Secret BSR meeting likely to secure Retravision defections

By James Wells

SYDNEY: Betta Stores Retail (BSR) franchise manager, Patrick Tynan, has confirmed that a secret meeting attended by over 10 Retravision stores in New South Wales is likely to result in at least one store defecting by the end of the week.

“I can confirm a meeting with some Retravision dealers two weeks ago in Sydney,” Tynan told Current.com.au

“The meeting was run by BSR and was attended by myself, BSR general manager – Ian Brown and our IT and training manager – Shane Harris. It was an open invitation to more than 10 stores and if the stores wished to, they could attend.

“The meeting ran for almost a full day and discussed the structure of BSR as well as the issues affecting independent retailers in today’s market and the available options,” he said.

Tynan confirmed that there were in excess of 10 retailers who attended the meeting, but he would not comment on whether these members had signed an Interim Licensing Agreement, thereby joining either ‘Retravision Northern’ based in Queensland which also services the top half of New South Wales, or the new ‘Retravision Southern’ based in Victoria which services the lower half of New South Wales as well as Victoria and Tasmania.

“There was a fair bit of empathy for our group, as our members had similar experiences to what they had. We openly said that we could not fulfill all the options, but we could fulfill some options for them," said Tynan.

“We presented our case and went through options available for independent retailers and then conducted a full live demonstration of our IT system.

“The feedback we got from the Retravision dealers was that our offer actually fulfils three of the most basic needs for independent retailers – a national brand for them to market under, a market leading IT system and a group with an extremely low cost base."

Current.com.au understands that at least one Retravision retailer will join the BSR group by the end of the week, with another two rumoured.

Tynan said he is undertaking a lot of follow-up with the stores at the moment, but is not confident of a 100 per cent success rate.

“Of all the stores there, we don’t expect them all to join, but we expect some to join," he said.

“We respected their decision to come to the meeting and they did what all professional business people should do – explore an option that is open to them.”