HMV plots Waterstone's internet push
Book chain Waterstone’s was today set to duel with Amazon for online sales after severing its partnership with the US giant.
Waterstone’s will launch its own website this autumn to compete more aggressively for sales as shoppers switch from buying books on the high street to the internet.
According to owner HMV, the move “will better reflect the brand’s specialist bookselling credentials” and help arrest a trading slump, which was visible in a 5.6% like-for-like fall at Waterstone’s over the 16 weeks to April 29.
Waterstone’s has run its current website in conjunction with Amazon since 2001, but the deal was due to come up for renewal this year.
Details emerged less than a week after HMV fended off takeover interest from Tim Waterstone for the book chain that he set up in 1982. He had put a proposal worth around £280m (€409.3m) on the table, but withdrew after losing the support of key financial backer Lazard.
In a trading update today, HMV said like-for-like sales at its core music stores in the UK and Ireland were down 11.4% in the final 16 weeks of its financial year.
But it was still hopeful of posting annual profits of around £98m (€143.3m), which is in the middle of the range of analysts’ expectations.
