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Article: John Smith's African bestseller; With further UK expansion in the academic book trade proving impossible, the world's oldest bookseller began the next chapter in its distinguished history and opened a store in Botswana, writes Ian Fraser
- Article from:
- The Sunday Herald
- Article date:
- July 4, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2004 The Sunday Herald. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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IT's not just the novelist Alexander McCall Smith who has been
making literary hay out of Botswana.
John Smith & Sons, the world's oldest continuously trading
bookseller, has set up shop in the southern African republic. John
Smith's became the country's principal academic bookseller in
September 2002, and is already generating turnover of (pounds) 2
million per year, or 8% of group revenues, from its Botswanan outlet.
Willie Anderson, deputy chairman of John Smith & Sons, says the
bookseller entered the African market because its core business -
book retailing on university and college campuses - had become
saturated in the UK.