Protea Boekwinkel, in Stellenbosch, will be closing its doors at the end of this month due to financial reasons, according to the store manager, Jared Thompson. The bookstore has been operating in Stellenbosch for 20 years, said Thompson.
“[We’re] not going to make it to our 21st birthday,” said Thompson. Protea Boekwinkel stores are going through business rescue, which is made up of a process of a structured wind down that ends up benefitting the curators and employees more than other forms of closure, such as a liquidation, said Rinus Dormehl, Partner at Grove & Dormehl Attorneys, the attorney assigned to the business rescue.
“We’ll have to stop trading, and then we have to pack up what’s left, and it gets sent to a warehouse in Johannesburg to be done with by whoever gets it,” said Jared Thompson, manager of Protea Boekwinkel, about what happens to the books after the store’s closure. PHOTO: Thameenah Daniels
Two other Protea branches, one in Cape Gate, and one in the Carlton Centre, have already closed, said Thompson, while the branch at the University of Cape Town is currently being closed.
The company was unsuccessful in obtaining additional funding to avoid closing, explained Thompson.
It has been a challenging process as the bookstore couldn’t help customers acquire requested stock, explained Thompson.
Protea’s legacy
There are no other bookstores in Stellenbosch with the academic variety that Protea Boekwinkel has, according to Schalk le Roux, who has been a loyal customer of the store for over 15 years.
“It is the only real academic bookshop in Stellenbosch. And I find it a pity that a place where university is of importance… that there is no academic bookshop,” said Le Roux.
Schalk Le Roux has been a loyal customer of Protea Boekwinkel for over 15 years. “No, it’s a sad day. It’s a very sad thing,” he shared with MatieMedia. PHOTO: Thameenah Daniels
The bookstore was unique as they ensured that students could purchase second hand books if they were short on funds, said Luke Lawrence, a final year BCom student at Stellenbosch University. “They will be missed because they were very important for students who couldn’t afford to buy textbooks unless they were on a bursary,” added Lawrence.
“Nobody gets to 20 and thinks, ‘I’m going to pick up a book and start reading’. That’s very much a youth situation. Kids have to grow up reading to enjoy reading,” said Jared Thompson, manager of Protea Boekwinkel. PHOTO: Thameenah Daniels
“We’ll definitely miss our clients, hopefully as much as they miss us. And yeah, it is sad seeing a lot of the bookstores shutting down. It’s not a new thing, and I could just hope that they can support those [bookstores] that are remaining,” said Thompson.