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Waterstone's
Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones (formerly Waterstone's), is a British bookselling, book retailer based in London, England, owned by the American investment group Elliott Investment Management. It operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and other nearby countries. it employed around 3,500 staff in Britain and Europe. The average Waterstones branch sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products. Founded in 1982 by Tim Waterstone, the bookseller expanded rapidly until being sold in 1993 to WHSmith. In 1998 Waterstones was bought by a consortium of Waterstone, EMI, and Advent International. The company was taken under the umbrella of HMV, which later merged the Dillons the Bookstore, Dillons and Ottakar's brands into the company. Following several poor sets of results for the group, HMV put the chain up for sale. In May 2011 it was announced that A&NN Capital Fund Management, owned by the R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ottakar's
Ottakar's was a chain of bookshops in the United Kingdom founded in 1987 by James Heneage. Following a takeover by the HMV Group in 2006, the chain was merged into the Waterstone's brand, who retain the Ottakar's trademark after Waterstones and HMV split. History James Heneage established the Ottakar's chain in 1987, taking inspiration from ''The Adventures of Tintin'' book '' King Ottokar's Sceptre''. He saw a lucrative market in small towns that lacked a Waterstones branch and opened stores in Loughborough, Brighton, Banbury, Salisbury and Trowbridge. A number of Ottakar's stores drew on the Tintin connection and had walls painted with scenes from the series. The Ottakar store in Bromley, London had a large rocket taken from the Tintin novels so that children could play inside it. Above the rocket was a cartoon picture of the night sky to add to the effect. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1998 and expanded rapidly, making a number of acquisitions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tim Waterstone
Sir Timothy John Stuart Waterstone (born 30 May 1939) is a British bookseller, businessman and author. He is the founder of Waterstones, the United Kingdom-based bookseller retail chain, the largest in Europe. Early life Timothy John Stuart Waterstone was born on 30 May 1939 in Glasgow, Scotland. He is the son of Malcolm Stuart Waterstone, MBE (died 1977), and Sylvia Catherine (died 1967), daughter of George Curnock Sawday of Beechfield, The Common, Weybridge, Surrey, a dentist and "well-known amateur rosarian". Malcolm Waterstone had previously worked in Calcutta in his fifty-year career with P. R. Buchanan & Co., a Glasgow tea company operating in India, of which he became a partner. He was appointed MBE in 1942, whilst serving as a Captain (temporary Major) in the Royal Army Service Corps. Waterstone grew up in "a rather cramped, 1930s detached house ... Ugly, unpretentious, nice big garden, fields at the end of it" in Crowborough, East Sussex, England. He was educated at T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hodges Figgis
Hodges Figgis is a long-operating bookshop in central Dublin, Ireland. Founded in 1768, it is probably the third-oldest functioning bookshop in the world, after the Livraria Bertrand of Lisbon (1732) and Pennsylvania's Moravian Book Shop (1745). It was moved and expanded numerous times, and arrived at 56 Dawson Street in 1979, and gradually expanded to take its current form of four floors at 56-58 Dawson Street in 1992. It is mentioned in James Joyce's Literary modernism, modernist novel ''Ulysses (novel), Ulysses'', at the time of which it would have been situated at 104 Grafton Street, and the novel ''Conversations with Friends'' by Sally Rooney, and in other writings. Since 2011, Hodges Figgis has been owned and operated by Waterstones, which in turn is owned by US investment management firm Elliott Investment Management and A&NN Capital Fund Management (an investment fund owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut). History 18th century The bookshop was opened in 1768 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Mamut
Alexander Leonidovich Mamut (; born 29 January 1960) is a Russian-Israeli billionaire, oligarch, lawyer, banker and investor. Until 2020, he was a co-owner of Rambler Group. In June 2022, ''Forbes'' estimated Mamut's net worth at $2 billion. Early life and education Alexander Mamut was born on 29 January 1960. His father is Leonid Solomonovich Mamut, a lawyer and one of the authors of the Russian Constitution. His mother, Cicilia Ludwigovna, is a defense attorney. In 1977, Mamut graduated from Moscow gymnasium #17. He studied law at Moscow State University, graduating in 1982. Career Mamut began his career as a legal advisor at a printing house. In 1990, together with Andrey Gloriozonov, Mamut founded "Business and Cooperation” Bank, that was renamed in 1991 into Commercial Bank "Imperial" with Segey Rodionov as chairman and President of the Board. The bank was founded to service companies in the field of fuel and energy. Its biggest clients were the Rem Viakhirev asso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bookselling
Bookselling is the commercial trading of books, which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, book people, bookmen, or bookwomen. History The founding of libraries in stimulated the energies of the Athens, Athenian booksellers. In Ancient Rome, Rome, toward the end of the Roman Republic, republic, it became the fashion to have a library, and Roman booksellers carried on a flourishing trade. The spread of Christianity naturally created a great demand for copies of the Gospels and other sacred books, and, later on for missals and other devotional volumes for both church and private use. The modern system of bookselling dates from soon after the introduction of printing. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Low Countries, for a time, became primary center of the bookselling world. Modern book selling has changed dramatically with the advent of the Internet. Major websites such as Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WHSmith
WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery. The company was formed by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in 1792 as a news vendor in London. It remained under the ownership of the Smith family for many years and saw large-scale expansion during the 1970s as the company began to diversify into other markets. Following a rejected private equity takeover in 2004, the company began to focus on its core retail business. It was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book identifier. The company reached an agreement in 2025 to sell its high street store business to Modella Capital. Upon completion of the sale, that business will be renamed TGJones. WHSmith is listed on the Lond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dillons The Bookstore
Dillons was a British bookseller founded in 1936, named after its founder and owner Una Dillon. Originally based in Bloomsbury in London, the company expanded under subsequent owners Pentos in the 1980s into a bookselling chain across the United Kingdom. In 1995 Pentos went into receivership and sold Dillons to Thorn EMI, which immediately closed 40 of the 140 Dillons bookstore locations. Of the remaining 100 stores, most kept the name Dillons, while the remainder were Hatchards and Hodges Figgis. Within Thorn EMI, Dillons was placed in the HMV, HMV Group, which had been a division of Thorn EMI since 1986. EMI demerged from Thorn in August 1996, and Dillons-HMV remained an EMI holding. Dillons was subsumed under rival chain Waterstones' branding in 1999, at which point the brand ceased to exist. History Store Street Dillon's Bookshop was founded by Una Dillon in 1936 at 9 Store Street, London, Store Street, between Gower Street, London, Gower Street and Tottenham Court Road in Blo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bookshop
Bookselling is the commercial trading of books, which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, book people, bookmen, or bookwomen. History The founding of libraries in stimulated the energies of the Athenian booksellers. In Rome, toward the end of the republic, it became the fashion to have a library, and Roman booksellers carried on a flourishing trade. The spread of Christianity naturally created a great demand for copies of the Gospels and other sacred books, and, later on for missals and other devotional volumes for both church and private use. The modern system of bookselling dates from soon after the introduction of printing. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Low Countries, for a time, became primary center of the bookselling world. Modern book selling has changed dramatically with the advent of the Internet. Major websites such as Amazon, eBay, and other big book distri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Daunt
Achilles James Daunt (born 18 October 1963) is a British businessman. He is the founder of the Daunt Books chain, and since May 2011 has been managing director of the bookshop chain Waterstones. Since August 2019, Daunt has also been CEO of Barnes & Noble, the American bookstore chain. He is known as "the man who saved Waterstones". Early life and education Achilles James Daunt was born on 18 October 1963,"Interview" by Oliver Shah in ''The Sunday Times'' Business Section, 22 December 2013, p. 6. the son of the diplomat Sir Timothy Daunt and his wife Patricia Susan Knight. He was educated at Sherborne School, before reading history at Pembroke College, Cambridge University. Career His first job was as a purser with Carnival Cruise Lines. After working in the US as a banker for JP Morgan between 1985 and 1988, he founded Daunt Books in 1990, a chain of six bookshops in London. In May 2011, he was appointed managing director of Waterstones by the company's new owner, the R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paperchase
Paperchase is an international chain of stationery stores which was established in the United Kingdom but has since expanded into Continental Europe, the USA and United Arab Emirates. As well as stand alone stores, in the UK there were concessions in selected Selfridges, House of Fraser and Next stores. The company went into administration on 30 January 2023 and Tesco purchased the brand and intellectual property, but not the stores, on 31 January 2023. History Paperchase was founded by two art students, Judith Cash and Eddie Pond, around 1968. The company went through various owners before receiving investment from W H Smith in 1985; it continued to expand and in 1996 became Paperchase Products Ltd., having been bought by the existing management with investment from a venture capital fund. In 2004 Borders Inc. bought out Graphite Capital, and the company grew internationally within the Borders network. In 2007 Borders sold a majority stake in the UK and Irish division of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piccadilly
Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, Heathrow Airport and the M4 motorway westward. St James's is to the south of the eastern section, while the western section is built up only on the northern side. Piccadilly is just under in length, and it is one of the widest and straightest streets in central London. The street has been a main thoroughfare since at least medieval times, and in the Middle Ages was known as "the road to Reading, Berkshire, Reading" or "the way from Colnbrook". Around 1611 or 1612, Robert Baker acquired land in the area, and prospered by making and selling piccadills. Shortly after purchasing the land, he enclosed it and erected several dwellings, including his home, Pikadilly Hall. What is now Piccadilly was named Portugal Str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foyles
Foyles, a trading name of Waterstones Booksellers Limited (formerly W & G Foyle Ltd.), is a bookseller with a chain of seven stores in England. It is best known for its flagship store in Charing Cross Road, London. Foyles was once listed in the ''Guinness Book of Records'' as the world's largest bookshop in terms of shelf length, at , and of the number of titles on display. It was bought by Waterstones in 2018. Foyles was famed in the past for its anachronistic, eccentric and sometimes infuriating business practices (see below), so much so that it became a tourist attraction. It has since modernised, and has opened several branches and an online store. History Founding and early branches Brothers William and Gilbert Foyle founded the business in 1903. After failing entrance exams for the civil service, the brothers offered their redundant textbooks for sale and were inundated by offers. This inspired them to launch a second-hand book business from home. Flushed with success ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
