Co-Op Bookshop’s Curious Planet retail chain to close

Sixty-three Curious Planet stores will shut because no buyer could be found after the collapse of owner Co-op Bookshop.

Curious Planet formerly operated under the name Australian Geographic.

The malaise gripping the nation’s $320 billion retail sector has claimed another victim with voluntary administrators for the educational bookshop the Co-Op Bookshop unable to find a buyer for its Curious Planet arm.

The university-linked Co-Op Bookshop, owner of the Curious Planet scientific stores once known as Australian Geographic, entered voluntary administration in November 2019.

Now, the 63 retail stores and business associated with the Curious Planet brand are set to c lose over the next eight weeks.

Hopes remain, however, that a buyer can be found for the chain of university bookshops.

It follows a spate of recent retail collapses including department store Harris Scarfe, gaming retailer EB Games and fashion chain Bardot.

The University Co-operative Bookshop Limited appointed administrators Phil Carter, Andrew Scott and Daniel Walley of PwC late last year as the company struggled under the weight of $15 million of debts on its books and a tough trading environment, especially in the book industry.

In addition to the university bookshop arm, the firm also owns 63 Curious Planet stores - a well-known educational retailer previously known as Australian Geographic and My Geographic. That branch of the business was originally founded and launched in 1985 by multi-millionaire Dick Smith, whose own Dick Smith electronics stores collapsed into voluntary administration five years ago when the chain was floated on the ASX by its then private equity owners.

The Australian Geographic chain and related business was purchased by the Co-op Bookshop parent company from Myer Family Investments in 2016.

In a statement, the administrators of the University Co-operative Bookshop Limited advised that, following a comprehensive sale campaign, there had been no viable offers received to date to purchase the Curious Planet stores.

As a result, staff have been informed that the progressive closure of the Curious

Planet store network will take place over the next six to eight weeks.

Administrator Andrew Scott, of PwC, said no offer had emerged to buy the collapsed group.

“A number of discussions have been held and are still ongoing with interested parties, however, no acceptable offer to purchase some or all the Curious Planet store network has been forthcoming. While we remain open to offers from potential purchasers, we have no option at this time but to commence the orderly closure of the stores.”

“We have continued to trade the Curious Planet stores during the Christmas shopping season

and intend to keep the stores open in the immediate term to ensure that consumers have the

opportunity to purchase discounted items that are currently on sale.”

The planned closures of the Curious Planet stores did not impact the sale process for the Co-op Bookshop business, which was at an advanced stage, he added.

All employee entitlements are expected to be met, although the timing of payment could not be determined with certainty at this stage, PwC said.

When the Co-op Bookshop company first entered voluntary administration in November its chairman Joe Merhi testified to the difficult trading conditions.

“The combination of weak retail trading figures coming up to Christmas and the collapse of ‘over the counter text book’ sales by over 40 per cent from last year, has left the board with no alternative but to appoint a voluntary administrator to help this proud organisation through this period of time, leading up to Christmas,’’ he said at the time.

“The Co-op, founded in 1958, has a proud history of serving its members which now number close to two million Australians, but the massive decline in the purchase of textbooks has meant that the board need to diligently and proactively address the potential risks of trading in the Christmas period.”