Briscoe drops Stirling idea

Briscoe Group will not proceed with plans to buy the Stirling Sports franchise after franchisees spurned the deal it offered.

Briscoe managing director Rod Duke said yesterday the company was now actively seeking sites in the provinces for more of its own Rebel Sport stores.

"The competitive landscape is neutral," he said.

"They [Stirling Sports] have always been there as competition and I expect that, in the future, they still will be there as competition.

"But I am free now to open up a whole range of smaller units in the provinces."

Briscoe, which has the 20-store Rebel Sport chain as well as the Briscoes homeware stores, disclosed plans to buy Stirling in March.

But the deal was always conditional on attracting agreement from an undisclosed number of Stirling Sports franchise holders by Friday's deadline.

Duke said he believed that, overall, the terms of the new agreement were more attractive than the previous deal. But he failed to convince the franchisees running Stirling Sports' 32 stores. "Without a franchise agreement that reflects marketplace practices, it is simply not worth jeopardising our roll-out strategy by the inclusion of Stirling Sports," he said.

Briscoe now planned to expand Rebel Sport by modifying its present format to suit urban shopping malls and smaller cities, as well as look at more viable franchise options.

The company would also look at opportunities to buy existing independent sports retailers to re-brand as Rebel Sport.

Duke said the new strategy would cost a little more, but would also allow Briscoe to keep more profit. But the "instant access" the Stirling Sports chain had offered was gone.

Shares in the Briscoe Group closed down 1c yesterday to $1.22.