. for sharpening by stone see sharpening stone . waterstones type private industry retail bookshop founded old brompton road london 1982 founder tim waterstone headquarters london united kingdom number of locations 275 stores oct 2013 1 area served uk ireland belgium the netherlands key people james daunt md products books number of employees 4 500 2 parent a & nn capital fund management owned by alexander mamut website www.waterstones.com waterstones formerly waterstone s is a british book retailer that operates 275 stores 3 and employs around 3 500 staff in the uk and europe as of february 2014 . 4 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 . 5 bought again in 1998 by waterstone emi & advent international 6 the company was taken under the umbrella of hmv group which later merged the dillons and ottakar s brands into the company . 5 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 and appointed james daunt as managing director . 7 as well as the waterstones brand the company owns the london bookseller hatchards 8 and irish shop hodges figgis . 8 an average sized waterstones store sells a range of approximately 30 000 individual books 2 as well as stationery and ebook readers . the bookseller has concession agreements with costa coffee paperchase and starbucks in some stores and since 2012 has introduced its own caf w brand . 9 on may 23 2016 waterstones announced it had sold its ebook business to rakuten kobo inc. and as of june 14 2016 users must access their ebooks via kobo s ebook site . 10 contents 1 history and developments 1.1 formation & whsmith 1982 1998 1.2 hmv group 1998 2011 1.3 alexander mamut & james daunt 2011 present 2 takeovers 2.1 dillons 2.2 ottakar s 2.3 books etc 3 ethical standards 3.1 tax 3.2 environmental impact 4 awards 4.1 british book industry awards 4.2 customer satisfaction 4.3 children s book prize 4.4 the waterstones 11 5 locations 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history and developments edit early versions of store signage were gold in colour formation & whsmith 1982 1998 edit the chain was founded by tim waterstone after he was fired by whsmith . 11 waterstone had failed to establish whsmith in the united states . 12 taking the 6000 redundancy payout he set up his first store in old brompton road kensington with the ambition of creating a different breed of bookshop using techniques he had seen in the united states . 11 he used literary authors in front of store displays and employed highly literate staff . 13 the model proved successful and the chain set about expanding its store portfolio . by 1989 however whsmith had taken a controlling stake in the chain . 13 whsmith took over full control in 1993 for 9 million . 14 under whsmith waterstones pursued international expansion opening its first us store in boston in 1991 6 as well as further domestic expansion opening its 100th uk store in a former chapel in reading . 6 the chain was part of the eventual dismantling of the net book agreement when in 1991 following a promotion by then rivals dillons the company decided to pursue its own discounting promotion on selected titles . 15 by 1997 the agreement had collapsed and been declared illegal . 16 hmv group 1998 2011 edit following an attempt by tim waterstone in 1997 to buy the entire whsmith group 17 whsmith sold the waterstones chain for 300 million to hmv media plc now hmv group a joint venture between emi and advent international . 6 this included high street brands hmv and rival dillons creating an international entertainment retailer . waterstone was appointed chairman of the group but stood down in 2001 citing concerns for the way the company was being run . 14 he was replaced by alan giles . 18 a year later all dillons stores were rebranded as waterstones with some sold to rival ottakar s making the brand defunct . the chain had also begun pulling out of its us overseas venture . 19 waterstones launched the waterstones books quarterly magazine in 2001 containing book reviews and author interviews . in the same year the booksellers online operation waterstones.co.uk was franchised to amazon.com with the company expressing a desire to concentrate on its high street and campus stores . the move resulted in the loss of 50 jobs . 20 in 2003 waterstones announced it was supporting dyslexia action as its chosen charity helping to raise awareness and understanding for dyslexia . 21 waterstones logo until 2010 in 2006 giles stepped down from his position and was replaced by gerry johnson as managing director of waterstones 22 and simon fox as group ceo . 23 in april 2006 following two bids by permira for the group tim waterstone attempted to buy back the company from hmv for 256 million 24 but later withdrew his offer specifying the conditions set by hmv were too punitive to accept . 25 a strategic review in september saw waterstones pull out of its franchise agreement with amazon to re launch its online business waterstones.com independently . 26 the chain also began to pilot a loyalty programme in south west england and wales . the scheme was successful launching nationally as the waterstones card across its entire store portfolio . 27 waterstones piloted a brand refresh exercise in selected stores beginning with manchester s arndale centre in 2007 . 28 on 19 november 2007 the chain closed its first branch on old brompton road . 29 following a consultation the company s supply chain was overhauled in 2008 with the implementation of a 150 000 sq ft 14 000 m2 warehouse and distribution centre located in burton upon trent . existing direct to store deliveries from suppliers were replaced by a centralised warehouse capable of receiving merchandise and sorting an estimated 70 million books per year and 200 staff were made redundant by the process . 30 31 in september 2008 waterstones began selling the sony reader in an agreement which saw the booksellers branches and sony centre stores stock the reader exclusively for two weeks after its release . waterstones.com began to supply ebooks in the . epub format . 32 in november 2009 waterstones moved into second hand bookselling in a partnership with alibris setting up an online reselling tool called waterstones marketplace part of waterstones.com . 33 a re branding saw the logo change from baskerville to fs alberta pro until 2012 in january 2010 hmv group announced that waterstones like for like sales over the christmas period were down 8.5 per cent on the previous year . this culminated in the resignation of managing director gerry johnson with immediate effect . 34 he was replaced by development director dominic myers who was managing director of the british academic bookselling chain blackwells until 2005 . 35 myers joined hmv in 2006 to oversee the integration of ottakar s into the chain . in response to the decline in sales he implemented a three year plan in which branches were tailored to their local market alongside a rejuvenation 36 of the company brand and an increase in range . as part of these changes waterstones implemented new branding in may 2010 developed by agency venturethree . 37 the company also moved to support the rainbow trust which provides support to children with life threatening and terminal illnesses and their families in the same year . 38 after an announcement that profits would be at the lower end of analysts forecasts due to falling sales and a share price fall of 20 % hmv group indicated its intention to close a number of waterstones branches in january 2011 . 39 40 these stores closures including two in dublin republic of ireland 41 and nine others across the united kingdom occurred in february 2011 . 42 further branch closures in luton dorking lancaster university harrods gateshead and norwich arcade were completed by the end of 2011 . 43 alexander mamut & james daunt 2011 present edit in may 2011 hmv group announced the sale of waterstones to a & nn capital fund management a fund controlled by russian businessman alexander mamut for 53 million . 44 the takeover was welcomed by publishers as a step forward to re establishing a proper physical presence . 45 on 29 june 2011 the sale of waterstones was completed and approved by the vast majority of shareholders at an emergency general meeting . 7 mamut appointed james daunt founder of daunt books as managing director 46 and a board of directors was announced in october 2011 including miranda curtis as chairman . 47 in september 2011 the bookseller announced that it intended to drop its 3 for 2 deal on books after a decade in place . 48 the offer was replaced with a bespoke offer based on branches choosing their own pricing structures from available discounts . 49 in january 2012 the company announced that it would be moving away from the branding developed in 2010 by agency venturethree 37 and reverting to its original logo . 50 this involved the removal of the apostrophe from its name saying it would be a more versatile and practical spelling . this decision received media coverage in which the company was subject to criticism . john richards of the apostrophe protection society said that the change was just plain wrong and grammatically incorrect 51 while the move sparked outrage on twitter involving debate on whether the move was grammatically incorrect or not . 51 james daunt expressed waterstones without an apostrophe is in a digital world of urls and email addresses a more versatile and practical spelling . 52 linguist david crystal on his blog added ... if waterstone s wants to become waterstones that s up to the firm . it s nothing to do with expressing possession or plurality or anything to do with meaning . 53 in the same month waterstones confirmed plans to open a russian language bookshop in its piccadilly branch intending to stock 5000 titles with the shop being entirely staffed of russian speaking booksellers . 54 the concession named the russian bookshop opened in march 2012 . 55 following a decision in late 2011 to scrap an e reading offer in branch 56 it was announced in may 2012 that waterstones would be selling the amazon kindle across its estate . james daunt launched the new agreement with amazon stating that waterstones would be offering e reading services and offer kindle digital devices throughout the company s branches and on its website with an intention to make the kindle experience better . 57 this announcement was received with surprise across the book industry as it had been suggested that waterstones was developing a partnership with barnes & noble to launch the nook in the uk or that the company was developing its own device but daunt ultimately rejected other avenues as waterstones would have been out of the market before their implementation . 58 sutton surrey greater london branch with caf w signage it was also announced in may 2012 that the company would begin a refurbishment plan with mamut investing tens of millions of pounds to fund the refit of a planned 100 stores before the end of the year . the plan saw the introduction of wi fi into shops 59 reorganisation of shop sections and space 60 dedicated areas for kindle devices and a number of own brand coffee shops called caf w. 61 the caf w brand was trialled in the sutton branch with an expressed