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Shakespeare out at British Bookshops
12.05.09 | Graeme Neill
British Bookshops and Sussex Stationers managing director Michael Shakespeare has left the company. Basil McAllister, managing director of its Irish-based parent Easons, confirmed that Shakespeare had departed the retailer, but would not comment further. Shakespeare could not be contacted.
An announcement about the future of the chain, which operates 36 shops across the south east of England, is expected to be made next week.
Last month, Shakespeare told The Bookseller that it had launched a strategic review of the business to see how it could continue to trade in the face of the economic downturn. Shakespeare said: "The review is because of the general situation in retail. We need to look at what we are doing and where we are going for the future of the business."
Irish bookseller Eason acquired British Bookshops in April 2005. In the year to 27th January 2008, British Bookshops made a pretax loss of £1.8m. Sales fell 4.8% to £34.7m, which the company blamed on "supermarkets, high street and online competitors strongly discounting retail prices of books".
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'which the company blamed on "supermarkets, high street and online competitors strongly discounting retail prices of books".'
Bol...ks. They are one of the worst discounters of the lot. Their business model has been flawed for years - you cannot out-discount Amazon and Adsa when you are a sub-regional player.
Yeah....looks like curtains for these dudes...looking at the stats they did well to get this far.
dont know what is going on recieving less stock every day jusy had a stocktake having another in july could bbs be up for sale staff dont have a clue
heres what i know
we are told we have stock on order but we never seem to get it
we had our christmas meal cancelled
no pay rise
no book tokens told they are on order
cant use/sell our gift cards due to a technical fault
no longer having our carrier bags told to use plain papper bags
staff still waiting to hear what is going on ......
it is unbelievable that the staff here know nothing of what is going on, other then what we read in the paper.we have not been told officially that Shakespeare has left, and although rumours abound about Easons selling out to another company, we still have not been told if we are working for someone else or not.we have been left completely in limbo and are being treated like the proverbial mushrooms.
prophets of doom are helping nobody, of couse you don't order branded carrier bags when fewer and fewer people are using plastic bags and you know you might face rebranding, of course the giftcard system is going to encounter problems when the server is run by Easons in Ireland and they are no longer running operations, of course staff aren't being told what's going on if the first thing they do is put out word that there's trouble at mill....
'which the company blamed on "supermarkets, high street and online competitors strongly discounting retail prices of books".'
Bol...ks. They are one of the worst discounters of the lot. Their business model has been flawed for years - you cannot out-discount Amazon and Adsa when you are a sub-regional player.
Yeah....looks like curtains for these dudes...looking at the stats they did well to get this far.
dont know what is going on recieving less stock every day jusy had a stocktake having another in july could bbs be up for sale staff dont have a clue
heres what i know
we are told we have stock on order but we never seem to get it
we had our christmas meal cancelled
no pay rise
no book tokens told they are on order
cant use/sell our gift cards due to a technical fault
no longer having our carrier bags told to use plain papper bags
staff still waiting to hear what is going on ......
it is unbelievable that the staff here know nothing of what is going on, other then what we read in the paper.we have not been told officially that Shakespeare has left, and although rumours abound about Easons selling out to another company, we still have not been told if we are working for someone else or not.we have been left completely in limbo and are being treated like the proverbial mushrooms.
prophets of doom are helping nobody, of couse you don't order branded carrier bags when fewer and fewer people are using plastic bags and you know you might face rebranding, of course the giftcard system is going to encounter problems when the server is run by Easons in Ireland and they are no longer running operations, of course staff aren't being told what's going on if the first thing they do is put out word that there's trouble at mill....