History
James Heneage established the Ottakar's chain in 1987, taking inspiration from The Adventures of Tintin book King Ottokar's Sceptre. He saw a lucrative market in small towns which lacked a Waterstones branch and opened stores in Loughborough, Brighton, Banbury, Salisbury and Trowbridge. A number of Ottakar's stores drew on the Tintin connection and had walls painted with scenes from the series. The Ottakar store in Bromley, Kent had a large rocket taken from the Tintin novels so that children could play inside it. Above the rocket was a cartoon picture of the night sky to add to the effect.
The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1998 and expanded rapidly, making a number of acquisitions including small bookstores in the West Country, eight branches of James Thin Booksellers in 2002, and twenty-four branches of Hammicks Bookshops Ltd, a company with 35 years of bookselling history, in April 2003. By mid-2006, the chain had shops in 141 locations throughout the United Kingdom.
In an attempt to compete with online booksellers, Ottakar's established an online ordering service. After turning a loss, the service was withdrawn in 2001, but by 2006, the company had hoped to relaunch their internet arm before the takeover by HMV.
Ottakar's was well known in the book trade for the exceptionally high morale and commitment of its staff. Damien Horner, from the advertising agency Mustoes commented that Ottakar's "was more like a religious cult than a business".
Ottakar's was also very popular with book buyers. A customer survey in 2004 revealed that many people believed that their local branch of Ottakar's was an independent bookshop. This was viewed as a vindication of the Ottakar's head office policy of giving branches as much local autonomy as possible. However, some suggested that Ottakar's had a weak national brand, which was vulnerable to changing market conditions.
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