‘Don’t want the limelight’: Who is Booktopia’s low-profile new boss?

Few Australians had heard of Shant Kradjian before he swooped in to rescue online bookseller Booktopia from administration last month.

The entrepreneur, who established his ecommerce business DigiDirect, specialising in camera equipment, two years after Booktopia was founded, has seldom courted media attention.

“The Booktopia brand touched a lot more people than [the] DigiDirect brand, so I thought it’s probably worth me getting a little bit more in front of people,” he told this masthead.

DigiDirect chief executive and Booktopia’s new boss Shant Kradjian.

“I don’t particularly want to be in the limelight too much, but at least people have to understand that there’s someone behind it [Booktopia] to invest and drive the business.”

Since signing the paperwork to acquire the embattled bookseller for an undisclosed sum, Kradjian has hastened to get it trading again, and to rekindle relationships with authors and members of the publishing industry, many of whom were left out of pocket by the collapse.

It has pulled some of his attention away from DigiDirect, which turned over $235 million in fiscal 2024.

Kradjian set up the online camera business when he was about 19, while working at a camera store in Sydney’s CBD in the early 2000s, spotting an opportunity in online sales at a time when few retailers had woken up to the internet.

DigiDirect is now one of the biggest specialist camera retailers in the country, with seven stores and 150 staff. It recently diversified into other tech equipment, including monitors and audio products.

“It wasn’t so much about cameras; it was the business,” he said. “I took that on and kept DigiDirect as an online-only business. Very quickly, the online-only business was doing better than the store.”

But Kradjian’s foray into entrepreneurship began well before that, when he set up a car wash at a petrol station-based mechanic that didn’t trade at the weekends.

“I would have probably been 14 years old,” he said. “Back then there weren’t as many car washes.”

Lesser-known is the fact Kradjian has also amassed an expansive portfolio of investments in other businesses that range from equities and residential and commercial property to pharmacies to rooftop bars.

“We’ve got property from asset management, construction, investments, development,” he said. “We’ve got interest in health, which are investments in pharmacies and medical centres ... investments in hospitality venues across Sydney, Brisbane, and another business does equities.”

Booktopia has been one way for him to expand this portfolio: the fundamentals of selling things online remain predominantly the same, whether it’s cameras or books. Booktopia also provides exposure to a different category, and higher margins, while allowing both businesses to retain their sizeable market share.

The entrepreneur’s approach to operating Booktopia appears to be very similar to how he has managed DigiDirect: run a lean, tight ship with a steady hand, keep suppliers and authors happy, invest in the community. Not being a publicly listed company will also mean less scrutiny.

Kradjian also doesn’t like to waste time. About a week after getting the keys, he has moved DigiDirect’s head office, based in Sydney’s St Peters, to Booktopia’s warehouse in South Strathfield. The acquisition has also generated some movement among staff who have expressed interest in jumping over to the other business.

The warehouse is also where Kradjian is investing in creating a dedicated book-signing area and setting up a new podcast studio (powered by DigiDirect equipment).

Meanwhile, a new full-time role has been created and filled to manage author relationships.

Out with the old, in with the new

None of Booktopia’s previous management team, what was left of them, have been retained by the new entity (“Everyone was the chief,” Kradjian said of the top-heavy structure). He has purchased the business without needing to pay any of the former entity’s high-interest debts or take on the expensive second office in Rhodes.

One of the biggest proverbial straws to arguably break Booktopia’s back – an ill-timed expensive $12 million investment in the robotics warehouse just before a cost-of-living crunch – is one of Kradjian’s greatest assets as he plots to use the facility, with plenty of spare capacity, for DigiDirect’s operations.

“I always wanted the whole business, but it needed to be cleaned,” he said. “The fat was the extra leases, the debts, the headcount. It was doing similar turnover to my business with twice as many staff.

“If we ran it the same way we ran Digi – tighter, leaner, with the revenues and margins that Booktopia has – it could actually do very well, profitability-wise.”

Shant Kradjian, the new chief executive of Booktopia, has kept a low profile.

Not sated by his recent acquisition, Kradjian is already looking further afield for opportunities to add to his quietly growing empire. DigiDirect and Booktopia could benefit from expanded services, for instance.

“There are a couple [of businesses] we’re still talking to … in the e-commerce space,” he said. “If we can bolt on a few of these couple-hundred-million dollar businesses, I think we can build a stable of companies.”

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