The Bookseller.com

22nd August 2008

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Foyle on Foyles

03.04.08 Graeme Neill

Departing Foyles chairman Christopher Foyle has said that he has "no plans whatsoever currently to sell the business", following his decision to step back from day to day control.

Last week, Foyle and his cousin Bill Samuel, vice-chairman of the independent, announced they were stepping back from their executive roles at Foyles, bringing family involvement at the operational end of the business to a close after more than a century.

Foyle will continue as chairman but in a non-executive capacity, while Samuel will step down as vice-chairman to become a non-executive director. Both have taken a more "hands-off" approach since Sam Husain joined as c.e.o. in May last year.

Foyle told The Bookseller that it was not his intention to "retire completely", and that he would remain in contact with the business on "an almost day-to-day basis". He said he would like to see the business "continue to survive and prosper in family ownership". "One or more [of the family] will have to have the aptitude either to run the business, or at least have the skill to ensure that the right people are recruited and kept in employment to run the business on behalf of its shareholders."

However, he added: "One day, in years to come, if the above is not attainable, in my opinion then I would have to consider selling it and that would not exclude a management buyout. In any case, rather than seek the highest price, if that day was ever to come, I would rather sell to a person or company that I thought would most likely ensure that it retained its ethos and was going to be a success."

Foyle was bullish about the business' future under its revamped management team. "It now has an excellent management and bookselling team headed by its c.e.o. Sam Husain and its results are improving steadily," he said.

The chairman said that retirement will give him the time to concentrate on several writing and research projects. He will be spending most of the year in Monaco, having recently moved there with his wife. "Monaco will provide kinder weather and an attractive lifestyle with many interesting areas of France and Italy to explore close by," he said.

"We also intend to travel to many parts of the world that we have not yet visited - principally India, Africa, the Far East and South America. [Although] we are sorry to be leaving the country and our life here, particularly at our historic home in Essex that we so much love."

Retail Foyles Graeme Neill Christopher Foyles