UlsterNet.co.uk

Final chapter for Wesley Owen?

Thursday, 9 February 2012

Wesley Owen bookstore in Coleraine.

FEARS are growing this week for the future of the Wesley Owen Christian bookshop in Coleraine.
The parent company of the popular Railway Road store has announced that it may close the majority of its high street bookshops.
The chain made the announcement last week, claiming digital and online growth had overtaken the business and that at best, there would be "maybe two or three stores left."
Indeed, closure of the Bath and Bristol branches last weekend marked the beginning of the end of the once booming high-street business, with 18 jobs lost.
It is thought a further 15 employees are currently in consultation about the future of their jobs.
Coleraine's Wesley Owen outlet traded for years at the top of Railway Road under the name 'Mizpah', before moving to its current location opposite the leisure centre.
Here, it has successfully traded under the Wesley Owen name and sells a wide range of books, DVDs, cards and other items.
Wesley Owen's retail director, Steve Mitchell, said the chain planned to "significantly reduce its high street presence."
“Making the decision to do this has been as hard as decisions get," he said. "It is partly to do with the economic position, but even if we had waited until the economy got better it is a brave man to bet against the online business which is so rapidly growing.
Online
“We have seen our online business growing significantly - 3-400% in the last two years - and we recently started selling e-books and that has taken off rapidly too."
The eight UK stores, in Coleraine, Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, Bromley, Derby, Glasgow and York are owned by Australian business Koorong. They were previously purchased, along with Authentic Book Publishing, in December 2009, after Wesley Owen's parent company IBS-STL went into administration.
A number of other Wesley Owen shops were picked up by Living Oasis, which has since collapsed, with CLC International (UK) buying a further six stores.
Mr Mitchell said it was possible that some of the stores may now be sold off to individual buyers, but that it would be weeks before there would be any news of developments in this respect.
Meanwhile, he told suppliers that following a review of their retail chain, Wesley Owen had "decided to focus primarily on the online and digital areas of its business."
He added: "We have valued and committed staff teams and as far as possible we wish to protect jobs and the local ministry.
“We have been working to see if these stores can be passed into new hands and it is our view that the charity or independent model is now the best option to maintain physical Christian stores."

Subscribe to read full newspaper »

Send this page to a friend »