By James Wells
BRISBANE: BSL franchisees have been participating in a teleconference this afternoon to hear from the two serious bidders for the BSL group – a consortium of retailers led by Everard Johnson and supported by Guy Houghton and the other led by the Leading Edge Group.
A message sent to members of the BSL Group over the weekend via the company’s intranet by receiver and manager, Phil Carter, advised that there would be a meeting of all members and associates at 2.30pm this afternoon via a conference call.
The main meeting has been held at the PricewaterhouseCoopers office located on Eagle Street in Brisbane, while conference call facilities have been operating in PricewaterhouseCoopers offices in Melbourne and Sydney.
Members and associates who were unable to attend either of the three locations were able to dial in to listen to the presentation.
In his statement to franchisees, Carter outlined the purpose of the meeting.
“To give me an opportunity to update Members and Associates directly of developments since my appointment as Receiver and Manager [and] to allow any party who has provided to me a detailed and fully funded proposal to acquire the business, to put that proposal to Members and Associates," he said.
“While I appreciate that this is short notice, I am very conscious of the need to resolve the uncertainty that currently exists out in the network. This meeting presents an opportunity for me to communicate with you and to discuss the best way to move forward from here in order to preserve the value of the Betta and Chandlers brands to allow Members and Associates to get back to business as usual.”
More details regarding the teleconference, which lasted for almost three hours, will be available in future Current.com.au newsletters.