Waterstones has purchased family-owned bookseller Foyles in a deal it says will champion real bookshops in the face of competition from online retailers.
The sale “includes Foyles' well-known Charing Cross Road store in central London, which was relocated to larger premises in 2014”, says the BBC.
Waterstones said the deal would help booksellers fight back against Amazon's “siren call”.
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“We are honoured to be entrusted with the Foyles business, and greatly look forward to joining forces with the Foyles bookselling team,” said managing director James Daunt.
“Together, we will be stronger and better positioned to protect and champion the pleasures of real bookshops in the face of Amazon's siren call.”
He added that it was an “exciting and invigorating time” in bookselling as traditional shops battle with online and e-readers.
“At Waterstones, we see our future as responsible stewards of shops that strive to serve their customers each according to their own distinct personality,” he said.
The value of the deal has not been made public. Foyles has been under the control of iMonaco-based chairman Christopher Foyle, the grandson of one of the founders.
“My family and I are delighted that Foyles is entering a new chapter, one which secures the brand’s future and protects its personality,” Foyle said. “I look forward to witnessing the exciting times ahead for the company founded by my grandfather and his brother 115 years ago.”
The original Foyles store on Charing Cross Road “was something of a mecca for booklovers, drawn by its history and the promise of browsing the vast stock, in what was once the world's largest bookshop”, says the BBC.
It is featured in numerous literary works, by authors including Graham Greene, John Le Carre and Ian McEwan.
In recent times Foyles “has struggled to turn a profit amid challenging trading conditions on the high street”, says The Guardian. The retailer posted a loss of £88,791 for the year to 30 June 2017 after the number of shoppers visiting its stores in the centre of London and Manchester declined following terrorist attacks.
But “reports of the death of printed books at the hands of e-readers such as Amazon’s kindle appear to have been greatly exaggerated”, says The Independent.
E-book sales declined in 2016 and 2017, “while both hardback and paper book sales rose”, the website adds.
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