Barnes & Noble Owner Waterstones Adds UK Book Chain Blackwell’s as It Takes On Amazon

Waterstones, the U.K. retailer and owner of U.S. bookstore chain Barnes & Noble, has been undergoing a series of changes to its bookselling model as it tries to battle Amazon, Financial Times reported Sunday.

Recently the company has also bought Blackwell’s, which has been a U.K. bookseller for 143 years.

That acquisition is adding to the U.K. retailer’s collection of chains, including B&N and Foyles and Hatchards , which have long struggled because of the prevalence of Amazon and eCommerce.

Waterstones said it wants to keep Blackwell’s name intact. James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones, said he couldn’t “think that anybody who cares about bookshops would want those [Blackwell’s stores] to close,” the report said.

Blackwell’s has reportedly suffered numerous losses in the recent years due to the large expenses of keeping the stores open.

Daunt has been with Waterstones since 2011, after launching the Daunt Books store, a London chain that is still independent now.

Waterstones spent a few years cutting costs and working on its strategy, which included empowering bookstore managers to customize their stores. The company began to turn a profit by 2016.

The FT report noted that Daunt halved the number of Barnes & Noble’s head office staff, firing 5,000 employees as well. And Waterstones has faced critiques in the past for not paying staff enough.

The report says there’s some positive signs though, with data showing 1,027 independent bookstores in the Booksellers Association – the highest level since 2013.

See also: Barnes & Noble Going Private

PYMNTS wrote that Barnes & Noble announced it was going private in 2019, when it was purchased by the private equity firm Elliott Management, which also owns Waterstones.

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Elliott, the owner of Waterstones, a bookseller I have admired over the years,” said Barnes & Noble Founder and CEO Leonard Riggio in a statement. “In view of the success they have had in the bookselling marketplace, I believe they are uniquely suited to improve and grow our company for many years ahead.”

The change came because Barnes & Noble hadn’t been able to keep up with the eCommerce dominance of Amazon, and its innovations like the eReader didn’t keep the pace with the more popular Kindle.