Cody's Books Acquired by Yohan, Inc.

On Wednesday, September 6, Cody's Books announced that it had been acquired by Yohan, Inc., a Tokyo-based bookseller, distributor, and publisher. Yohan -- which owns 18 bookstores in Japan, as well as the Tokyo-based IBC Publishing, Inc. and the Berkeley-based Stone Bridge Press -- purchased Cody's two stores, on Fourth Street in Berkeley and on Union Square in San Francisco. In July, a third Cody's location, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, was closed by owner Andy Ross due to declining sales.

Cody's will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Yohan, Inc.

Ross, who will remain president of Cody's, said in a statement, "We are very excited about our partnership with Yohan as we begin our next half century. Yohan shares our commitment to independent bookselling. Working together we can extend our reach both locally and globally." Ross noted that Yohan's "financial resources and international relationship will strengthen our existing operations, and will allow us to properly restock our shelves and offer the broad in-depth selection that customers expect from Cody's."

Leslie Berkler will become Cody's vice president, focusing on store operations, as well as its growing off-site programs, including book fairs, schools, libraries, and corporate sales.

Yohan, Inc. CEO Hiroshi Kagawa -- who considers his bookstores to be the underdog to Japanese chains like Kinokuniya -- told BTW that one of the reasons he purchased Cody's is because he saw it going through financial problems similar to those faced by his Aoyama Book Center a few years ago. Aoyama is an independent bookstore with five locations in Japan that Yohan purchased in 2004. "We shared the same kind of issue -- an independent bookshop fighting to survive. [Aoyama] has successfully survived and grown," said Kagawa. His goal is to do the same with Cody's -- help it survive and grow, he said.

Kagawa noted that, with the purchase of Cody's, he anticipates collaborative buying to strengthen his Japan stores and Cody's stores. He said he also foresees Cody's taking on more Asian titles and his Japan-based stores stocking a greater variety of English-language titles. Moreover, he noted that "maybe for the future, we will outsource [Yohan's] buying operation to Cody's" in order to get a better English-language title variety.

Cody's was founded by Fred and Pat Cody in 1956. Ross acquired the flagship Berkeley bookstore in 1977 and opened a second Berkeley store in 1997 and the downtown San Francisco store in 2005.

Kagawa noted in a statement that it is his company's "ultimate mission to promote culture and communications worldwide."

Founded in 1953, Yohan describes itself as the largest distributor of English-language books and magazines in Japan. Its U.S. affiliate, Stone Bridge, publishes a range of books on Japan, including fiction, books on anime, Japanese language, and business. IBC Publishing, which was created by a merger of Yohan Publications and ICG Muse, publishes books in both English and Japanese.