Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones (formerly Waterstone’s), is a British book retailer with headquarters in London Picadilly, England, where also its flagship store selling more than 100,000 titles is located.
It is the largest book retail chain in Europe with bookshops located primarily in UK as well as in Ireland (as Hodges Figgis), Holland and Belgium. It operates around 350 shops across United Kingdom.
It is an iconic brand which forms integral part of cultural and social life of local communities. The average Waterstones branch sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products.
Waterstones also owns other well known brands such as:
- Hodges Figgis: (the oldest bookshop in Ireland, founded in 1768)
- Hatchards: (the oldest bookshop in Britain, founded in 1797), selling mostly rare books and special editions
- Foyles : a chain of bookshops having widest range of books on foreign languages
- Blackwell’s : a chain of academic bookshops located in all university cities across UK.
Apart from books, Waterstones operates online shop and sells a wide range of curated related products such as gifts, puzzles, stationery, games, toys etc.
Most shops also have own Café W brand.
Waterstones administers and supports various literary awards, including the Children’s Laureate award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.
