DSG Holdings Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Discount Superstores Group was a discount variety retailer in Australia, formed in 2013 following the liquidation of former company Retail Adventures. It owned the Sam's Warehouse and Crazy Clark's brands, operating 143 stores. It is owned by Australian-New Zealand businesswoman Jan Cameron. It was announced on 1 July 2014 that the chain has entered receivership for the fourth time in 8 years.
Whitcoulls is a major New Zealand book, stationery, gift, games and toy retail chain. Formerly known as Whitcombe & Tombs, it has 54 stores nationally. Whitcombe & Tombs was founded in 1888, and Coulls Somerville Wilkie in 1871. The companies merged in 1971 to form Whitcoulls.
Brashs, formerly Braschs, was an Australian music and electronics retailer. It was founded in 1862 by German Australian Marcus Brasch. The C in the name was dropped during World War I due to anti-Germanic feeling. In addition, the pronunciation of the 'a' was anglicised. The first store in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne specialised in pianos and reed organs and remained the company's flag-ship store until the group's demise. For the latter half of the 19th century and all through the 20th, Brashs remained a leading music house although Victorian-wide expansion did not begin until the mid-1950s and interstate 30 years later, through a combination of acquisitions and new store openings. This resulted in over 100 stores in all states and territories.
Borders was a US-based bookseller, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia that also specialized in CDs, DVDs, calendars, stationery, gift packs and related merchandising in the Pacific area of Asia and Australasia. It had stores internationally in New Zealand and Australia. All of the stores also were fitted with Gloria Jeans Coffees cafés. The company was the Asia-pacific franchisee of the US bookseller of the American Borders, but was sold off in 2007 and licensed the Borders brandname for its remaining years.
Sam's Warehouse was an Australian brand of discount retail stores, similar to Crazy Clark's. It was founded in 2008 after The Warehouse sold its Australian operations to Australian Discount Retail, and the stores were required to be re-branded.
Chickenfeed was a chain of discount retail stores in Australia, founded in 1990 in Tasmania by the prominent Sypkes family. At its height it had roughly 44 stores in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales. It was taken over by Australian Discount Retail Group in 2001, and the brand was discontinued after the parent company went into receivership. It currently has no stores remaining in Australia.
The James Pascoe Ltd Group of Companies is a privately owned New Zealand retail group with holdings across New Zealand and Australia. JPG owns and operates chains Pascoes the Jewellers, Stewart Dawsons and Goldmark ; department store Farmers ; homeware retailer Stevens; and bookshop Whitcoulls in New Zealand. The group's three Australian businesses are jewellers Prouds the Jewellers, Angus & Coote and Goldmark, with over 460 stores across Australia as of 2012. Goldmark is the only brand operating in both countries.
Pie Face is an Australian food chain which predominantly sells pies, sausage rolls and coffee. It was founded in 2003 in Sydney, Australia, by Wayne Homschek. Following a period of rapid growth in Australia and overseas, the company entered administration in 2014 and the majority of the chain's stores closed. In April 2017, it was acquired by United Petroleum. Between 2018 and 2020, Pie Face opened over 200 locations across Australia. As of December 2020, Pie Face operated 240 locations.
City Chic Collective (CCC), founded as Miller's Retail in 1992, and rebranded in December 2006 to Specialty Fashion Group, is an Australian retail clothing company. It is headquartered in the Sydney suburb of Alexandria. As of January 2024, the company operates 90 stores in Australia and New Zealand, and a global online store. City Chic stores specialise in plus-sized women's clothing.
Retailing in New Zealand is an important sector in the economy of New Zealand, as a channel for a large proportion of household spending and international visitor spending.