Adlibris CEO Ola Toresten announced that Campusbokhandeln will close all ten of its stores across Sweden. The plan is to phase out the stores by the end of May.
The reason for the closures is described by the CEO as a reaction to how the market has evolved, with student demand now almost exclusively online. The company has therefore chosen to focus entirely on its digital offering going forward.
Name Change That Was Reversed
The shift to pure e-commerce comes after a period of strategic adjustments for the brand. A year ago, owner Adlibris announced that Campusbokhandeln would change its name to Adlibris Campus.
However, the chain, which handles the purchase and sale of new and used course literature, reverted to its original name in December when the change was not considered to have had the desired effect.
Uncertain Future for Staff
The transition to e-commerce affects staff in cities such as Uppsala, Stockholm, Linköping and Lund. What will happen to the employees in the stores is currently unclear.
Ola Toresten tells UNT that the company takes responsibility for its staff in a process that is still ongoing, but he declines to go into details about this at the moment.
On the floor of the Uppsala store, which has had up to 500 customers a day at the start of courses, there is uncertainty about what awaits. Employees explain that information from the store manager has been scarce.
Rumors are circulating within the staff that only personnel with technical skills or experience in logistics may remain in the new e-commerce organization. Contact with the union, Handels, has so far not provided any clear answers for the employees.
"Of course, it's a great disappointment that we are closing and that we have to part with all our wonderful customers," says Freja Ellinor Karlsson, who has worked in the Uppsala store for several years, to the newspaper.