Briscoe Group to buy Stirling Sports franchise

Briscoe Group, which runs the Rebel Sports brand in New Zealand, said today it had agreed to buy the Stirling Sports franchise and Franchise Investments Ltd.

Franchise Investments is in receivership.Briscoe said it planned to become the franchisor of the 32 store chain of sporting goods stores and would maintain the brand alongside the 20 store Rebel brand.

The agreement is conditional on vendor shareholder approvals and on obtaining commitments from a significant number of the existing Stirling franchisees to enter into a new franchise agreement.

The satisfaction (or otherwise) of these conditions is expected to be determined within two months, Briscoe said.

Under the terms agreed, the consideration for the transaction will not be disclosed until the sale and purchase agreement becomes unconditional.

Briscoe will in due course pay cash for the business.

Stirling was caught up late last year in the collapse of The Building Depot which was owned by listed company RetailX, which also had a management contract for Stirling Sports. That contract was terminated in October.

The Stirling Sports chain generated approximately $40 million of sales for the year to July 2004 when there were 38 stores and its peak the chain had over 50 stores with sales in excess of $50m.

Briscoe managing director Rod Duke said Rebel with $100m of sales annually was the clear leader in the sporting goods retail market.

He said Briscoe could enhance the Stirling brand in areas such as advertising, product sourcing, financial systems, property management, human resources and loss prevention.

He said initial feedback from Stirling franchisees had been constructive.

The deal would allow Briscoe to implement its plan to expand outside the metropolitan ares using the smaller format Stirling stores.

"We see potential for further growth for Stirling Sports in areas that are not already serviced," he said.

"Stirling Sports is well known and fits well as a smaller format partner alongside Rebel Sport in the sporting goods market."

Briscoe shares last traded at $1.18 having traded between $1.05 and $1.58 in the last year.

- NZPA