Latest / The SME Stream / Carolyn Young: Retail NZ CEO on the proposed closure of EB Games' New Zealand stores

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Carolyn Young: Retail NZ CEO on the proposed closure of EB Games' New Zealand stores · The SME Stream

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks EDB. Follow
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  Speaker 2: The iconic gaming store eb Games is proposing to shut
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  Speaker 2: down all of its New Zealand shops, and a note
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  Speaker 2: sent to employees Managing director Shane Stockwell clarified that the
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  Speaker 2: proposal is not yet final, but the decision awaits consultation
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  Speaker 2: with team members. So eb Games is an Australian based retailer,
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  Speaker 2: but the New Zealand business came out of the twenty
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  Speaker 2: four fiscal year with a multimillion dollar loss. I'm joined
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  Speaker 2: now by Retail New Zealand Chief executive Carolyn Young. Good
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  Speaker 2: morning to you, Carolyn, good morning, happy a year. Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: Now what's this consultation going to look like?
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, it's the normal process that a business needs
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  Speaker 3: to go through if they're looking to make changes to
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  Speaker 3: their business. And they'll have a proposal where they've set
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  Speaker 3: out details to staff around what the issues are for
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  Speaker 3: the organization and the challenges that they're facing. Follow and
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  Speaker 3: that consultation, they'll consider feedback from staff and make a
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  Speaker 3: decision from there.
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  Speaker 2: Do you know how many staff are involved with how
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  Speaker 2: many jobs might be lost.
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  Speaker 3: No, but when you've got thirty eight stores across the country,
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  Speaker 3: you're talking hundreds of staff.
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  Speaker 2: Why are they losing so much business in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: Look, you know, we know that the retail climate has
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  Speaker 3: been exceptionally challenging, and you know, their businesses is just
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  Speaker 3: one of many businesses that has been struggling over the
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  Speaker 3: last three or four or five years. And you know
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  Speaker 3: they're making a decision now that they don't believe that
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  Speaker 3: the economy will have made a big enough shift for
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  Speaker 3: them to be able to turn those things around. So
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  Speaker 3: there's a wide range of things that go into why
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  Speaker 3: businesses can struggle and can do with their financing, it
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  Speaker 3: can do with their price point, it can do with
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  Speaker 3: their product range. A whole raft of things go into
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  Speaker 3: those sort of situations. But you know, we know that
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  Speaker 3: retail has been struggling for quite some time.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and gaming changed, it's gone online, the consoles are dying.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, And so that you know, in those sorts
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  Speaker 3: of environments, you have to make sure that your business
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  Speaker 3: remains tenable in a changing market and that you either
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  Speaker 3: broaden your offering or you know, change the direction of
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  Speaker 3: where the business is going to meet the demands or
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  Speaker 3: potential demands for getting new customers and growing your business.
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  Speaker 2: And as a listen to us all that, yes, there
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  Speaker 2: may be green shoots coming in twenty twenty six, but
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  Speaker 2: if your business model is wrong, it's wrong, no matter
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  Speaker 2: what the financial conditions.
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  Speaker 3: That's right, you know. And if you're standing still going
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  Speaker 3: backwards in any business in economic environment, so you do
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  Speaker 3: have to make sure that you're continuing to review. You
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  Speaker 3: know your business, your strategy, who your customers are, are
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  Speaker 3: you meeting their needs and does that meet the needs
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  Speaker 3: of today and tomorrow, always keeping one eye on tomorrow
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  Speaker 3: as well as focusing on today.
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  Speaker 2: Carolyn good Luck for two twenty six, and that is
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  Speaker 2: Carolyn Young, Retail New Zealand CEO.
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