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Ottakar's
Ottakar's was a chain of bookshops in the United Kingdom founded in 1987 by James Heneage. Following a takeover by the HMV Group in 2006, the chain was merged into the Waterstone's brand. 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 that 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, London 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 Jam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waterstone's
Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Waterstones shop sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products. Established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone, after whom the company was named, the bookseller expanded rapidly until being sold in 1993 to WHSmith. In 1998, Waterstones was bought by a consortium of Waterstone, EMI and Advent International. The company was taken under the umbrella of HMV Group, which later merged the Dillons and Ottakar's brands into the company. Following several poor sets of results for the group, HMV put the chain up for sale. In May 2011, it was announced that A&NN Capital Fund Management, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, had bought the chain for £53.5m and appointed James Daunt as manag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waterstones
Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Waterstones shop sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products. Established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone, after whom the company was named, the bookseller expanded rapidly until being sold in 1993 to WHSmith. In 1998, Waterstones was bought by a consortium of Waterstone, EMI and Advent International. The company was taken under the umbrella of HMV Group, which later merged the Dillons and Ottakar's brands into the company. Following several poor sets of results for the group, HMV put the chain up for sale. In May 2011, it was announced that A&NN Capital Fund Management, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, had bought the chain for £53.5m and appointed James Daunt as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Heneage
James Heneage (born 31 October 1957) is a British historical fiction writer, and the co-founder of the Ottakar’s bookshop chain and the Chalke Valley History Festival. Career Educated at Worth School, Heneage fronted a rock band as lead singer before being commissioned into the Grenadier Guards where he served a short-service commission from 1978 to 1982. Between 1982 and 1987 he worked in advertising, finishing as an Account Director for Ogilvy and Mather. In 1987, he founded the bookshop chain Ottakar’s which was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1998 and grew to a chain of 142 branches, employing some 2,500 people. Despite Heneage and others attempting a management buyout, the chain was sold to the HMV Group, then owner of Waterstones, in 2006. Ottakar’s was well known in the book trade for the high morale and commitment of its staff, considered "more like a religious cult than a business". Also in 2006 he was awarded The Random House Group Award for Outst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Adventures Of Tintin
''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. By 2007, a century after Hergé's birth in 1907, ''Tintin'' had been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies, and had been adapted for radio, television, theatre and film. The series first appeared in French on 10 January 1929, in (''The Little Twentieth''), a youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper (''The Twentieth Century''). The success of the series led to serialised strips published in Belgium's leading newspaper (''The Evening'') and spun into a successful '' Tintin'' magazine. In 1950, Hergé created Studios Hergé, which produced the canonical versions of 11 ''Tintin'' albums. The series is set during a largely realistic 20th century. Its hero is Tintin, a cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Giles
Alan James Giles OBE is a British businessman and currently a non-executive director of the Competition and Markets Authority. He is also a non-executive director of Rentokil Initial plc and a member of OFT's Audit and Risk Remuneration committees. Career From March 1999 until September 2006 he was chief executive officer of HMV Group, owner of record shop HMV, which he joined in 1998. HMV Group also owned the UK bookshop chain Waterstones, which bought another book chain Ottakars in 2006. HMV and Waterstones suffered a decline in sales in the financial year 2005–2006. Giles stated that the internet, including music downloading, and supermarket competition, contributed towards HMV's decline in sales. After leaving HMV, he became chairman of Fat Face FatFace is a British lifestyle brand, based in Hampshire, which creates product ranges across women's, men's, kids, footwear and accessories. FatFace is a multichannel retailer, with an international digital business as w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Thin
James Thin was a Scottish bookseller, stationer and publishing company. It was, until 2002, the principal academic bookshop in Edinburgh, with its main premises opposite Old College, University of Edinburgh on South Bridge. It also had branches in other cities, including Perth, Dundee, and Inverness. The firm was founded by James Thin (1824–1915), taking over the assets of an earlier bookseller. The business grew and expanded, and brought James Thin a significant role in Edinburgh intellectual society. The author Muriel Spark wrote all her novels on 72-page notebooks from James Thin, which she had used as a child. In 1870, James Thin purchased a plot of land in Stow of Wedale in the Scottish Borders and had a house built which was completed in 1873. The house was named Ashlea, and is still a private residence but is no longer owned by the Thin family. The firm developed branches in George Street, The Gyle, Waverley Centre (where it briefly operated as The Penguin Book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Dunne (Ludlow Politician)
Philip Martin Dunne (born 14 August 1958) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ludlow constituency in Shropshire since the 2005 general election. He is a member of the Conservative Party. He has been a farmer since 1987, at his family's farm just over the county boundary in Herefordshire, at Leintwardine near Ludlow; he was elected in 2001 as a councillor on the South Shropshire District Council, of which he was the Conservative leader in 2003–2005. He was also secretary of the Ludlow Conservative Association for a year in 2001. Dunne served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Procurement from 2012 to 2016 and as Minister of State for Health from 2016 to 2018. Early life Philip Dunne was born in Ludlow, Shropshire, and has an ancestry of politicians and courtiers. He is the son of Sir Thomas Dunne KG, the former Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, who in turn is the son of Philip Rus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Office Of Fair Trading
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic regulator. The OFT's goal was to make markets work well for consumers, ensuring vigorous competition between fair dealing businesses and prohibiting unfair practices such as rogue trading, scams, and cartels. Its role was modified and its powers changed with the Enterprise Act 2002. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced reforms to the consumer protection and competition regimes. Under the provisions of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was established on 1 April 2014, combining many of the functions of the OFT and the Competition Commission and superseding both. Regulation for the consumer credit industry passed from the OFT to the new Financial Condu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Retail Companies Established In 1987
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells in smaller quantities to consumers for a profit. Retailers are the final link in the supply chain from producers to consumers. Retail markets and shops have a very ancient history, dating back to antiquity. Some of the earliest retailers were itinerant peddlers. Over the centuries, retail shops were transformed from little more than "rude booths" to the sophisticated shopping malls of the modern era. In the digital age, an increasing number of retailers are seeking to reach broader markets by selling through multiple channels, including both bricks and mortar and online retailing. Digital technologies are also affecting the way that consumers pay for goods and services. Retailing support services may also include the provision o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defunct Retail Companies Of The United Kingdom
Defunct (no longer in use or active) may refer to: * ''Defunct'' (video game), 2014 * Zombie process or defunct process, in Unix-like operating systems See also * * :Former entities * End-of-life product An end-of-life product (EOL product) is a product at the end of the product lifecycle which prevents users from receiving updates, indicating that the product is at the end of its useful life (from the vendor's point of view). At this stage, a ... * Obsolescence {{Disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
