Legal action may follow sale

Press, 24 June 1981, Page 22

Legal action may follow sale

The sale of Quillars, Ltd, the Auckland-based photographic retailer, to the Kerridge Odeon group, also of Auckland, may be clouded by the possibility of legal action. Quillars, which runs 12 stores in the North Island, has been in receivership, with Gilfillan Morris and Company, the Wellington-ap-pointed receivers, at the request of the first debenture holders, the Bank of New Zealand. • Although the sale of Quillars to Kerridge Odeon was confirmed by Mr M. J. Mail, the general manager of its Camera House division, Mr J. R. Tubbs, of Wellington, the major shareholder in Quillars, referred “The Press” to his Wellington solicitors on the matter of a possibility of legal action. A partner in the Wellington law firm, Anderson Buddle Kent and Company, would not confirm whether legal proceedings were being taken on the sale.

, It is understood that two - major bids were received for . Quillars; one from Kerridge f Odeon for its Camera House ' photographic chain, and the other from Colour Prints, ! Ltd, of Christchurch, on be- , half of a six-member consor- , tium. I Mr R. Kay, of Colour . Prints, said he believed that the consortium’s bid was bei tween $20,000 and $25,000 higher than that from Kerridge Odeon. The consortium’s bid had j been acknowledged as the highest, he said. Mr Mail said that a final figure had not yet been placed on the Quillars buy, because the value of the stock in the shops had yet to be decided. Asked whether Kerridge Odeon would be closing six of the shops, Mr Mail said “not six anyway,” and said that the majority of the staff of Quillars would be retained.