Borders Group Changes in The New Year

Publisher Guides
December 4, 2008
Loukoumi’s Good Deeds Book Premiere with Special Guest Readers
March 23, 2009
Publisher Guides
December 4, 2008
Loukoumi’s Good Deeds Book Premiere with Special Guest Readers
March 23, 2009

Borders Group has undergone many changes in the new year that publishers should be aware of. One part is a management changeup, and the other is the sharp decline in their sales. Holiday sales for the nine-week holiday period ending Jan. 3, 2009 was only $868.8 million total consolidated sales. This is a 11.7% decline from to the same period last year. Here we will breakdown for you the changes and what they could mean for your business.

 

New Management Breakdown:

  • Ron Marshall is the new President and Chief Executive Officer and will serve as a Director.
  • Mark Bierley has been named Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Finance.
  • Anne Kubek is now Executive Vice President, Merchandising and Marketing.
  • The new position of Chief Administrative Officer has been given to Dan Smith.

Sales Breakdown:

  • Borders superstore segment total sales for the holiday period were $652.6 million, which is a 13.6% decrease compared to 2007.
  • The book category at Borders, on a same-store basis, declined by 11.0% for the period. Borders.com sales for the nine-week holiday period were $20.3 million.
  • The Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment total sales for the holiday period were $161.7 million, a 16.4% decrease compared to the same period one year ago.
  • Comparable store sales for Waldenbooks declined by 8.0% compared to holiday 2007. 
  • Borders Group was notified by the NYSE on Dec. 31, 2008 that they did not satisfy one of the standards for continued listing of its common stock when the stock was selling for less than $1.00 per share over a consecutive 30 trading day period. The stock remains listed on the NYSE under the symbol “BGP”, but the NYSE will assign a “.BC” indicator to the symbol to denote that it is below the listing standards.

Borders will be one to watch in 2009 to see if they can turn around these downward trends in their book sales.