Collins Booksellers Finishes Up

Collins Booksellers, Australia's third largest national bookseller, has gone into
voluntary administration. A report in today's "Australian" newspaper states that the bookshop chain owes $7.5 million to creditors. "The Sydney Morning Herald" also runs with the news that: "The company's biggest unsecured creditors are publishing firms such as Harper Collins, which is owed $1.2 million, Macmillan Publishers ($833,000), Random House Australia ($813,000) and book distributor Alliance ($744,000)." The administration order applies only to the 23 company-owned stores and not the other 31 Collins stores which are run on a franchise basis. What effect this will have on the local publishing scene cannot be foreseen at this stage and it may be some time before the fallout settles down. Sharp-eyed readers will recall an earlier note regarding this.