Thinking to cash in on the growing demand for books, a consortium of book traders set up a new landmark called Books Planet Nepal (BPN) just next to five-star Everest Hotel at New Baneshwor. [break]Welcome to BPN - an educational mart where one can find books, stationary, sports goods and whatever else that can fit in an educational mart.
“As demand for books is increasing at an annual rate of over 25 percent, we find this a good business proposition,” said Hem Chhetri, managing director of Books Planet Nepal. According to Chettri, demand for text books has gone up after the Ministry of Education (MoE) in April 2011 directed all private schools to stop selling textbooks to students.
Chhetri informed as many as 15 people, who were directly involved in book selling business, gathered together and opened BPN with an objective to developing readers by making books and other educational materials more accessible to the people who need them most.
The educational mart has books under seven categories - academic, general, children zone, sports zone, religious zone, magazines and stationery. The academic section has a large collection of books for different disciplines like management, humanities, science, engineering, medicine, law and education, among others.
Similarly, in the general section, it has extensive collection of books on literature, philosophy, politics, nature and tourism, health and beauty, hobby, dictionary, competitive exams, etc.
After receiving overwhelming response from customers, BPN, which was established with an initial investment of Rs 60 million, plans to open similar educational marts in four locations outside the valley. “We are opening a branch in Dhambojee in Nepalgunj on January 21 and other branches in Pokhara, Butwal and Biratnagar within this year,” informed Chettri.
BPN provides a membership card for Rs 100 and through the card customers can enjoy 10 percent discount on every purchase and 15 percent discount on the purchase worth over Rs 15,000.
Apart from books available at the store, BPN also takes orders from customers for the books they want to read and make them available. “We are planning to launch an online access system through which our customers can search the titles available at our store sitting in the comfort of their homes or offices,” informed Chhetri.
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