| Name | Waterstone's |
|---|---|
| Logo | | |
| Fate | |
| Type | Subsidiary| |
| Foundation | Old Brompton Road, London, England in 1982 | |
| Founder | Tim Waterstone |
| Slogan | feel every word |
| Location city | Brentford, England | |
| Location country | UK | |
| Locations | 303 stores (2009) |
| Area served | Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, UK |
| Key people | |
| Industry | Retail Bookshop | |
| Products | Books |
| Market cap | |
| Revenue | |
| Operating income | |
| Net income | |
| Assets | |
| Equity | |
| Owner | |
| Num employees | 4,500 |
| Parent | HMV Group ( ) |
| Divisions | |
| Subsid | |
| Homepage | www.waterstones.com |
| Footnotes | |
| Intl |
Waterstone's is a British book specialist established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone that now employs around 4,500 staff throughout the United Kingdom and Europe.
Waterstone's launched the Waterstone's Books Quarterly magazine in 2001 containing book reviews and author interviews.
Gerry Johnson was appointed managing director of Waterstone's in September 2005. He oversaw some crucial developments in the company, such as the relaunch of the chain's internet operations and a restructuring of its supply chain. Waterstone's online operations were franchised to Amazon.com in 2001. However, in September 2006 it independently relaunched its internet retail site, Waterstones.com. The redesign was implemented in a small number of stores. From September 2008 a new warehouse and distribution centre in Burton-Upon-Trent began to supply all Waterstone's stores and Waterstones.com orders. Existing direct-to-store deliveries from suppliers were replaced by the centralized "Book Hub" - which would "receive merchandise and sort by section an estimated 70 million books per year, and deliver them directly to store" in addition to dealing with book returns, with an on-site pulping system. After a consultation in January 2009 redundancies were made despite initial comments that the new system would allow these staff "more time on the shop floor serving customers."
Waterstone's was the first bookseller in the UK to begin selling the Sony Reader in September 2008. An agreement saw Waterstone's branches and Sony Centre stores stock the eBook reader exclusively for two weeks after its release, as Waterstones.com began to supply books in the recommended eBook (.epub) format.
In January 2010, HMV Media announced that Waterstone's like for like sales over the Christmas period were 8.5% down on the previous year. It was also announced that managing director Gerry Johnson had left the business with immediate effect . He was replaced by HMV group development director Dominic Myers, who was managing director of the British academic bookselling chain Blackwells. Myers, an Oxford English graduate, joined HMV in 2006 to oversee the integration of Ottakar's into the Waterstone's chain. In response to the decline in sales, Dominic Myers implemented a three-year plan in which stores will be tailored to their local market alongside a "rejuvenation" of the company brand and an increase in range. Alongside these changes, Waterstone's implemented new branding in May 2010, developed by agency VentureThree .
From 2003 until the end of 2009, Waterstone's sponsored charity was Dyslexia Action UK, helping to raise awareness and understanding for Dyslexia . From 2010, Waterstone's moved to support the Rainbow Trust which provides support to children with life threatening and terminal illnesses and their families
On 31 May 2006, Waterstone's announced that it had successfully negotiated the takeover of Ottakar's. HMV chief executive Alan Giles said: "A combined Waterstone's and Ottakar's business will create an exciting, quality bookseller, able to respond better to the increasingly competitive pressures of the retail market." Ottakar's chairman Philip Dunne said: "Over the last year the book market has undergone a significant change with new levels of competition from the supermarkets and online retailers impacting all specialist booksellers and in particular those with insufficient scale to compete on equal terms."
Following the takeover, HMV announced that they would be rebranding every branch of Ottakar's as a Waterstone's. In July 2006, a conversion programme was initiated and within four months, every Ottakar's store had been relaunched as a Waterstone's with the loss of 100 jobs. branch]]
* High Street Retailer of the Year
Category:Companies established in 1982 Category:Bookshops of the United Kingdom
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