Retail dinosaurs. There are a few: Garlicks, John Orr’s, Greatermans ... and that’s just in SA. This week I wrote a piece in our sister publication, Business Day, about how Stuttafords, the last bastion of department store retailing in SA, could be on its way to retail heaven. The privately owned group is in business rescue. No matter how management wants to spin it (no job cuts, zero store closures, business as usual — are you kidding me?), business rescue proceedings have varying levels of success, and always render a company inextricably changed. We’re all adults here, we know what restructuring means. It’s first cousins with those other "R" words, re-engineering and right-sizing. Business rescue is essentially a clemency card, a legal pause button — because by the time a company opts for it, it is likely to have pissed a few people off (read: creditors, suppliers and landlords). Its aim is noble enough – to make sure a business continues on a solvent, liquid basis — but the succ...
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