Administrators have begun a ‘managed wind down’ of The Book People after they were unable to find a buyer for the company.
The book retailer, which has its head office in Godalming, Surrey, operates a 92,000 sq ft warehouse at Parc Menai in Bangor.
The company went into administration in December and announced 155 redundancies last month, with 60 workers leaving the Parc Menai site.
Founded in 1988 The Book People is a long-established retailer specialising in selling children’s books and collections at competitive prices. The business is primarily an online retailer, with over 76% of sales through its online platform with the balance of sales via employed and self-employed distributors who deliver mobile book school fairs and buses, and pop up stores in workplaces.
The business has an annual turnover in excess of £50 million, employed 393 staff and sold over 17 million children’s books each year – approximately 3 books for every child of primary school age in the UK.
Toby Underwood and Zelf Hussain from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) were appointed as administrators of The Book People Ltd in December 2019.
The appointment of Administrators was said to be the result of the difficult trading environment that the business has been experiencing, combined with increasing working capital pressures.
Despite negotiations with interested parties, it was not possible to secure a sale of the company. In the absence of any further interest, the administrators will now implement a managed wind down process and will continue trading the business to realise value for stock through e-commerce. There is currently no fixed final date for trading, but it could continue through to Easter.
No further redundancies were made immediately following the latest update, but are expected.
The Book People Ltd will continue to trade through its e-commerce channel with the retained staff and the intention is to fulfil and deliver all customer orders received and accepted, while any remaining interest is explored.
Toby Underwood, restructuring partner for PwC, said: “This is a very hard time for everybody associated with this much-loved and long established brand, especially in light of the strong initial interest we received from potential acquirers for the trading business. Unfortunately, despite best efforts, it has not been possible to secure a sale.
“Our focus will be on supporting employees over the coming months and on achieving best value for creditors with minimal disruption during the trading period.”
