Waterstones

Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 296 stores and employs around 4,500 staff in the UK and Europe as of January 2012. Established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone, after whom the company was named, the bookseller expanded rapidly until being sold in 1993 to W H Smith. Bought again in 1998 by EMI, Advent International and Waterstone, the company was taken under the umbrella of HMV Group, which merged the Dillons, and in 2006, the Ottakar's brands into the company. Following several poor sets of results for the group, HMV put the chain up for sale and in May 2010, it was announced that A&NN Capital Fund Management, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, had bought the chain and appointed James Daunt as managing director.

The company has been awarded various industry prizes, including the 'Bookselling Company of the Year' in 2008 and a top 10 place in the Which? Consumer Survey twice: in 2009 and in 2011. However, Waterstones has been criticised for its selling tactics, in particular undermining the position of independent bookshops via heavy discounting of books.

As well as the Waterstones brand, the company owns the London bookseller Hatchards, and Irish store Hodges Figgis. An average sized Waterstones store merchandises a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and eBook Readers. The bookseller also has concession agreements with Costa Coffee, Starbucks and Paperchase in certain stores.