Ottakar's

Ottakar's is a chain of bookshops in the United Kingdom.

Ottakar's renamed their stores for the Harry Potter launch.

Ottakar's was founded in 1987 by the current Managing Director, James Heneage. The name is taken from the Tintin book King Ottokar's Sceptre as Heneage was (and remains) a fan of the books, and most Ottakar's shops have a wide range of Tintin merchandise. The change of spelling is thought to have been made to avoid copyright infringement. Many branches have cafés or coffee shops (notably Costa) within, where customers may read and relax.

The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1998 and has expanded rapidly since then, making a number of acquisitions including small bookstores in the West Country, eight branches of James Thin Booksellers in 2002, and 24 branches of Hammicks Bookshops Ltd, a company with 35 years of bookselling history, in April 2003.

Ottakar's currently has shops in 141 locations from Elgin to Truro and from Aberystwyth to the Isle of Wight. The historic George Street store in Edinburgh was closed at the end of April, as the lease for the store expired and the site owners wished to redevelop it.

In an attempt to compete with online booksellers, Ottakar's offered an online ordering service for several years, which was later withdrawn. There are plans to reinstate this service in the future.

Contents

1 Takeover by HMV Group
2 Trivia
3 References
4 External links

Takeover by HMV Group

In August 2005, amid rumours of a forthcoming takeover attempt by HMV, the owners of Ottakar's, founders James Heneage and Philip Dunne backed by private equity firm Phoenix Equity Partners made a management buyout offer which has was initially accepted by Ottakar's independent directors, some of whom had only recently joined the company, until a higher offer was made by HMV, when they switched their recommendation to accept the HMV bid.

The Office of Fair Trading was due to decide whether to approve the buyout of Ottakar's by Waterstones on 2 December 2005. On 6 December, the OFT referred the case to the Competition Commission, apparently due to the high level of public concern that a merger would harm customers, authors, suppliers and employees.[link] [link]

The Competition Commission provisionally cleared HMV Group, through Waterstones, for takeover of the Ottakar's group on March 30 2006. The Commission stated that the takeover would "not result in a substantial lessening of competition", and was "not likely to affect book prices, range of titles offered or quality of service." Through extensive research they also found that "contrary to widespread perception, Waterstone's, like Ottakar's, operates a book-buying system which mixes central and local input on stock selection." [link]

Waterstones then announced that it had successfully negotiated a takeover of Ottakar's on May 31 2006. HMV chief executive Alan Giles said in a statement: "A combined Waterstone's and Ottakar's business will create an exciting, quality bookseller, able to respond better to the increasingly competitive pressures of the retail market." Ottakar's chairman Philip Dunne said: "Over the last year the book market has undergone a significant change with new levels of competition from the supermarkets and online retailers impacting all specialist booksellers and in particular those with insufficient scale to compete on equal terms." [link]

Trivia

Some Ottakar's stores have a wall painted with an enlargement of the cover of the album [Le Sceptre d'Ottokar] (King Ottokar's Sceptre) from The Adventures of Tintin.
Most stores have a mural painted by Chris Burke, showing elements of local history, behind the tills.
Trade magazine The Bookseller runs a monthly diary column by bookshop manager Montgomery Bright, written anonymously. Although the location and owner of his branch of a chain bookseller is never stated, it is generally considered he works for Ottakar's.
The Ottakar store in Bromley, Kent has a large rocket — taken from the Tintin novels. Large enough for children to play inside and liven the store. Above the rocket is a cartoon picture of the night sky to add to the effect.
Ottakar's is founded on the principle of customer service, and is widely regarded to be one of the few chains of bookshops that actually sticks to Tim Waterstone's original vision of creating a chain of bookshops that is "aimed to enshrine the values of traditional bookselling - personality, passion, eccentricity, intelligence — and remove some of the cobwebs." Tim Adams, "War of the Words", Observer Review, 18 September 2005.

References

External links

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