Book chain closure body blow to local printers

Administrators are threatening to close the remaining 59 Angus & Robertson and nine Borders book stores if a buyer cannot be found immediately.

The closure would be devastating for the local book printing and publishing industries, encouraging many more book buyers to go online and source books from overseas. The book chains were owned by PE-back REDGroup and were heavily in debt. The US division of Borders is also in administration.

According to Michael Schulz, SOS Printing, the loss of the opportunity to go to a bookshop to browse the shelves will make online buying even more attractive.

“People go to bookstores for ideas, to see what’s available. If there are no stores they will go online. And with the strength of the dollar, who can blame them?” he said.

SOS Printing is one of the most sophisticated printers in the emerging short-run digital space. It has Auistralia's first Kodak Prosper high-speed inkjet press for book production.

Local publishers will also be hit hard as much of the bookstore’s stock is on a ‘sale or return’ basis.

Ferrier Hodgson administrator, John Melluish, said he would consider selling individual stores as he urgently seeks offers from potential buyers of all or part of the Angus & Robertson or Borders networks.

Melluish made 34 staff from REDgroup’s Melbourne headquarters redundant yesterday. REDgroup, owner of the two bookstore chains once had 116 stores and 2,327 employees in Australia and 90 stores and 1,150 employees in New Zealand.

According to Maree McCaskill, CEO, Australian Publishers Association, the REDgroup’s demise has diminished the range of books available to the Australian consumer.

“It continues to eat into the wide range and array of books available to the consumer, particularly as chains and independent bookshops are able to provide a wide range of books that cannot often be stocked in the big discount stores,” said McCaskill (pictured).

She says people often forget that bookshops are servicing wide areas when they are in regional locations and when you lose those bookstores then that town’s access is diminished.

“It’s really sad that this is the way it’s going. If you look at the closure of bookshops then you are also losing skilled book selling staff. When you lose a bookshop you are starting to eat into the fabric of the community, as a bookshop offers many more services apart from just selling books,” she said.

SOS Printing, one of the most advanced book on-demand printers in Australia took delivery of the first Kodak Stream high-speed inkjet printers late last year and is now producing books in limited quantities with a 24-hour turnaround.