05 February 2010

Borders Announces 124 Layoffs

Detroit Free Press

Borders Group Inc. informed 124 employees this morning that they would lose their jobs.

The layoffs, effective today, apply to 88 employees at the Ann Arbor headquarters and 36 other corporate employees across the country, said Borders spokeswoman Anne Roman.

The number represents less than 1% of the bookseller’s total employee count, but added to other layoffs in recent years its impact at corporate headquarters is big. Borders has shed nearly half of its corporate headquarter employees in the past two years. It now employs 650 people there, compared with 1,232 in 2008.

The layoffs come after news Tuesday that Borders CEO Ron Marshall was leaving the company and it reported weak holiday sales.

“The company didn’t drive sales to the level it needed to,” Roman said. “Companies need to keep payroll aligned with the reality of where sales are.”

Borders also recently consolidated its technology and financial systems for Borders and Waldenbooks stores and needed fewer people in those areas, she said.

Employees whose jobs were eliminated will receive transition pay, severance and job placement assistance.

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