Ex-Warehouse men tipped as retailing rival

By KARYN SCHERER and SIMON HENDERY

A group of former Warehouse executives is believed to be hatching a plan to rescue a large chunk of the doomed Deka chain.

Former Warehouse finance director John Vickers is understood to have teamed up with colleagues Darrin Field and Gerard Peterson to launch a new retail chain.

The trio hope to persuade either the Farmers Deka group or individual landlords to allow them to take over the leases of at least a dozen Deka stores.

The move could save hundreds of jobs in the retail sector, and comes as The Warehouse has entered new negotiations with Australian retail giant Coles Myer about taking over the sites of several of its ailing K-mart stores.

Coles Myer has flagged for more than a year that it may quit New Zealand after a disastrous foray on this side of the Tasman.

It has already sold the Katies chain and this week revealed that sales at its 11 K-mart stores were down nearly 20 per cent over the past nine months.

It is understood The Warehouse is talking to other chains, including Farmers Deka, about taking over the sites.

In March, when Farmers Deka announced the Deka closures, it stressed that it wanted to "aggressively" expand the Farmers chain.

It wants to turn 17 of the Deka sites into Farmers stores, leaving 43 potentially empty. But whether it allows those stores to fall into rival hands is up in the air.

None of the former Warehouse executives could be contacted for comment yesterday.

The Perth-based owner of the Farmers Deka group, Foodland, declined to comment, and Farmers Deka chief executive Nick Lowe did not return Business Herald calls.

In February, the former Warehouse trio took over discount shoe chain Shu-Bar, which has about 16 stores in the North Island.

Companies Office records show they have since set up two companies: Number 1 Retail Group and Discount Shoe Warehouse.

The Warehouse chief executive, Greg Muir, said the retailer was unconcerned about the possibility of a new competitor.

"It's going to be wonderful for the customers, whatever these guys decide to do.

"There's quite a gap left by Deka closing, which potentially gives these guys a bit of a vacuum to walk into."

Mr Muir described the trio as "talented people."

But he warned that The Warehouse would guard its territory if it had to.

"If they do decide to expand their merchandise range I think we'd see it as a bit of fun ... We want to own 'lowest price' in New Zealand so if someone else comes in and thinks they can do it we're going to stand up and protect that patch."

Mr Muir confirmed that The Warehouse was still interested in picking up some Deka stores, but declined to comment on whether it was also talking to Farmers Deka about the K-mart sites.

"It is fair to say that [Coles Myer] are keen to talk again but nothing much more than that has gone on.

"If we did do anything it's still a wee way down the track."