InterTAN was created by

Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned leather goods company based in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store. By the end of the 1950s, under the tutelage of then-CEO Charles Tandy, ...

in 1986 to operate

Radio Shack RadioShack, formerly RadioShack Corporation, is an American retailer founded in 1921. At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Austra ...

stores in Canada, Europe and Australia. After the UK locations, which were branded 'Tandy', were sold to

Carphone Warehouse The Carphone Warehouse Limited was a mobile phone retailer based in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014 the company became a subsidiary of Currys plc (previously named "Dixons Carphone"), which was formed by the merger of its former parent C ...

in 1999 and the Australian locations (which were also branded 'Tandy') to

Woolworths Limited Woolworths Group Limited is an Australian trans-Tasman retailer headquartered in Bella Vista, Sydney, with extensive operations throughout Australia and New Zealand. It is the largest company in Australia by revenue and the second-largest in N ...

in 2001, the company's primary asset was the RadioShack franchise for Canada. InterTAN's relationship with RadioShack was terminated in 2005, after InterTAN became a wholly owned subsidiary of Circuit City on May 19, 2004. InterTAN Canada Ltd. was a Canadian consumer electronics retailer based in Barrie, Ontario, that operated stores under the banner " The Source by Circuit City" and a single "THS Studio" location. The Rogers Plus chain was previously operated by InterTAN on behalf of

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet, with significant additional telecommunications and mass media ass ...

; the chain is now managed directly by Rogers. As well, conversion or closure of all UpClose and G-Wiz stores, as well as all but one THS Studio, was completed in 2006. InterTAN filed for bankruptcy protection (under the

Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act The ''Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act'' (CCAA; french: Loi sur les arrangements avec les créanciers des compagnies) is a statute of the Parliament of Canada that allows insolvent corporations owing their creditors in excess of $5 million to ...

) at the same time as its U.S. parent in late 2008. However, the Canadian division was not directly affected by Circuit City's liquidation process announced on January 16, 2009.

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in t ...

subsequently announced an agreement to purchase the bulk of InterTAN's assets, specifically The Source.Simon Avery,
Bell Canada snaps up The Source
", '' globeandmail.com'', March 2, 2009 InterTAN, the corporate entity, was not included in the sale (rather it was itself the seller), and is therefore now considered defunct.

History

InterTAN Inc. was a wholly owned subsidiary of

of Fort Worth, Texas, which owned retail operations in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Nor ...

, Australia, France, Belgium, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Neth ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

, Canada and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. Its name being a shortened version of International Tandy. It had estimated annual sales of US$400 million and assets of US$250 million and accounted for 13 percent of the company's annual sales. It was decided to "spin off" the international retail operations and a separate corporation, InterTAN Inc., was created, with two subsidiaries InterTAN Canada Ltd. and InterTAN Australia Ltd.. The company became a separate entity from

on 20 June 1986, with InterTAN Canada Ltd. to oversee 873 stores in Canada and 894 stores in Europe and InterTAN Australia Ltd. to oversee 350 stores in Australia. By 1988, the company had closed unprofitable stores in many countries, including in West Germany. The French stores were bankrupt by the end of December 1993, shut down along with the Belgian stores and distribution centre.

bought the remaining British shops in 1999, one year after InterTAN had closed 69 of the 338 UK Tandy stores. In April 2001, InterTAN Australia Limited trading as Tandy Electronics was sold to

for A$112.6 million with 222 stores. InterTAN was reduced to being the parent company for the Canadian consumer electronics business only. Product offerings occasionally differed from the US chain; a 1989 decision to drop the Tandy Colour Computer in Canada drew a small-scale backlash and InterTAN often carried non-RadioShack items alongside the core Tandy line. Until June 30, 2005, InterTAN ran stores under the banner RadioShack in Canada, as it had a licensing agreement with the RadioShack Corporation until 2010 to use the American company's trademarks. However, after a purchase of InterTAN by Circuit City Stores, Inc. in 2004, the RadioShack Corporation sued to have that agreement terminated. While that lawsuit was approved in the

State of Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by b ...

, it was not legally binding in Canada. InterTan filed a lawsuit in Canada stating that since the purchase by Circuit City Stores, Inc. was for only 80% of InterTAN, the latter was still a viable company and thus entitled to keep using the name

RadioShack RadioShack, formerly RadioShack Corporation, is an American retailer founded in 1921. At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Austra ...

. InterTAN and RadioShack came to a temporary deal by which InterTAN is banned from using the former moniker since July 1, 2005, and as such, all corporate retail consumer electronics stores, and most dealer stores, formerly known as ''RadioShack'' are known as ''

The Source ''The Source'' is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or . It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by Jonathan Shecter. David Mays was the ma ...

''. The matter was settled in late 2006; however, the details of the settlement were not made public. RadioShack made a token effort to re-enter the Canadian market in 2005 with nine stores, which it abandoned in January 2007. Remaining RadioShack-branded inventory began to appear in Liquidation World bins in Canada in 2007. Former InterTAN CEO Brian Levy later became an ER medical docto

InterTAN had entered into arrangements with Rogers Communications to run a chain of stores under the Rogers Plus banner, using InterTAN's point-of-sale systems and knowledge of retail operations for the day-to-day management of the stores. This partnership was renewed as part of the Circuit City acquisition, and was set to expire in January 2007. In April 2002, InterTAN, already one of Canada's largest battery retailers with its RadioShack stores, acquired certain assets and locations of Battery Plus and merged it into its retail operations. In the first two months of 2007, InterTAN underwent drastic changes. By closing all but one THS Studio location, as well as all but one Battery Plus location, InterTAN began to focus on its core operation: The Source By Circuit City. InterTAN continued closing underperforming locations through the end of February 2007, resulting in the loss of employment for almost 100 Canadians. The positions varied from sales associates, store managers, store assistant managers, district managers, service centre managers, even regional vice presidents. Circuit City announced that they had retained Goldman Sachs to explore selling off InterTAN in Q1, 2007. Circuit City USA went bankrupt in 2009, during the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At t ...

. "The Source" was sold as a going concern to

Enterprises.

History

See also

References

External links