Jump to content

Pets Paradise In Receivership


Katdogs
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 128
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Was just talking to a friend of mine whose son works at a PP store in Brisbane. Apparently the head office in Wynnum closed down a few weeks ago? They are moving to online sales. I pray to God that means pet supplies and not live animals :(.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My tactic with pet shops is to talk quietly to people who look like they may be going to impulse buy a "cute" pup... I tell them some stories about the dogs we've had through our rescue, then tell them that there are heaps of rescue dogs/pups available through petrescue.com.au - at a MUCH cheaper price and with all vetwork, etc, done...

T.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ghastly? Because they were selling a Belgian shepherd and a dog was barking? OMG quick! Call the RSPCA! A dog was barking!!

Actually i did call the RSPCA once about pups in a pet store that were there for months growing up behind glass day and night only let out in a court yard for a short time each morning.One was a 7 month old border collie x who spent his day trying to jump up and out of his glass box.A 5 month old mastiff x who stared up at the corner of his box for hours .3x 15 week old Weimaraner x pups who spent thier day fighting with each other and chaseing thier tails.The RSPCA did nothing because they had food water and shelter.

Animals think and feel ,they are living intelligent creatures who should not be made to endure the mental torment of being on display in a Pet store.I hope i see the day when no animals are sold from pet stores.

This makes me feel ill :cry: I wonder what became of those pups :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My tactic with pet shops is to talk quietly to people who look like they may be going to impulse buy a "cute" pup... I tell them some stories about the dogs we've had through our rescue, then tell them that there are heaps of rescue dogs/pups available through petrescue.com.au - at a MUCH cheaper price and with all vetwork, etc, done...

T.

Yay! Snap T! One of my favourite lunch-time past-times was seeing how many potential pet-shop puppy buyers I could put off in half an hour! My record is 7...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pets Paradise has been placed into receivership after the Bank of Melbourne seized control of the ailing chain of 62 pet stores controlled by Gary Diamond.

The Bank of Melbourne, which is owed $11 million, yesterday appointed Deloitte as receivers to Pets Paradise, part of Diamond's Paradise Retail Holdings group.

Deloitte Restructuring Services partners Tim Norman, Sal Algeri and John Greig have been appointed as receivers and managers of a number of companies in the Pets Paradise and Billy Baxter's restaurants group of companies, which includes Pet Goods Direct and Pets R Fun.

The group has a workforce of 170 staff across its operations and Norman said stores operated by franchisees are not in receivership.

A creditors' meeting will occur shortly along with a sale of the businesses.

Both company-owned and franchised stores will continue to trade as normal, but receivers said company-operated Pets Paradise stores had been struggling for 18 months.

Here are the five events that triggered Pets Paradise's demise:

1. Slow retail environment

While the receivers are emphasising that it is still "early days" in the process, Deloitte has indicated the slow retail environment has played a significant role in the collapse of Pets Paradise.

"The group's financial distress has largely been caused by underperforming, company-operated stores and significant rental exposures from store closures over the last 18 months," said Norman.

2. $1.2 million debt to a franchisee

Last week, the Federal Court in South Australia appointed provisional liquidators to one of the companies in the group, Billy Baxter's (Franchising), after it failed to pay a franchisee $1.2 million in court-ordered damages.

Franchisees Ross and Sue Pollard sued Billy Baxter's over the failure of their Billy Baxter's franchise in the Adelaide suburb of Glenelg.

Billy Baxter's is part of the Paradise Retail Holdings group, which also operates Pets Paradise, Global Pet Products and Warner Bros' Australian retail operations.

The Pollards claimed Billy Baxter's representative Phillip Mauviel misled them about revenue and profit that could be made in the first year of operation. They claimed Mauviel induced them to enter into the franchise agreement by misleading and deceptive conduct, by projecting a $1.3 million turnover for the business.

3. Diamond's home is re-mortgaged by his lawyers

Fairfax has reported that land title records show Diamond's home, in the Melbourne suburb of Harkaway, is subject to a high-interest second mortgage taken out by his lawyers, Macpherson & Kelley.

Interest on the $60,000 loan is charged at 20% with repayments due every month until next May.

A Deloitte spokesperson was unable to comment on the issue.

4. Trade Practices Act breach

In a separate legal case earlier this year, Pets Paradise was found by the Federal Court to have breached the Trade Practices Act by making misleading and deceptive claims when franchisees signed up.

Franchisees Elizabeth Campbell and Lynda Donnelly, owners of the business Pampered Paws Connection, took legal action on behalf of themselves and other present or former Pets Paradise franchisees, accusing Pets Paradise of misleading and deceptive conduct over whether their franchise agreement in fact compelled them to purchase stock only from Global Pet Products.

5. A deadly puppy virus outbreak

Pets Paradise was hit earlier this year by an outbreak of parvovirus, which causes bloody dysentery and vomiting.

The RSPCA raided a puppy factory in Victoria's east as part of an investigation into the source of the highly contagious disease, which claimed the lives of puppies purchased from three Pets Paradise stores.

A spokesperson for Deloitte told SmartCompany there was not a link between the puppy virus and the collapse of Pets Paradise.

"There is no connection there; there is no link to the parvovirus issue that some of the outlets experienced recently. This is all about the underperformance of the group,'' he said.

SmartCompany contacted Pets Paradise but the company declined to comment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ghastly? Because they were selling a Belgian shepherd and a dog was barking? OMG quick! Call the RSPCA! A dog was barking!!

Obviously you haven't got a clue. Or you support pet shops, one or the other. Or perhaps both? Either way, you need educating.

Edited by dogmad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not a poster child for petshops, I'm just embarrassed at the narrow minded behavior on this forum in this regard. There are god knows how many people out there who have purchased a puppy from a pet shop (not always spontaneous and yes, believe it or not special 'pure breed dogs') and have bought a healthy, amazing animal that they have had the pleasure of owning..you all seem to assume every pet shop in Australia supports puppy farms and all the dogs they sell are treated poorly and sick...I'm not the one who needs to be educated

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not a poster child for petshops, I'm just embarrassed at the narrow minded behavior on this forum in this regard. There are god knows how many people out there who have purchased a puppy from a pet shop (not always spontaneous and yes, believe it or not special 'pure breed dogs') and have bought a healthy, amazing animal that they have had the pleasure of owning..you all seem to assume every pet shop in Australia supports puppy farms and all the dogs they sell are treated poorly and sick...I'm not the one who needs to be educated

Ok I'll bite!

What sort of decent breeder in their right minds would pass their pups onto a pet shop to live In a glass cage in horrid conditions to wait for someone (goodness knows who) to come along and buy said puppies. :confused:

Decent breeders want to know who is buying their pups and what sort of homes they are going to.

Plus pet shops charge more money for dogs than a decent reasonable breeder, funny about that.

I could go on all night but for now that is all!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PP will mever reveal the source/origins of their pups so a consumer is never able to do due diligence on the ethics of what they are actually supporting through their puppy purchase...plus as others have said there is an obvious lack of breed knowledge...high maintenance, challenging breeds. I found a papillon on gumtree for free from PP originally. I called the lady and she said that the dog was currently outside 24/7 (Paps are not outside breeds!) and they were getting rid of it because they were moving to a unit (Paps are ultimate apartment breed!). I was horrified at this example of what can happen through well-intentioned but impulsive pet shop buying :mad

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not a poster child for petshops, I'm just embarrassed at the narrow minded behavior on this forum in this regard. There are god knows how many people out there who have purchased a puppy from a pet shop (not always spontaneous and yes, believe it or not special 'pure breed dogs') and have bought a healthy, amazing animal that they have had the pleasure of owning..you all seem to assume every pet shop in Australia supports puppy farms and all the dogs they sell are treated poorly and sick...I'm not the one who needs to be educated

Again I say, you need education. Try working in rescue and constantly getting calls from people who have made an impulse buy from a petshop and desperately want to get rid of their problem puppy? Sometimes they've only had it a week, sometimes a month or a few.

The conditions for puppies in petshops are not ideal.

Certain breeds, kept in that way will really have issues - Belgian Shepherds are not easy dogs at the best of times and are a large breed so imagine a large puppy in the small plastic box, it might be a basket case for whoever buys it.

As for the Jap Spitz barking its brains out - they are a noisy breed so make it worse by denying the dog the attention it needs and see what happens?

My rescue group just took on a Jap Spitz/Chi/Malt cross - yes that is what the petshop's microchip said. Where do you think that puppy came from ? Why were there so many breeds in the mix?

WA is pretty remote, come to Sydney and I'll show you the petshop throwaways en masse. Maybe you'll have the same reaction of many people, shock and distress.

Maybe you will continue to advocate petshops and the disbelief that puppy farms actually exist to churn out puppies for sale in petshops and on the internet.

Don't suppose you happened to see the RSPCA TV show last night raiding a puppy farm? Maybe the animals were just well paid actors but I believed it. Call me gullible.

Edited by dogmad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest lavendergirl

The franchised stores are not effected and the business may be bought and still operate. A bit early for celebrations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share


×
×
  • Create New...