NOS News•
Student organizations fear a lack of competition in the supply of study materials, now that a major supplier is going out of business. Yesterday parent company The Learning Network said to stop the activities of Studystore and Studers. Studystore sells books and other teaching materials to university and HBO students, Studers to MBO students.
At the beginning of this academic year, Studystore and Studers had major problems with delivering books on time. And those problems continued. “In January, during the deliveries for the second semester, it appeared that the problems had not been sufficiently overcome and the management had to decide to permanently suspend the activities,” said the parent company.
Largest MBO supplier
Studers was the largest supplier of MBO books. According to JOB MBO, the interest group of MBO students, there is actually only one other large party left: MBOwebshop. “The cost of study materials is already high,” says Milan Safy of JOB MBO. “And we are afraid that this will lead to even higher costs for MBO students.”
The LSVB, the interest group of university and higher vocational education students, has the same fears regarding higher vocational education and university study material. “There are very few other parties, which may make textbooks more expensive,” says Joram van Velzen of LSVB.
He also fears that other parties will not be able to cope with the high demand due to the disappearance of Studystore. “I’m holding my breath for the coming academic year. It’s about hundreds of thousands of books that have to be delivered, I’m worried about that.”
‘Enough competition’
Until now, MBOwebshop had a market share of around 33 percent. And according to director Jeroen Borgsteede, there is still enough competition left. “Students can buy from a lot of places and that will still be the case. You can often buy directly from publishers, there is bol.com and there are a lot of options.”
The Learning Network says 26 jobs will be lost as a result of the discontinuation of the two brands. Books already ordered will still be delivered and if something is not in stock, customers will receive a refund. The company will remain active in the market for teaching aids in secondary education.
