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Waterstones in Bromsgrove is to hold its last day of trading tomorrow (27th July) before the shop closes, with seven staff in consultation for their jobs.
Waterstones spokesman Jon Howells said the shop was closing for “commercial reasons” and that the closure affected its six booksellers and one manager. The store was previously an Ottaker’s before it came under Waterstones ownership in 2006.
The Waterstones Bromsgrove branch closure follows that of the Waterstones Stevenage store last month, also for ‘commercial reasons”, which affected eight staff.
A sign outside the Bromsgrove branch put up by manager Nicola Roberts today read: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Bromsgrove for their support and custom.”
Twenty Waterstones stores were closed last year as part of a cost-cutting measure implemented when the chain was owned by the HMV group. When Russian oligarch Alexander Mamut bought Waterstones in June 2011, his appointed managing director James Daunt said he hoped to maintain the size Waterstones estate, perhaps closing stores where there were two in close proximity to each other. In May he told the Sunday Telegraph he planned to grow the number of the chain’s stores as well as refurbishing 100 with wifi before Christmas.