Philip Downer, the former Borders U.K. CEO and head of Waterstone's U.S. in the 1990s, is opening a bookstore called Calliope in Surrey, according to the Bookseller. He has 30 years of retail experience and has run the retail consultants Front of Store since Borders closed. Downer's partner in Calliope is Andy Adamson, another former Borders U.K. veteran.
"We envisage a store and an online offer with a combination of books, gifts and other merchandise," Downer said at a meeting of the Galley Club. "I've been saying for some time that bookshops have to diversity and that being an expert 100% bookshop shows a profound failure to understand how customer expectations have changed. There is an opportunity to sell quality books to a broad consumer audience."
The books will be "of quality, inside and out," he said. "I was a judge in the British Book Design and Production Awards and spent two days looking at these fantastic books and recognising that we have the design and production capability in this country to produce truly beautiful, attractive books. It is interesting the extent to which some of the major publishers is grasping that nettle."