More stores planned as bookshop chain reveals strong Christmas trading.
Waterstones’ boss James Daunt told the Financial Times at the weekend (4 January) that the company had “a solid Christmas” of trading and had opened 12 new stores in the UK in 2024 and is looking to “do that or more in 2025”.
Dubbed ‘the man who saved Waterstones’, James has been MD at the retailer since 2011 and stayed when it was bought by Elliott Investment Management, which also owns the Barnes & Noble book chain in the US where he became chief executive in 2019 – he still personally owns the 10-strong Daunt Books independent chain in London, Oxford, Marlow and Saffron Walden.
In the Financial Times interview, James commented that the timing of Christmas had worked in the company’s favour, boosted by a successful weekend of trading before the big day on Wednesday as that allowed last-minute shoppers the Saturday and Sunday to get out and buy cards and gifts.
“If you’re in the last-minute game, and we are to an extent, then it was a solid Christmas that came late because of the fall of the calendar,” he said.
“The last weekend and December 23-24 were exceptional on both sides of the Atlantic. It has been a good post-Christmas as well.”
Despite fellow retailers citing the rising costs of employing staff and business rate increase imposed by the October budget as reasons for putting expansion plans on hold, James was firm in his store opening plans although he admitted pay inflation was “significant” for the business.
But he said he believes the fallout from Brexit is still the thorniest issue for Waterstones, telling the paper: “It remains the biggest pain, adds to the cost and complexity, and made our labour situation worse.”
