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Speaker 1: The good news from the retail sector is that the

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Speaker 1: famed Smith and Coey's have announced their closure will well,

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Speaker 1: actually won't be happening. It'll be staying open. It is

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Speaker 1: a downsized operation, but one hundred jobs are being said,

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Speaker 1: which is good. Smith and coey chair Tony Coey's with

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Speaker 1: us on all this, Tony, very good morning to you.

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Speaker 1: Good morning make it must make you feel good to

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Speaker 1: make that sort of announcement.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we're very pleased to be able to do it.

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Speaker 1: Didn't you look at this option, I assume you did

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Speaker 1: before making the original announcement.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we did. We looked pretty hard at it back

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Speaker 2: in February. I think there wasn't a single reason that changed.

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Speaker 2: It was a group of reasons, but we looked harder.

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Speaker 2: You know, we'd already seen what was happening overseas with

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Speaker 2: trends towards smaller format stores, how that was going. The

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Speaker 2: outpouring from staff during the staff consultation period was a

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Speaker 2: factor in there. We've got some very loyal staff. It've

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Speaker 2: been just wonderful throughout the process, and we've got a

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Speaker 2: whole lot of things in the pot. And that made

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Speaker 2: the call to run the smaller operation.

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Speaker 1: Good part of what you do, of course is scale.

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Speaker 1: Have you killed the scale or you're taking a risk

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Speaker 1: on scale here now or not?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think we are, but we've in some ways

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Speaker 2: picked the eyes out of what we've got and taken

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Speaker 2: the most profitable categories and shrinking them down. We won't

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Speaker 2: be the scale that we were before. It won't be

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Speaker 2: the same sort of retail operation, but we think we

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Speaker 2: can make a go of it.

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Speaker 1: Queen Street, how much of that and its geography and

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Speaker 1: all the baggage that goes with that is about this

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Speaker 1: as opposed to you as a business.

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Speaker 2: Well, at the time we said that there was a

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Speaker 2: perfect storm of about five factors going on and Queen

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Speaker 2: Street was one of them. I mean, clearly, my view

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Speaker 2: is that New Zealand has one chance for an international

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Speaker 2: city that's Auckland. We have to do it right and

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Speaker 2: we have to make the center of a friendly place

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Speaker 2: and it's currently not and that I think is in

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Speaker 2: a nutshell what we have to do. We've seen some

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Speaker 2: improvements with security recently with increased police, the council putting

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Speaker 2: increased security city with increased security, it's making a little

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Speaker 2: bit of a difference, but it's just the scratching the surface.

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Speaker 2: We've got to have a fundamental relook to clean up

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Speaker 2: the center of town if we want to be serious

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Speaker 2: about having an international city.

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Speaker 1: Couldn't agree more. What's your sense of the economy with

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Speaker 1: all the noise around retail generally the recession? Do you'd

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Speaker 1: forget Queen Street but just retail generally?

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Speaker 2: Retail generally is tough and if you look at the

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Speaker 2: figures nationally in recent weeks, there's not a lot of

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Speaker 2: confidence out there. There's not a lot of spare money,

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Speaker 2: and many retailers are doing it really really tough.

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Speaker 1: What about your online presence and its future given what

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Speaker 1: you've announced, and will that play a greater presence.

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Speaker 2: Well, online will be part of mixed going forward. It

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Speaker 2: has been a very important part for us, particularly during

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Speaker 2: COVID when our stores were shut. So it will very

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Speaker 2: much feature as part of that future.

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Speaker 1: And do you bullish on bricks and more to generally.

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Speaker 2: Well bricks and more to have a place it's on

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Speaker 2: the channel. It's a range of things. You know, we're

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Speaker 2: shrinking our bricks and mortar because we think that's appropriate

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Speaker 2: for the market, and so we'll just see how that

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Speaker 2: balance blows out.

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Speaker 1: Well, I wish you all the very best with it, Tony,

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Speaker 1: Kelley Smith and Kelly So the news is good for now.

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