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According to this News report EzyDVD Pty Ltd has been sold to the Franchise Entertainment Group.

It looks like 15 of the 26 company owned stores that were open at the time EzyDVD went into receivership have closed or soon will be. The remaining 11 company owned stores will move over to the Franchise Entertainment Group who manage the Blockbuster and VideoEzy groups. As for the 32 franchised stores, there seems to be no news announced regarding the mechanics of the transfer and how it will affect them.

The article goes on to say that the EzyDVD warehouse in South Australia will close with the loss of about 30 jobs. I would speculate that the EzyDVD online sales machine will continue to operate as before, and it would seem that the Franchise Entertainment Group will not in the short term alter the operation of the bricks and mortar stores. I do wonder, however, what will happen longer term. At Tuggeranong Hyperdome, where one of the EzyDVD stores that I owned is located, there is a Blockbuster store in the same centre. It will be interesting to see how the stores will maintain difference in sale offerings as one would expect the purchase prices offered to the “two brands” will be the same.

I also wonder how the current EzyDVD franchisees have fared over the last month or so since the announcement that EzyDVD was in receivership. I spoke with a friend the other day who shop regularly at EzyDVD and he said that some stores were not taking Sales Orders or Lay-Bys With all the issues like these along with the impact of EzyDVD Gift Cards not being honoured this must have had a detrimental impact on customer good-will towards the stores.

Anecdotally, I have heard that customer patronage and hence sales in some EzyDVD stores has dropped off. As it happens we are now approaching a very quiet time in the DVD sales front. My experience of sales in the weeks leading up to “Back-to-School” time is that they are dismal. Despite the large amount of money my wife and I lost in our time as EzyDVD Franchisees I do not envy any current franchisees. At least when we made the decision to bail out in 2007 there was someone to buy us out, even for the pittance they paid. I would imagine the any franchisee who goes under now may have a much harder time of it.

What ever happens now, I wish them luck.

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