Waterstones to give Foyles ‘secure home’
THE bookshop Foyles is to end 115 years of family ownership with a sale of the business to Waterstones.
James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones, told The Daily Telegraph that the Foyle family had been looking for a “secure home” for the business, while he renewed his criticism of US online giant Amazon.
Terms were not disclosed, but it is understood Foyles was bought for a modest sum.
Christopher Foyle said: “My family and I are delighted that Foyles is entering a new chapter, one which secures the brand’s future and protects its personality. I look forward to witnessing the exciting times ahead for the company founded by my grandfather and his brother 115 years ago.”
The Foyle family sold its 107 Charing Cross Road flagship building earlier this year to real-estate fund Brockton Capital for a reported £45m, having moved from its home on the same street in 2014. The bookseller remains as a tenant with 16 years on its lease.
Waterstones will buy all seven Foyles stores and is expected to try to keep them all open, although it is understood the Chelmsford branch could be closed. Mr Daunt said the company planned to keep the brand intact.
Mr Daunt said Waterstones, which was bought by US hedge fund Elliott Advisors in April, had opened 25 to 30 shops in the last two years and returned to profit, although it has closed some in areas where it has more than one.
He said the deal would help Waterstones and Foyles to become “stronger and better positioned to protect and champion the pleasures of real bookshops in the face of Amazon’s siren call” and that the “aggressive” competition from the online giant had been “devastating for high-street bookselling”.
Amazon’s “absolute erosion of the market for books” has shrunk the sector from “eight or nine decent-sized independent chains” to just one in the UK, he added.
“You can’t, in an Amazon world, survive very easily. But the refocus at Waterstones on the real essence of what it is to be a good bookshop is allowing us to fight back.”