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Public ( NYSE : BGP )
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1971 ( Ann Arbor, Michigan )
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Ann Arbor, Michigan
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George L Jones , CEO & Chairman<br \> Edward Wilhelm , CFO
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Retail (Specialty)
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35,000
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Books , Maps , Compact Disc s, DVD s, Calendar s, Zune s, Gift Packs , Magazines , Board Games , Encyclopedias
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wwwbordersgroupinccom
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() is an international bookseller based in
Ann Arbor ,
Michigan . Borders is a
Fortune 500 company, and is (
As Of 2005 ) the second-largest bookstore chain in the
United States (after
Barnes & Noble ), selling a wide variety of
Books ,
CD s,
DVD s,
Periodical s, as well as gifts and stationery.
Borders owns a majority stake in
Paperchase Products Limited, a leading gifts and stationery retailer in the
United Kingdom , and showcases their products in their stores, as well as
Books Etc. , Borders other, mostly London-based bookshop chain. In 2004, Borders reached an agreement with
Starbucks subsidiary
Seattle's Best Coffee to operate the cafes in its domestic superstores under the Seattle's Best brand name.
As of 2006, there are about 500 Borders stores in the United States, and around 700 Waldenbooks and Borders Express stores in U.S. malls and airports.
The original Borders bookstore is located in
Ann Arbor, Michigan , where it was founded in 1971 by brothers
Tom and
Louis Borders during their undergraduate and graduate years at the
University Of Michigan . The Borders brothers' inventory system tailored each store's offerings to its community. A sister company, Book Inventory Systems (1971-1994), was founded at the same time to serve as a wholesaler for, and provide the brothers' custom inventory system to, regional independent bookstores such as John Rollins, Thackeray's, Schuler Books, and Joseph-Beth Booksellers. Until Borders Superstore expansion occurred in the early 1990s, BIS serviced more independent stores than Borders stores. Former
Hickory Farms president Robert F. DiRomualdo was hired in 1989 to expand the company.
Borders was acquired in
1992 by
Kmart , which had acquired Borders' rival
Waldenbooks eight years earlier in
1984 , but a stock buyback in
1995 enabled Borders and Waldenbooks to form its own corporation, the , later renamed Borders Group.
In 1997, the company established its first international store in
Singapore , occupying 32,000 square feet in
Wheelock Place ,
Orchard Road , which was then the largest bookstore there. It has since opened another 40 stores in the
United Kingdom ,
Ireland ,
Australia , and
New Zealand , and 35
Books Etc. stores throughout Britain. However, due to the fierce competition in the UK marketplace, a number of these
Books Etc. stores will be closed and will be replaced by larger Borders stores in retail parks on the edge of town. In Q3 2006, the Singapore store emerged as the best performing amongst the entire group's 559 outlets, with the highest revenue generated per Square feet''"S'pore store is Borders' No. 1"'',
The Straits Times (Life!),
15 November 2006 , p. 10. The highest grossing store in US territory is located in
Puerto Rico which was recently remodeled and expanded.
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Michigan .]]
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Dubuque, Iowa .]]
In April, 2005, Borders Group opened its first franchise store with
Malaysia 's
Berjaya Books Sdn. Bhd. in
Kuala Lumpur . It is located in
Berjaya Times Square , which is the world's biggest mall built in a single phase, with 7,500,000 square feet (700,000 m&
2). Incidentally, the store in Berjaya Times Square was advertised as being the world's biggest Borders at 60,000 square feet (5,600 m&
2). After Berjaya Times Square, Borders opened their second store in Malaysia. It was located in The Curve,
Mutiara Damansara . The 3rd Borders store opened in
Queensbay Mall ,
Penang on 7 December 2006. Borders opened a franchise store in Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, UAE in October 2006.
On
March 29 ,
2006 , in response to the controversy over
Cartoons Depicting The Prophet Muhammad , Borders Group announced that Waldenbooks and Borders bookstores would not carry the April-May issue of
Free Inquiry magazine that contained the controversial cartoons.
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Borders Group did carry an issue of
Harper's the next month which also featured the cartoons.
In March 2007, Borders Group announced it would scale down the number of Waldenbooks outlets it had by half, to about 300, in the next year.
The company also announced that its marketing alliance with
Amazon.com would end. (Amazon had been essentially acting as Borders' online component.) Borders will launch its own web sales site in
2008 .
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In March 2007 Borders Group also announced the disposal of its UK and Ireland Businesses including its Books Etc Business in the UK, with the aim of revitalizing the core US business, however it was also announced that Borders Group would retain the
Paperchase Stationery Business. However international expansion would be likely to continue via franchising.
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