Waterstones

Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones (formerly Waterstone's), is a British book retailer based in London, United Kingdom, owned by the American investment group Elliott Investment Management. As of 2025, it operates 316 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and other nearby countries. As of 2024 it employed over 3,600 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 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 Russian billionaire businessman Alexander Mamut, had bought the chain for £53.5 million and appointed James Daunt as the managing director. The company is incorporated in England and Wales as Waterstones Booksellers Ltd, with its registered office at 203–206 Piccadilly, London (which is also the location of its flagship shop). Waterstones also owns Hodges Figgis (the oldest bookshop in Ireland, founded in 1768), Hatchards (the oldest bookshop in Britain, founded in 1797), Foyles (a chain of seven bookshops in England) and Blackwell's. In April 2018 the American investment-management firm Elliott Management Corporation bought a majority stake in the company. The bookseller has concession agreements with Paperchase and previously had ones with the coffee chains Costa Coffee and Starbucks in some shops, but since 2012 has introduced its own Café W brand. For a time, Waterstones sold e-readers, including in 2012 partnering with Amazon to sell...