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And lo it came to pass, another big name pack provider goes to the wall.

No shock really. Hipstar have followed Habitus as another franchisor/pack provider to cease trading.

The company is currently being put into liquidation.
There has been no stock market announcement from the parent company, Network Surveyors
The former sales staff are ringing around looking for jobs

My own personal view is that they never captured the market share they should have done given the 3-4mil spent last year on the running and marketing of Hipstar. We have spoken with over 1000 agents but very few of them actually use Hipstar, certainly not enough of a proportion to keep such a substantial company ticking over.

I have been tracking this company for some months on my blog as the share price has tumbled, the financial results have not been pretty and just a couple of weeks ago, the owner purchased a large chunk of shares which will have stopped a further fall. The owner family own around 93% of the shares issued giving it less liquidity than other shares that you may have heard of. Hipstar hadn't booked a stand for Agency Expo where the rest of the free-spending pack providers will be handing out free biros, boxes of mints and anything else that agents might need to keep them alive in this atrocious market.


Hipstar Franchisees

What is to become of the franchisees who all spent many thousands of pounds buying areas. While Hipster specifically isn't named here, take a look at this experience and the financial return this franchisee has had: HIP Franchisor keep moving goalposts


My Blog postings

Tue 22 July 2008 Network Data Holdings (HIPSTAR) shares drop off a cliff
Wed 12 April 2008 Hipstar announces loss owing to HIPs
Tue 25 March 2008 Hipstar extends its credit facilities


Hipstar Losses

2006 1,333,000 (When the parent group Network Data Holdings made a profit of 271,000)
2007 3,579,000 (When the parent group Network Data Holdings made a loss of 1,105,000)

You can see more financial information about Network Data and Hipstar here

Labels: HIPSTAR-enter-liquidation What-is-to-become-of-the-franchisees