The Bookseller.com

8th September 2008

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Borders overhauls IT systems

18.06.08 Graeme Neill

Borders will begin a trial of new buying and inventory management systems at the end of June, with a roll out across its 40-store portfolio due in the autumn. Reports have suggested that the systems overhaul would lead to the loss of between 20 and 30 jobs at head office, with further redundancies on the shop floor. Chief executive Philip Downer declined to comment on the speculation.

The new IT systems represent Borders' most significant investment this year. They replace existing systems implemented by former US parent company Borders Group when it set up in the UK almost 10 years ago; Downer said the changeover needed to happen as the US systems would no longer be supported following the sale of the UK business to Risk Capital Partners last year.

The Brent Cross branch will be the first store to trial the new systems. "We will be able to carry out orders and replenishments on a next-day basis," said Downer. "At the moment there can be a delay of several days and sometimes weeks."

He said that the overhaul would also mean that stores have to carry less "emergency" stock in case a book sells out. "We will be able to maintain core stock availability of around 30,000 titles on a lower overall stockholding, which will lower exposure and the amount of returns.

The system changeover will be the first task facing Peter Newbould, who was hired as head of buying for the book chain last week. He joins Borders in early August from Superdrug, where he was category director for healthcare and ran the trading team for toiletries and medicines.

Newbould effectively replaces former commercial director David Kohn, who left Borders in April. His responsibilities will include driving sales through product availability, range and promotional performance. He will report to Downer, with category manager Caroline Mileham and head of supply chain Geoff O'Neill reporting to him.

Meanwhile, Downer said he envisaged sales from Borders' new transactional website to equate to "one of our best stores" within 12 months. The site is still at beta testing stage and at a press launch last week, Downer said that among the features to be rolled out was a tagging system for finding books. He said e-books would be available online once publishers had produced them.

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