Episode summary
Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt on Reviving an Iconic Brand | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · 11 min · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec · Guests: James Daunt
Summary
Barnes & Noble is being run less like a centralized chain and more like a collection of community bookstores, and James Daunt says that change has helped the company benefit from a broader rebound in reading and physical book shopping. He argues that COVID, the rise of Kindle, and the assumption that print books were fading hurt the category, but that readers and booksellers have since regained confidence.
Daunt says the winning formula is curation, local tailoring, and giving store teams more freedom. He describes Barnes & Noble as a place that should be full of books, but also able to reflect its neighborhood, host events, and sell related products like vinyl, CDs, toys, games, and board games. He says the chain is now over 700 stores, up from below 600 a short while ago, and that the business has been growing along with the broader book market.
On a possible IPO, Daunt defers, saying that is “above my pay grade,” though he says he enjoys the job and hopes to keep doing it. He also warns that AI-generated books should be clearly labeled, and says Barnes & Noble works to exclude them from its online business when possible.
Key takeaways
- Daunt says Barnes & Noble’s turnaround depends on giving individual stores more autonomy and abandoning strict chain-wide uniformity.
- He says the book market has rebounded after COVID, helped by renewed interest in physical bookstores and a resurgence in reading.
- Daunt says Barnes & Noble is now over 700 stores, up from below 600 a short while ago, supporting higher sales.
- He says AI books are not a meaningful category in Barnes & Noble stores and should be clearly identified if sold online.
- Daunt says an IPO decision is above his pay grade, though he would like to continue as CEO.
Notable quotes
“I think we run our bookstores better I like to say and but I think also the independents are opening up great stores around and people are discovering the pleasures of of a physical bookstore and we're benefiting”
“We give them no constraints, no budget constraints, no visual constraints. We just say use common sense and make it the best possible bookstore you can”
“we are now over 700 stores. In fact, we were below 600 a short while ago”
“that is above my pay grade. So”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts, radio news. — You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio. — James Don is CEO of Barnes & Noble. He's managing director of Waterstone's bookstores in the UK. He's founder and owner of the independent bookstore chain Dant Books 2. He joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Broker Studio. Welcome.
Thank you for having me. So, it's a private company now, so we don't get the all the numbers that we get, but right before it was taken private, Barnes & Noble had a loss of $125.5 million on revenues of $3.7 billion for that was for the fiscal year that ended April of 2018. Same store sales were down more than 5%.
What What are some metrics you can give us right now that speak to the health of the company?
Well, I think generally the book market has rebounded. So it's not just us though it is definitely us along with books and covid was a difficult time for us obviously a lot of our stores were closed but uh people rediscovered reading um but also I think always bookstores are great places in which uh all pe all all ages all types but particularly young people like to gather and like to read and I think we run our bookstores better I like to say and but I think also the independents are opening up great stores around and people are discovering the pleasures of of a physical bookstore and we're benefiting I love that you go there. Why do you think it's come back?
Because it used to be just lovely little bookstores in towns and um cities and then of course the big guys came in and I mean there was always the tug of war between the big and the small.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- retail booksellers
- brand turnaround
- nook digital
- e-commerce media
- public company status
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Barnes & Noble
- Elliott Advisors
- Paper Source
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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