Matras bookstores up for sale

Poland’s second largest bookstore network, Matras, has been put up for sale, Jolanta Liżewska-Zyzek, the company’s marketing director confirmed, Tuesday. There are four companies interested in taking over a controlling stake in Matras, which include publishing outfits, Liżewska-Zyzek said, although “at this time we cannot give any more details.” Talk of the bookstore’s sale came about mid-2013, when the Ipopema publishing fund offered to buy the company for PLN 26 million. In 2012, Matras took in PLN 180 million in revenue, a rise of 14 percent on 2011 figures. Matras S.A. was founded on the back of the Katowice-based bookshop of the same name, which started operating in 1991. The company took over the bookshops of the former Dom Książki publishers, and also started opening new stores in shopping malls. Matras concentrates on retail sales, with over 90 percent of revenue coming in from its bookstores. In 2013, the company had 180 stores nationwide, making it Poland’s second largest such store. In 2011, Matras started its internet store, which brought in PLN 1.83 million in revenue in 2011 and PLN 4 million in 2012, although analysts point to the shop’s internet offerings as possibly being the source of the company’s financial problems.