Ottakar’s Confirms Bad Year, and Worse Start to New Year Bad news continues among UK chain booksellers, as Ottakar’s reported a loss of 4.6 million pounds, on slightly increased sales of 176.5 million pounds for fiscal 2005. The company blamed “unprecedented price competition,” “the slowdown in second half sales,” and “the distraction” of an attempted management buyout that in turn led to the stalled takeover by Waterstone’s. (“Exceptional costs” related to the bids drained 5.5 million pounds from the company.) It doesn’t help that same-store sales fell 2.8 percent. Though the results would indicate that the company’s model of a […]
