At a town hall meeting yesterday, Baker & Taylor owner and CEO Aman Kochar said that while he had hoped to find another way forward for the company after its acquisition deal with ReaderLink was called off, he now does not see a sustainable path to keep the library wholesaler in business.
As a result, B&T let go about 520 employees yesterday and plans to wind down the business by January. Employees who were laid off had their severance plans canceled as well. B&T had undergone some layoffs earlier this year, but recently had as many as 1,500 full-time and part-time employees.
A story in the Shaw Local, a business journal for Northern Illinois, said that of the 318 employees in the B&T distribution center in Momence, IL., 253 were let go on October 6. Sixty-two employees will remain until December 22 and a “post–wind down” group of three employees will be let go on Jan. 3.
Details of the closure were released yesterday through Illinois’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. After citing the failed acquisition by ReaderLink, the WARN report stated that “despite Baker & Taylor’s subsequent efforts, it was unsuccessful in seeking a path to continue its business operations.”
As of yesterday, a thread on the r/Libraries subreddit was filled with B&T employees offering personal stories about being let go. A B&T spokesperson had no comment on the various reports; publishers and librarians have been frustrated by the lack of communication from B&T since the ReaderLink purchase was terminated.
It wasn’t clear Tuesday morning how the wind down will proceed in terms of B&T looking to sell off various parts of its business. Baker & Taylor Publisher Services, for example, has been seen as a particular attractive asset that could attract buyers.
