Continued growth prompts College Book Renter expansion
By KYSER LOUGH
Staff Writer
After claiming to post higher January 2011 sales than all of 2010, College Book Renter in Murray is midway through a major expansion, adding a new call center with a total of 16,000 square feet, converting 32 temporary jobs into full-time positions and getting ready to hire for another 36 full-time positions.
According to Chuck Jones, chief executive of C.A. Jones Management Group, a private equity firm that owns College Book renter, the company experienced tremendous growth recently. College Book renter leases textbooks to college students, providing an alternative to buying the textbook outright.
"It's been really good. It's interesting how much we're growing in a down economy, I think a lot of it is there are a lot of people going back to school. We're also an Internet-based business so we have customers all over the U.S.," Jones said.
Now that the initial rush of textbooks has died down for the spring semester, the company will work to finish the second half of the building expansion, which houses a call center. Jones said the goal is to double their January volumes when the August/September fall rush comes.
Jones said he left his hometown in Missouri upon graduation along with the rest of his class because there was"nothing there," something he said he wants to change for Murray residents. He wants to create a strong job market locally so people who want to live in Murray can have the chance.
"We want kids to come here at Murray State, get out and stay in Murray. Or, go off to college somewhere else and come back. We're pro-Murray and at the end of the day, when it comes to business, I'm for whatever is best for Murray," Jones said.
Most of College Book renter is based in Murray, but also has warehousing operations in Arkansas. Jones said they have developed an in-house automated system, patent pending, that grabs and places books on shelves, called "Jack-Max."