Indigo's house brands are the fastest-growing sector of general items, as it manufactures everything internally, eliminating out the middlemen. When you walk around an Indigo, you'll notice things with labels like OUI, Nóta, The Littlest, Mini Maison, IndigoScents, Love, and Lore. There are no book-related house brands. Heather Reisman, the proprietor, learnt the business of creating private-label soft drinks for grocery chains during the last century. She is currently returning to it.Indigo hasn't come out and declared it's done with books. It can't, considering that Heather has spent the last 25 years establishing herself as Canada's reading queen. Furthermore, the Indigo brand is still connected with books in most people's eyes, and this will not alter overnight, regardless of how many cheeseboards it offers. Heather describes a gradual, seamless transition: "We had a beautiful relationship with our consumers in the book business. Then, organically, some items grew less relevant, while others created opportunities."To be clear, books are immaterial; general goods is the opportunity. Heather recently appointed a man named Peter Ruis as CEO despite his lack of book industry knowledge. He formerly worked in fashion retail, most notably with the Anthropologie chain, which sells clothing, shoes, accessories, home furnishings, furniture, and beauty products. Anthropologie was popular in 2008, and that appears to be where Indigo wants to go now.
Okay, fair enough. You own a firm, and you may
take it in any direction you desire as long as your shareholders agree. I don't blame Heather for having second thoughts about her book business. (I get these every week. It's a tough business. But what does this mean for readers, writers, agents, publishers, and everyone else who cares about books?You will recall that Indigo and Chapters devastated Canada's independent bookselling sector in the 1990s. They are the primary reason why Canada has so few independent bookstores today. You could definitely fit all of our independents' inventory into a dozen of Heather's storefronts.In 2001, the federal government allowed Heather's Indigo to purchase Larry Stevenson's Chapters, giving her a stupidly enormous market share. That shouldn't have occurred.At the same time, thanks to Heather's campaigning, the federal government made it clear that Borders and Barnes & Noble, two American companies, were not welcome up here. The argument was that bookselling was an important element of our cultural sector and should be protected against foreign dominance by the Canadian government.In similar vein, Indigo has petitioned the federal government to block Amazon from opening warehouses in Canada. That request was denied in 2010, about the time Indigo began its transition away from books.
Heather might feel betrayed by the federal government
Instead of preserving bookselling, it opened the door wide for Amazon. You said I would not have to compete!Nonetheless, it is possible that Heather and Indigo may leave Canadian readers and the Canadian literary sector feeling misled. They bought control of the Canadian bookselling market and are now abandoning it.I place more responsibility on the federal government—you intervene in a market, you own it—but assigning blame is pointless when neither party accepts it.We're left with a bookselling business dominated in its brick-and-mortar dimension by one firm pouring red ink and rushing for the exit, and in its online dimension by an international platform that cares nothing about anything Canadian and is similarly deprioritizing books.Last week, Publishers Weekly reported that Amazon was eliminating roles in its books division, following a summer-long effort by the company to reduce the number of books it was keeping in inventory and adding "more fuel to the feeling within publishing that Amazon is losing interest in its book business."Who knows where this will end. Heather stepped down as CEO of Indigo a few months ago (she remains executive chairman). This was followed by her husband and bankroller, Gerry Schwartz, who retired as CEO of Onex this month. It can be a lifestyle decision. This could be an indication that she is about to unload Indigo.
My hope is that she sells to Elliott Advisor
the same private equity firm that owns Waterstones in the United Kingdom and Barnes & Noble in the United States. They appear to have found out how to make a book chain functional.Meanwhile, as I mentioned earlier, the publishing industry requires Indigo. I wish the company a successful and profitable holiday season, and I hope the books perform well for themKen is the editor and publisher of The Sutherland House, the former SVP Public Policy of Rogers Communications, the former editor-in-chief and publisher of Maclean's, and the National Post's founding editor.... Read MoreAt The Hub, we believe that forward-thinking optimism is an essential component of building a brighter future for Canada. It's easy to fall into knee-jerk negativity and luddism, but it doesn't help us develop a better country. We strive to embrace technology's benefits, even if it makes us uncomfortable. So today, we're releasing an op-ed from OpenAI's conversational robot, ChatGPT. We asked it to explain why achieving net zero emissions may not be possible, and this is what it said.Net zero emissions, or the balance between greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration, is regarded as a critical goal in the fight against climate change. However, there are various reasons why obtaining net zero may not be feasible or practicable.First, the technology and infrastructure required to achieve net zero emissions on a global scale are currently insufficient. The transition to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, as well as the development of carbon capture and storage technologies, would necessitate major time and financial commitments. Furthermore, many countries and sectors rely significantly on fossil fuels, making the move to alternative sources of energy difficult and expensive.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment