By James Wells
MELBOURNE: Betta Stores Limited (BSL) announced the sale of three Melbourne stores to Clive Peeters.
According to a statement released by BSL late this afternoon, the three stores – Richmond Betta Electrical Superstore at 479 Bridge Street, Richmond, Betta Electrical Clearance Centre at 459 Bridge Street, Richmond and Greensborough Betta Electrical at 89 Grimshaw Street, Greensborough.
The stores are being sold as part of BSL’s strategy of divesting some of its company-owned stores to focus on its core franchising services.
“The agreement for the sale of the stores, which is subject to the landlords consenting to the assignment of the leases, was signed today and is expected to complete on 30 June, 2006.
BSL chief executive officer, Guy Houghton, said the three Melbourne stores sold to Clive Peeters attracted strong buyer interest given their high-profile locations.
“We have previously stated our intention to eventually sell some of the corporate owned stores and these sales to Clive Peeters shows this strategy in practice,” he said.
“The funds generated from the sales will be re-invested back into the BSL Group as part of our refocus on our core business of franchising. We are a franchisor and these sales highlight our commitment to focusing on our franchise services and our franchisees.”
Last week Clive Peeters announced it will open a third store in Sydney at Belrose in addition to two sites at Auburn and Casula which were previously Myer Megamart stores.
Earlier this month, BSL sold two Queensland superstores located at Aspley and Morayfield which turnover $16 million to existing group members – Ian Murden and Everard Johnson.