Bookshop chain lands prime inner-city site

Press, 29 August 1989, Page 17

Bookshop chain lands prime inner-city site

Philip King Book Seller has pounced on what will be possibly the prime inner city site for a bookseller and taken the ground floor of the new building under construction in the Strand Lane. Strand Lane runs between Cathedral Square and Hereford Street. The new shop will be open by October and will be the fifth in the fast-growing Philip King Book Seller chain.

The new shop will take the number of outlets opened in the South Island in less than a year to a total of three.

This robust growth rate was one of the pivotal

reasons in the company’s recent decision to discard the Paper Plus title and establish a separate identity as Philip King Book Seller.

Nor, according to the company’s founder and managing director, Mr Philip King, will the prime inner city site be the last to be opened in Christchurch by his company.

“We are actively looking at a number of options at the moment but because the right site is important we are willing to be patient,” Mr King says.

The “tag” to be used in

much of the advertising carried by the company is “Philip King ... more than a bookseller.” This is because all the stores to date have carried a stock mix of parity between books and stationery, in particular greeting cards. The new inner city store will vary this formula with a greater emphasis on books than the prevailing levels to date.

“We needed a city profile and with the new outlet have got exactly what we were looking for,” Mr King said. The ground floor site will occupy a retail area

of 1450 sq ft, with further space on the first floor to be used as an administrative centre for the Philip King Book Seller chain. It makes the new site slightly smaller than the other new outlets opened in the last year. The Bush Inn Centre outlet is 3500 sq ft, the Golden Centre in Dunedin 3500 sq ft, while the new Mosgiel outlet is 1800 sq ft.

Another key ingredient in the success of the Philip King Book Seller chain has been the unabashed enthusiasm of its founder for the South Island.

Mr King was perceptive enough to detect the quickening economic pulse of the south at a time when doomsaying was still the norm.

“I saw great potential in the South Island and also in Dunedin,” he said.

“My faith in the area has certainly paid off. Within a remarkably short period of time the general economy in the south has improved and the future for this part of country looks very bright indeed.” Mr King is confident that both the change of company name and the forthcoming fifth branch are destined for success.