News

The Works plans major expansion

09.09.11 | Lisa Campbell

Discount retailer The Works has said it hopes to expand its stores in the UK by nearly 150, as well as growing its e-commerce business with the sale of e-books.

The retailer has opened 43 new stores this year—bringing its total to 304—but Garry Wilson, m.d. of parent company Endless LLP, said the chain could increase its overall portfolio to 450—an increase of 48% on 2010's figure

However, Wilson said the expansion wouldn't take place immediately. "I think we could have up to 450 Works stores in the UK, but with the economic climate, we are just being very careful at the moment. We are opening stores and have 10 in the pipeline. 

"We are moving into new geographic areas with steady increases in the places where we are already represented," Wilson said.

"I think customers are increasingly looking for bargains. We are all under a bit more pressure, and spending a pound or two less on a book can make a difference," Wilson added.

In the 12 months to May 2011, The Works sold 21 million books and had overall sales of £114.4m—a total year-on-year growth of 7.9%—with like-for-like sales declining 1.5%.

"This is despite the significant impact that the pre-Christmas snow had on sales," the company said. It reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £10.5m, which it described as "another record for the business". The success was accredited to a re-focusing on books. 

In the course of the year, the chain has focused on delivering "a strong value proposition" by improving its book and non-book product range, and said "the strong, well-established supplier relationships remain key to this, as well as seeking new supply opportunities to help broaden and strengthen our new, exciting and constantly changing range." 

It will focus on improving the presentation of its shops and has established a number of "model stores" to be trialled and implemented across The Works network to standardise the layout of stores.

Kerry Hughes, commercial manager at The Works, said the company was now focussing on its e-commerce operation, and planned to revamp its website and start selling e-books. He said: "We can see long-term growth in this sector coming from e-commerce sales.

"At the moment we are really a bricks-and-mortar retailer. We will be growing internet sales substantially, but at the moment it is just a small part of the business."

To this end The Works has appointed Alistair Singer, former e-commerce manager at Hobbycraft, as e-commerce manager. The company also plans to recruit up to 10 more people to its e-commerce team in time.

Hughes added that the company was currently working on its promotions for the Christmas season. He said: "Last year our December was very much affected by snow and we had a number of stores close. However, this year we are very optimistic for Christmas."

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By JULIAN RIVERS

"Increasingly looking -for bargains ", but obviously not good English.
However , I prefer Oxfam as the quality of the titles available is so much higher.

So now we have it .The entire retail book trade consisting of Supermarkets [Booksellers of the Year],Bargain bucket shops, Oxfam, a decreasing number of desperate indies hanging on , WHS and Waterstones. Not much for a once proud nation is it ? Don't worry the B.A. are just over the hill .

.

Fri, 09/09/2011 - 11:15
By David

I thought they were expanding a couple of years ago, through their past ownership of British Bookshops - that went well didn't it!

BTW - at least one of the 'Saved by WHS' branches of BB has gone. The Hailsham branch has been 'relocated' to a new WHS branch, which just has a couple of bookstands, the vast majority of the shop being magazines, sweets and stationary.

Fri, 09/09/2011 - 23:23
By groovydad

Hmm...the first time The Works exapanded to over 300 stores, they went bust and got bought out. The reason the new owners gave for the previous incarnation going under was because they over stretched themselves and got too bogged down in tat rather than books. So then the new owners went and bought some British Bookshops and that went well. Now they are expanding again. Big business is fond of saying 'lessons will be learnt' but they never really do, do they?

Having said that, the quality of the books on offer in the Works these days, is far superior than pre-2007, however the tat is starting to creep back in and the worry is that it's turning back into the failing model of 2007 complete with expansions which they blamed for the previous collapse.

And of course, what will happen when/if Waterstones goes bust? The danger is in having too many shops and then not enough returned books to support the portfolio?

Sat, 10/09/2011 - 09:42
By getalife

Oh come on, what's wrong with a company trying to expand and create growth? So they sell cheap books, what's wrong with that? Surely if Waterstones go under, the more book shops on the high street, the better?

Sat, 10/09/2011 - 23:09
By groovydad

nothing wrong with cheap books. That is what the works do and at the moment they are doing it very well. I'm just saying that last time they expanded too quickly it nearly killed them off. And if Waterstones goes the Works will suffer because they rely on the big chains and indies to return books that then goes through the system, which they end up with on the cheap. Therefore, take out the chains, take out the returns, takes out a lot of stock for stores like the Works. It's all connected. We need all these type of bookstores from Indies, to chains to bargain stores like the Works. They all help each other live. The Works is one of the last remainders stores, Waterstones one of the last big chains. If we lose either of these markets the other will suffer (the chains and publishers need the Works in order for returns to be accpetable). So they need to ensure they know what they are doing before embarking on any ambitious expansion.

Sun, 11/09/2011 - 08:24
By JULIAN RIVERS

"Increasingly looking -for bargains ", but obviously not good English.
However , I prefer Oxfam as the quality of the titles available is so much higher.

So now we have it .The entire retail book trade consisting of Supermarkets [Booksellers of the Year],Bargain bucket shops, Oxfam, a decreasing number of desperate indies hanging on , WHS and Waterstones. Not much for a once proud nation is it ? Don't worry the B.A. are just over the hill .

.

Fri, 09/09/2011 - 11:15
By David

I thought they were expanding a couple of years ago, through their past ownership of British Bookshops - that went well didn't it!

BTW - at least one of the 'Saved by WHS' branches of BB has gone. The Hailsham branch has been 'relocated' to a new WHS branch, which just has a couple of bookstands, the vast majority of the shop being magazines, sweets and stationary.

Fri, 09/09/2011 - 23:23
By groovydad

Hmm...the first time The Works exapanded to over 300 stores, they went bust and got bought out. The reason the new owners gave for the previous incarnation going under was because they over stretched themselves and got too bogged down in tat rather than books. So then the new owners went and bought some British Bookshops and that went well. Now they are expanding again. Big business is fond of saying 'lessons will be learnt' but they never really do, do they?

Having said that, the quality of the books on offer in the Works these days, is far superior than pre-2007, however the tat is starting to creep back in and the worry is that it's turning back into the failing model of 2007 complete with expansions which they blamed for the previous collapse.

And of course, what will happen when/if Waterstones goes bust? The danger is in having too many shops and then not enough returned books to support the portfolio?

Sat, 10/09/2011 - 09:42
By getalife

Oh come on, what's wrong with a company trying to expand and create growth? So they sell cheap books, what's wrong with that? Surely if Waterstones go under, the more book shops on the high street, the better?

Sat, 10/09/2011 - 23:09
By groovydad

nothing wrong with cheap books. That is what the works do and at the moment they are doing it very well. I'm just saying that last time they expanded too quickly it nearly killed them off. And if Waterstones goes the Works will suffer because they rely on the big chains and indies to return books that then goes through the system, which they end up with on the cheap. Therefore, take out the chains, take out the returns, takes out a lot of stock for stores like the Works. It's all connected. We need all these type of bookstores from Indies, to chains to bargain stores like the Works. They all help each other live. The Works is one of the last remainders stores, Waterstones one of the last big chains. If we lose either of these markets the other will suffer (the chains and publishers need the Works in order for returns to be accpetable). So they need to ensure they know what they are doing before embarking on any ambitious expansion.

Sun, 11/09/2011 - 08:24

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