Johnson on his way to School St hoping to claim victory

By James Wells

BRISBANE: Everard Johnson travelled yesterday afternoon from his head office at Bundaberg to the School Street offices of BSL hopeful of claiming victory in the bidding war for the buying group’s franchise business by the end of the week.

Current.com.au spoke to Johnson’s business partner Ian Everard this afternoon who said that the consortium which has been managed from their offices in Bundaberg is confident of victory.

Johnson told Current.com.au that he has secured pledges from 95 BSL members which represents 130 shop fronts.

Johnson confirmed that an offer has been made to several BSL members in Western Australia by Retravision WA which is being considered at the moment and further meetings regarding this proposal have been scheduled this week.

Even with the Retravision WA counter-offer on the table, the retail consortium has secured pledges from seven BSL members in Western Australia.

Johnson has confirmed that the pledges from the 95 stores represents a bid for the business between $3 million and $4 million which was believed to be enough to secure the business. An average pledge made by a BSL member has been estimated to be between $30,000 and $40,000. 

As late as yesterday BSL receiver, Phil Carter of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who is representing the Commonwealth Bank said there was no progress in the bidding war and said the status of the transaction was “in lockdown mode”.

Johnson has confirmed the next stage of the bidding process involves arrangements regarding contract negotiations and that a buyer for the business is expected by the end of the week.