Dalriada Books Ltd

 

Best Chain Bookselling Company of the Year went to WH Smith this year (2009) . Other four chain bookstores are shortlisted, which include Blackwell UK, Foyles, Borders UK, Waterstone’s. Except for Borders UK which is the second largest US books store, other chain bookselling companies are UK native UK companies.

 

 

Blackwell offers the widest range of acaemic books, textbooks and specialist books.

 

When Benjamin Henry Blackwell opened a modest, secondhand bookshop on New Year’s Day 1879, he could not have known he was creating a legacy that would live on into the twenty-first century. The Blackwell’s that readers, librarians, and scholars know today came from humble beginnings. Starting with a shop just twelve feet square at 50 Broad Street in Oxford, England, Benjamin Henry Blackwell employed only one apprentice and began with an inventory of just 700 books. Blackwell’s shop soon became intimately associated with Oxford University.

 

Founder Benjamin Henry Blackwell was the first of the many colorful characters that make up the rich history of the Blackwell family business. Sir Basil Blackwell, known as The Gaffer, joined his father in the firm in 1913. Knighted for his bookselling work, Sir Basil, who still came in to the office well into his nineties, went on to develop the successful publishing arm of the company.

 

Under the direction of Sir Basil’s son, Richard Blackwell, the company began a significant expansion. Nicknamed The “Guv’nor,” Richard joined the firm in 1946, increasing exports and mail order and creating a worldwide presence for Blackwell’s in the education market. Some 70 to 80 retail shops, usually attached to universities, were opened in the U.K., furthering Blackwell’s reputation as the foremost academic bookseller. Currently, cousins Nigel and Philip Blackwell carry on the legacy of excellence in the booksellers’ trade.

 

The Blackwell’s Broad Street shop has not moved from its original location, although it has greatly expanded from the original small space. Today, Blackwell’s boasts more than 1700 employees and 72 retail stores and has subsidiaries in the U.K., the United States, and Australia.

 

Blackwell’s Book Services specializes in the supply of books and value-added bibliographic products to more than 15,000 academic, research, and special libraries in more than 120 countries around the world.

 

Foyles
Foyles was founded in 1903 by two brothers: when William and Gilbert Foyle failed their Civil Service examinations, they decided to sell their textbooks. Such was the response to their advert that they could have sold them many times over, so they determined to start a bookshop. The unwanted textbooks became the modest foundation stone of what was to become the world’s greatest bookshop. The business has been on Charing Cross Road since 1906 and is still privately owned.

 

Waterstone's
Now part of HMV Group, Waterstone's first opened in Old Brompton Road, London, in 1982 and currently trades from more than 300 stores, on high streets and in shopping centres, and through numerous university campuses in the UK, Republic of Ireland and continental Europe (Brussels and Amsterdam) as well as on the Isle of Man, Jersey and the Isle of Wight.

 

W.H. Smith
W.H. Smith has been an innovative company, being the first chain store company in the world and was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book catalogue system. ISBN catalogue invention

In 1966, W H Smith originated a 9-digit code for uniquely referencing books, called Standard Book Numbering or SBN. It was adopted as international standard ISO 2108 in 1970, and was used until 1974, when it became the ISBN scheme.

 

In 1792 Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna established W H Smith as a news vendor business in London. The firm took advantage of the railway boom by opening newsstands on railway stations, starting with Euston in 1848. They also made use of the railways to become the leading national distributor of newspapers. They were the only newsagent found at London railway stations in the early years, which allows them to claim to be the company to use a chain store format in the world.