Following the announcement a few weeks ago that Borders in the UK were seeking "funding opportunities", a further announcement was made today confirming five further closures. The company's stores in London's Oxford Street, London Colney, Swindon, Dublin and Llantrissant (Wales). A huge clearance sale at each of these stores is due to begin this week and the staff at these stores placed under consultation. This latest round of closures will leave Borders with 36 superstores and 10 smaller ones, including 8 Books Etc.
Completion dates for the closures are yet to be announced, but CEO Philip Downer confirmed that the leases have all been sold to a fashion retailer.
This is a sad day for the book world, with potentially hundreds of staff affected. It is difficult to know what the reasons for the company's problems are - which were there a long time before the recession began. Out of town sites do not help, neither do problems with credit insurance or the closure of their distribution warehouse in Cornwall and move towards buying stock from wholesalers.
I hope that as many staff as possible can be re-deployed in other branches, but fear that this may be more difficult than it sounds, for those that remain will want to hold on their own jobs for as long as possible, at least until they can find something else. As I know from my own experiences, it is not always that easy to find alternative employment within the same field, yet if you are prepared to try different and new challenges and are not afraid to get your hands dirty, there is still work out there. I wish all those affected by these closures the best.
Completion dates for the closures are yet to be announced, but CEO Philip Downer confirmed that the leases have all been sold to a fashion retailer.
This is a sad day for the book world, with potentially hundreds of staff affected. It is difficult to know what the reasons for the company's problems are - which were there a long time before the recession began. Out of town sites do not help, neither do problems with credit insurance or the closure of their distribution warehouse in Cornwall and move towards buying stock from wholesalers.
I hope that as many staff as possible can be re-deployed in other branches, but fear that this may be more difficult than it sounds, for those that remain will want to hold on their own jobs for as long as possible, at least until they can find something else. As I know from my own experiences, it is not always that easy to find alternative employment within the same field, yet if you are prepared to try different and new challenges and are not afraid to get your hands dirty, there is still work out there. I wish all those affected by these closures the best.
1 comment:
Many thanks for your good s=wishes to us poor soon-to-be-ex-Borders staff. This was a deal that was done and dusted and presented to us as a fait accompli. We really feel we've been stabbed in the backj by Mr Philip Downer, Mr Luke Johnston and all the other fat cats who have grown so sleek and obese on our labours, not to mwntion that they have also encouraged us to develop their stores into community focus oints and then callously ripped the heart out of those communities by selling us out .... to New Look!!!!
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