Bankruptcy is spreading through the world English-publishing world as Australia and New Zealand’s leading bookselling organization RedGroup Retail has been placed into voluntary administration by private equity owners PEP. The group comprises Angus & Robertson in Australia (with over 160 stores), Whitcoulls in New Zealand (with 65 stores), Borders in Australia (26 stores), New Zealand and Singapore, and the Calendar Club in both Australia and New Zealand. The combined entities employ approximately 2,500 people. The Age reported today that REDgroup “was forced to call in administrators to the businesses this afternoon following a board meeting.” All stores are slated to […]
Bookstores
Borders: What Publishers Are Saying, and Whether Business Resumes
So far only the largest publisher, Penguin Group, has commented on the record on Borders’ bankrupty filing. They said in part, “Penguin hopes that Borders will emerge from this process as a smaller but stronger book retailer, and will work closely with Borders management to support this transition. Penguin has been following developments at Borders very closely for many months and has taken appropriate steps to mitigate the financial impact of the company’s bankruptcy on Penguin.” Simon & Schuster’s parent company CBS reported fourth quarter (and full-year) earnings after the close of the market today. As we report separately, they […]
So Many Filings, So Much Debt
Borders has filled their bankruptcy web site with a raft of filings and we’ve been poring through them, as well as continuing to talk to publishers about next steps in their bankruptcy process. We’ve provided sub-header breakouts to make some of the detail easier for you to follow. The Good NewsThis morning we noted that the 30 largest unsecured vendor creditors are owed roughly $272 million. Additional documents indicate the bookseller owes vendors a total of just over $303 million. That means smaller, not listed vendors are owed a total of another $31 million–so collateral damage beyond the biggest publishers […]
What Does Borders’ Decline Do to Book Sales?
Everyone wants to know the impact of Borders reduction and potential disappearance on the market for printed books. The conventional wisdom, as one publisher told us, is that a third to half of Borders’ market share will be captured by other sellers, while the rest could simply disappear in lost sales. With Nielsen BookScan updating their weekly data earlier today, which they estimate covers 75 percent of physical retail sales, we thought it would be interesting to look at the last six weeks of sales–covering most of the period since Borders stopped paying vendors. Of course it’s hard to separate […]
Borders Files for Bankruptcy; Owes Top Publishers $230 Million, and Will Close About 200 Stores
Borders formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Manhattan Federal Court, listing total debt of $1.29 billion and supposed assets of $1.275 billion. Among the top 30 unsecured creditors listed in the filing, book publishers and distributed are owed roughly $230 million (see below for the full list). Borders says in their announcement that it “has received commitments for $505 million in Debtor-in-Possession (DIP) financing led by GE Capital, Restructuring Finance. Restructuring Finance. This financing should enable Borders to meet its obligations going forward so that our stores continue to be competitive for customers in terms of goods, […]
Briefs: Quarto Annual Sales Rise; Hay House to Make Their Own Vooks; Planeta Acquires Bertrand; Gardners To Sell Direct to Consumers; and More
Quarto reported an 8 percent rise in adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to December to £7.4m from £6.9m, and a 7 percent jump in revenue to £113.8m from £106.6m. Its publishing division revenue increased 7 percent to £75.1m. Quarto cited “continued focus on developing markets, in particular Brazil and China, and improved trading in the UK and Australasia” for the revenue and profit gains. Release Hay House has become the first publisher to sign on to use Vook’s engine for creating enhanced ebooks at scale (called MotherVook). The product “converts disparate and varied file formats; combines text, video and […]