Borders' UK New Investor

There was a profile of Luke Johnson in the Wednesday Evening Standard which I read wedged into seat 26a coming home. Even thought he is only 45, Johnson has a long history of both entrepreneurial activities and private equity investing. He is currently Chairman of Channel 4 which was one of the early commercial UK broadcasters but if there is a theme to his business history it is in retail customer management. He believes that the Borders UK operations have a lot to offer and,

"It's like gold to us." Come on, there's a Borders near me, and while it's great wandering round the basement listening to the CDs, I'm also aware I'm often the only one down there. "In music retailing, life is tough," Johnson says. "HMV and Virgin have shown that. Borders needs reshaping. "When the internet came along, people said it would transform retailing -- it's taken until now for it to really make an impact. It's not just CDs -- travel agents, cameras shops, video rental, they all face a difficult future. But Borders doesn't just sell CDs, its main business is selling books and the good thing about them is that their sales are still growing. Millions of people want to browse in bookshops. Did you know the average dwell time in a Borders is one hour?"

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