11 Facts About Blackwell UK

1.

Blackwell UK, known as Blackwell's and Blackwell Group, is a British academic book retailer and library supply service owned by Waterstones.

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2.

Blackwell UK family ran the company until 2022, with an ownership divided between voting shares owned by the family and wealth shares owned by family and others.

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3.

Toby Blackwell UK announced in 2009 that the wealth shares would be distributed between staff, transforming the company into an employee-partnership, similar to that of retailer John Lewis, when the company returned to profitability having spent several years experiencing losses.

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4.

Blackwell UK reported it was expecting to return to profit in 2012.

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5.

Benjamin Henry Blackwell UK was well respected in Oxford and was elected the first Liberal councillor for Oxford North.

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6.

Blackwell UK was expected to join the family firm which he did in 1913, after a spell as an apprentice publisher in London.

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7.

Blackwell UK was tasked with expanding his father's publishing business.

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8.

When Benjamin Henry died in 1924, Basil Blackwell UK took over from his father, and went on to head the company for decades.

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9.

In 1995, Blackwell UK's became the first bookshop in the UK to allow its customers to purchase online from a catalogue of over 150,000 titles, and opened a flagship shop in London the same year, at 100 Charing Cross Road, which is one of the company's six most prominent shops.

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10.

Blackwell UK's took over the Heffers bookshops in Cambridge in 1999, and in 2002 acquired the academic bookshops of James Thin in Scotland.

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11.

On 29 October 2012, Blackwell UK's was – with Foyles, John Lewis department stores, Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Argos – among the retailers to launch the Nook e-reader – and, from November, the Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablet computers.

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