Bertrams was the second largest
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
based wholesaler of books,
owned since 2018 by Aurelius Investments. It has 200,000 titles available for same-day despatch and has access to over 13 million books in print. The group includes Bertram Books, Bertram Publisher Services and Bertram Library Services.
The company was founded in 1971 by
Elsie Bertram and her son Kip, based on a business which Elsie had been running since 1965 in a chicken shed in the garden of her
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...
home.
[ It had and still does have independent booksellers as its core customers.
Bertrams was bought by Woolworths Group in 2007. The acquisition was reviewed by the Competition Commission.
The retail business of Woolworths Group and its distribution firm Entertainment UK entered ]administration
Administration may refer to:
Management of organizations
* Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal
** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...
in November 2008, although Bertrams did not as it operated as a separate division within the group. Woolworths Group entered into administration itself in January 2009.
Bertrams entered administration on 20 March 2009 and sold on the same day by Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Delo ...
in a "pre-pack" deal to Smiths News (now Connect Group) for £8,611,622. It was sold by Connect Group in 2018 and entered administration again on 19 June 2020.
As of June 2020 many of the suppliers remain unpaid. Galley Beggar Press, based in Norwich, is owed £7,000, and its co-founder Sam Jordison said Bertrams has "quite a lot of stock of ours - we have printed the books, but don't know if we can get hold of them".
See also
* List of book distributors
References
External links
* {{official website, http://www.bertrams.com/
1971 establishments in the United Kingdom
Book distributors
F. W. Woolworth Company
Wholesalers of the United Kingdom