Music retailer Sanity, which thrived within the heyday of the CD and DVD, has fallen sufferer to the web leisure revolution.
Once reportedly having as many as 200 shops throughout Australia, the once-mighty retailer plans to shut its 50 remaining outlets by finish of April. There are 4 left in WA: Geraldton, Maddington, Mandurah and Morley.
But proprietor Ray Itaoui has vowed to maintain Sanity’s on-line business going and fulfil all orders made at its bodily outlets, destroyed by the success of on-line music and film providers.
Mr Itaoui stated in a press release that it was “impossible to continue” with Sanity outlets as prospects shifted on-line and there have been much less bodily merchandise to promote prospects.
“Our priority right now is to ensure each of our team members knows exactly what this means for their career and employment future,” stated Mr Itaoui, who purchased the business 13 years in the past from founder Brett Blundy.
“With Brett Blundy building Sanity from the ground up in 1980 – going on to become one of Australia’s most respected and recognisable retailers – the Sanity brand became synonymous with the go-to place to get anything that mattered in the world of music.”
After combined success in document shops and feminine underwear within the Eighties, Mr Blundy aggressively expanded his business pursuits by from the early Nineties with the Sanity and Bras ‘N’ Things chains.
He floated the retail firm Brazin in 1997 and privatised the group a decade later after an array of retailer and business acquisitions.
Mr Itaoui purchased the Sanity chain in a administration buyout in September 2009 because the group’s market place got here below intense assault from the more and more dominant JB Hi-Fi.
It was then hit by the expansion of on-line video providers, together with Netflix, and the growing success of digital music suppliers Apple Music and Spotify.
Mr Itaoui stated in his assertion that Sanity wouldn’t have “lasted as long as it has” if it weren’t for not for the exhausting work, dedication and dedication of the group’s employees.
