Mystery owners have stepped forward to buy the failed bookstore at the Auckland university campus.
University bookstore Ubiq went into liquidation in July. It closed its doors on September 2. Just as ReadingRoom broke the news of its failure, we can now exclusively report that buyers with experience in the book trade will reopen the bookstore, most likely for the first school term of 2026.
“The bookshop will re-emerge at the university under new ownership,” confirmed Rachel Mason, with liquidators Meltzer Mason.
I was merely fishing when I made a call to Meltzer Mason on Friday morning and asked, “What’s happening with the liquidation? Where are we at?”
Rachel Mason replied, “Well, where we’re at is we have sold the business and right now going through that process with the purchaser. They’ve bought all of the stock and the fixed assets. That’s the shelving and counters and things like that. Basically they’ve bought everything except the liabilities. I feel like they’re going to be opening up again next year, but I don’t know for certain. It seems likely.”
She would not be drawn on the identity of the new owners.
I asked, “Are they going to go forward as a university bookstore?”
She replied, “They are involved in the industry, so that is extremely likely to be what they will be doing.”
I asked, “Do they have an existing bookshop?”
She left a pause, and replied, “I’m not sure that I’m allowed to mention who they are. They have asked for confidentiality at this stage.”
Mason outlined how the bookstore attracted a buyer.
“We had a few leads on people that we thought might be interested in the business and also through word of mouth, because bookselling is an industry where people talk to each other a lot.
“About five interested parties came forward, and from that two serious people emerged. One was the ultimate offer. So we agreed to them and we’re just sort of transferring everything over really at this stage. We agreed the sale at the end of August, and now spending this month and probably another few weeks working through the nitty gritty of it.”
I said, “Quick work.”
She said, “Yeah, I think it’s been a pretty good quick turnaround.”
The closure of Ubiq came as a shock and as devastating news to the university. A campus without a bookstore: it was Mickey Mouse stuff, a pathetic state of affairs. Its revival is unequivocally good news for the university, for the students, and for the Auckland University Students Association (AUSA) – the bookstore is registered with the Charities Commission, with all profits going to AUSA.
Rachel Mason said that Covid-19 and the lockdowns were a significant factor in the four directors putting it up for liquidation. But a search of annual reports lodged with the Charities Commission reveals that Ubiq was operating at a loss since 2018.
At its peak, revenue was $10.3m in 2015. Its profit that year was $538,000. Good returns for the AUSA, which also pocketed half a million dollars the previous year. And then things started turning to custard. The first deficit was measured in 2018, with losses of $155,00. It grew to $255,000 in 2919. They were $495,000 in the Covid year of 2020.
Meanwhile the revenue kept dropping each year from its 2015 peak. It earned $8.4m in 2017, then $7.6m in 2918, then $7.3m in 2019, then $5.5m in the Covid year of 2020.
Its four directors are Michael Ferrand, David Fulton, Christina Malone, and Michael Moynahan. They shared an annual dividend of $35,000. By the time they threw in the towel, creditors and staff were owed almost $1 million. Rachel Mason (her fee is $500 an hour) now confirms all staff have been paid in full. The IRD debt of $28,000 has also been honoured.
As for unsecured creditors, their payment will be somewhere in the vicinity of 30 to 50 cents in the dollar. “It’s not ideal. But in terms of the liquidation scenario, it’s a pretty good outcome.”
The unsecured creditors reflect the varied and sometimes eccentric world of university bookstores. They include the Auckland Botanical Society, the College of St John the Evangelist, the Defence of NZ Study Group, the Journal of Roman Archaeology, the Patea Historical Society, and the University of Hawaii.
Right now the store is a dark shell with books on display as well as a rack of very cool $50 white lab jackets with an Auckland University crest. It’s a gloomy look in an otherwise active and pretty campus, with ginkgo trees lining Princes St, tulips blooming by the clocktower, and students hoeing into jugs of beer and bowls of wedges at university bar Shadows.
Mason acknowledges that university bookstores are a tough business, with cyclical highs and lows, and textbooks becoming available online. I said to her, “The new owners have taken on a failed enterprise. How will it be any different for them?”
She replied, “Good question. I know they have experience in the industry. And they are basically starting with fresh stock and fixed assets on hand, but none of the debt. So that could be a potential benefit for them. Other than that,” said the liquidator, “I don’t know.”