Stores that didn’t turn a profit last year had a letter sent to their school. The letter stated that the school implement Access or Follett was pulling out of the contract at the end of 180 days.
The 180 days will be up at the beginning of October.
How many schools will we be closing soon?
If you didn’t turn a profit last year ask your RM or campus contact about the letter.
Honestly, I won’t cry. I’ve been thrown around like a rag doll by this company.
MS, bully boy for the rich!
(until they can't pay him anymore!)
You can pull out of a contract if the cost of defending the action is less costly than the losses sustained by honoring the contract. follett pays a lot of lawyers a lot of money to defend less defenseless stuff (abusing employees for instance.).
The institutions are put in a place of quickly finding a new provider. That negates any negotiating power they may have. So, yes, follett can walk away from contracts with great effect.
And lets not forget Valore and Nebraska purchases for way more than market value. SMART business people those Folletts!
Bet there is some gnashing of teeth of paying double the asking price of B&T and dropping $50M + on the Ivory Tower.
SMART business people those Folletts!
I don't see colleges jumping on the Access bandwagon. It doesn't take a business major to see this program doesn't save students one red cent. Its smoke and mirrors, no textbook cost but tuition is raised. The days of overpriced college textbooks is dying like all dinosaurs do. A good number of professors have already found alternate ways to get the materials they need at a much lower cost to students. Follett is looking at Access as the savior of the company, its not. Follett has not evolved, that have not looked outside the box to increase revenue. Follett is on life support and they are injecting placebos expecting a miracle.
I have to agree with OP+16z02Rz4. Access is the only path forward. This will buy Follett a few more years but not much more.
Not sure if the letter is real (I believe it is, folks financials are worse than you can imagine), but our store contract always contain exist clauses for either party with a xxx days notice. There is no financial penalty if the exist clause is exercised.
Follett's only hope for survival in the long run is the Access program. Lock students into buying from only one source, and act like you are giving a discount. As we have seen over the past 10 years, Follett cannot compete in an open market. As MLS said many times, our competitors ate our breakfast, lunch and now they are back for dinner.
Each contract has a notice clause. Either side can give notice to end the partnership at any point with the proper notice. However, sometimes a school negotiates the Follett option out so you’d have to check your individual contract.
Fake news
You can't just "pull out" of a contract. There would be financial implications. The schools or follett can choose not to enter in to a new contract at the end of the current one. A good portion of the smaller schools will be going under anyway
So this letter would have been sent months ago, but this is the first we're hearing about it now?