Borders Group

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Borders Group Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: BGP)
Founded	1971 (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Headquarters	Ann Arbor, Michigan
Key people	George L. Jones, CEO & Chairman Edward Wilhelm, CFO
Industry	Retail (Specialty)
Products	Books, Maps, Compact Discs, DVDs, Calendars, Zunes, Gift Packs, Magazines, Board Games, Encyclopedias
Revenue	$3.903 billion USD (2004)
Employees	35,000
Website	www.bordersgroupinc.com

Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) is an international bookseller based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Borders is a Fortune 500 company, and is (as of 2005) the second-largest bookstore chain in the United States (after Barnes & Noble), selling a wide variety of books, CDs, DVDs, periodicals, as well as gifts and stationery.

Borders owns a majority stake in Paperchase Products Limited, a leading gifts and stationery retailer in the United Kingdom, and showcases their products in their stores, as well as Books etc., Tim Waterstone's other, mostly London-based bookshop chain. In 2004, Borders reached an agreement with Starbucks subsidiary Seattle's Best Coffee to operate the cafes in its domestic superstores under the Seattle's Best brand name.

As of 2006, there are about 500 Borders stores in the United States, and around 700 Waldenbooks and Borders Express stores in U.S. malls.

1 History
2 Changes and controversies
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Beginnings

The original Borders bookstore is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where it was founded in 1971 by brothers Tom and Louis Borders. The Borders brothers' inventory system tailored each store's offerings to its community. A sister company, Book Inventory Systems (1971-1994), was founded at the same time to serve as a wholesaler for, and provide the brothers' custom inventory system not to, regional independent bookstores such as John Rollins, Thackeray's, Schuler Books, and Joseph-Beth Booksellers. Until Borders Superstore expansion occurred in the early 1990s, BIS serviced more independent stores than Borders stores. Former Hickory Farms president Robert F. DiRomualdo was hired in 1989 to expand the company exponentially.They also have A.C.C.E.S.S. kids present their YA. books [annualy].

[edit] Kmart and Waldenbooks

Borders was acquired in 1992 by Kmart, which had acquired Borders' rival Waldenbooks eight years earlier in 1984, but a stock buyback in 1995 enabled Borders and Waldenbooks to form its own corporation, the Borders-Walden Group, later renamed Borders Group.

[edit] International expansion

In 1997, the company established its first international store in Singapore, occupying 32,000 square feet in Wheelock Place, Orchard Road, which was then the largest bookstore there. It has since opened another 40 stores in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, and 35 Books etc. stores throughout Britain. However, due to the fierce competition in the UK marketplace, a number of these Books etc. stores will be closed and will be replaced by larger Borders stores in retail parks on the edge of town. In Q3 2006, the Singapore store emerged as the best performing amongst the entire group's 559 outlets, with the highest revenue generated per Square feet^[1]. The highest grossing store in US territory is located in Puerto Rico.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Franchise stores

Flagship store in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The Borders Book and Music store at Kennedy Mall, Dubuque, Iowa.

In April, 2005, Borders Group opened its first franchise store with Malaysia's Berjaya Group Berhad in Kuala Lumpur. It is located in Berjaya Times Square, which is the world's biggest mall built in a single phase, with 7,500,000 square feet (700,000 m²). Incidentally, the store in Berjaya Times Square is advertised as being the world's biggest Borders at 60,000 square feet (5,600 m²). After Berjaya Times Square, Borders opened their 2nd store in Malaysia. It is located in The Curve, Mutiara Damansara. The 3rd Borders store opened in Queensbay Mall, Penang. Borders opened a franchise store in Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, UAE in October 2006.

[edit] Changes and controversies

[edit] Muhammad cartoon controversy

On March 29, 2006, in response to the controversy over cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, Borders Group announced that Waldenbooks and Borders bookstores would not carry the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine that contained the controversial cartoons.[1] Borders Group did carry an issue of Harper's the next month which also featured the cartoons.

[edit] iPod/Zune switch

In 2006, Borders ceased to sell iPods and iPod accessories. In exchange, they have started selling the rival mp3 player, Microsoft's Zune. After the switch, some lingering iPod products, such as cases, were still available, but as of 2007, no new iPod related merchandise will be sold by the company.

[edit] Changes in business plan

In March 2007, Borders Group announced it would scale down the number of Waldenbooks outlets it had by half, to about 300, in the next year.

The company also announced that its marketing alliance with Amazon.com would end. (Amazon had been essentially acting as Borders' online component.) Borders will launch its own web sales site in 2008. [2]

[edit] Trivia

The essayist Sven Birkerts worked at the original Borders store on State Street in Ann Arbor during the 1970s and wrote about his experiences in The Gutenberg Elegies. Writer Benjamin Cheever also wrote about his brief tenure as a Borders employee in Selling Ben Cheever.

[edit] See also

The Borders Book and Music store at the Severance Town Center, Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

List of bookstore chains

[edit] References

^ "S'pore store is Borders' No. 1", The Straits Times (Life!), 15 November 2006, p. 10

[edit] External links

(While both of the above sites bear the Borders name, the first one is run entirely by Amazon, while the second one includes information and ordering capabilities specific to Borders stores.)

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