Saturday, March 11, 2017
Mr. Books Bookshop is For Sale as a going concern....
Sorry to drop this bombshell on you all this morning my loyal Tonbridgeblog die hard readers who've stuck with me through thick and thin. Let's face it, of late, it's been very thin! Yes I'm off back to my roots in NE Lincolnshire near the sea which I've missed all these years. I will be around for some months yet though so don't despair too much for now. More on the move as it unfolds but, in the meantime my thoughts are turning to what to do with the Bookshop. The lease is up quite soon so my choices seem to be: do I renew the lease in order to then assign it to a new owner at a later date. Sounds risky ish to me. So what are my other options? Well one would be to just walk away from the business I've build up for almost exactly 12 years. I really don't want to do this and would love to see the bookshop carry on with a new owner who has lots of fresh ideas so that they can put their own spin on it. Then there's a third way: I could just continue to own the shop business and employ a manager. It's all very exciting but scary at the same time.....
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3 comments:
goos luck on your move 'home' Mr Tonbridge
Extending your lease is too risky so:
See if any takers come along quickly (there are quite a few book shops on the market at all kinds of prices),
Failing that:
1. get yourself a new cheap lease shop in Scunthorpe or whereever,
2. get yourself a big self hire van,
3. load the van with your stock and set off to your new shop.
I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but I will still be very sorry to see you go; both on a personal level and also from a business point of view. Independent shops, of whatever persuasion, form an important part of a town’s makeup, and fulfil a vital barrier against corporate blandness and creeping uniformity.
With regard to your options, I personally would not renew the lease, as assigning it to a new future owner, can be fraught with difficulties and hidden pitfalls. If, for whatever reason, you fail to find a suitable assignee, you would still be responsible for the lease, including your rent and other obligations; although I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that.
When we sold the Cask & Glass, there was less than a year left on the lease, but after negotiations with the landlord, we marketed the business, through a business-transfer agency, with the option of a new lease available for the right buyer. This wasn’t easy, as there were three sets of solicitors involved, but the transfer agents valued, marketed and handled the eventual sale of the business, leaving us free to negotiate with the eventual buyer and the landlord (via the dreaded solicitors, of course).
I wish you well with this process; should you decide to go down that road, but if you do, there’s at least a fighting chance you will find a buyer for the business, and Tonbridge gets to retain a proper independent bookshop.
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