June 5, 2009
The painful death of Borders UK
by Dennis Johnson
The lights are dimmng at Borders UK ....
Borders UK has “appointed a corporate finance house to conduct a potential sale of the 51-store business,” the clearest indication amid rising rumors that the company’s main backer, entrepreneur Luke Johnson is “poised to offload the struggling bookseller,” says a report by James Thompson at The Independent.
It sounds as if it isn’t going to be a pretty end, either: “Market sources said that Borders UK, which is believed to be loss-making, could be sold for a nominal sum,” writes Thompson. This, despite the fact of earlier layoffs and that the company is “still working with RSM Bentley, a restructuring company.”
What’s really making things complicated, though, is the fact that the stationary chain
— which is a part of many Borders stores in the UK — is owned not by Borders UK but the US parent company, Borders Group Inc., which tried to sell Paperchase last year but was unable to find a buyer.
Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.