[imagesource: Waldo Swiegers / Bloomberg]
CNA was established in 1896 and, according to its website, “has a footprint of 163 stores in South Africa and selected stores in Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland”.
However, that long and storied history is under threat, with the business facing multiple challenges to its survival.
Business Day reports that “the floundering stationer” is “caught up in a power battle among executives”, with investment house Astoria announcing last week that it would sell its 70% holding to CNA management.
Astoria paid just R1,2 million for that stake last year, according to Moneyweb, which itself paints a worrying picture.
The other 30% belongs to CEO Benjamin Trisk, and nobody seems to be seeing eye to eye:
Trisk has approached multiple business rescue practitioners about a process to save the company, which has been struggling to pay what is due to creditors, without the board’s backing.
Management are questioning the authenticity of documents provided to potential rescue professionals pertaining to show their backing and have sought legal advice. Trisk also left his CEO position at Exclusive Books in 2018 under acrimonious circumstances and has not been seen in the CNA management office for weeks.
CNA is said to owe creditors, as well as landlords, large sums of money, and mounting legal fees are also an unwelcome financial burden.
In order to turn the ship around, you need a team that has a history of working together successfully, and that appears to be lacking.
It’s not the only thing lacking, either:
There is a lot more missing from the CNA recipe. Mostly a reason to exist. Some of the stationery it sells is available at supermarkets — and smaller-sized stores such as the Australian-owned Typo franchise — sell cuter and funkier gifts. CNA has not reinvented itself enough since the 19th century when as a news agent it sold newspapers and magazines.
The internet, of course, means these products are no longer in high demand. Better-stocked arts and crafts stationer PNA, a franchise-run chain, has been eating CNA for breakfast with an ongoing expansion.
Much like how a South African staple like Musica eventually becomes obsolete, perhaps CNA’s time is also up.
It’s believed that certain creditors have gone unpaid for months, although CNA did reach out last week to say that part payment would be likely towards the end of May.
However, suppliers were already burned when CNA was sold to Trisk and Astoria last year, as the debt stayed with former owner Edcon.
As Jet and Edgars collapsed, book companies that sold to CNA were paid just 4 cents for every R1 owed to them.
With things looking rather dicey at present, suppliers may think twice about working with CNA and running the risk of something similar happening again.
