Company Directory / Retail

Waterstones logo

PrivateFor profitRetailLondon, England, United Kingdom

Waterstones

Waterstones is a bookseller on the High Street and online providing customers with a wide range of choice and expert advice on books.

Founded
1982
44 years ago
Staff
1001-5000
2,078 on LinkedIn
Followers
62k
on LinkedIn
Funding
$165M
as listed, USD

With almost 300 bookshops and employing over 3000 booksellers , Waterstones is the leading high street bookseller in the UK and Ireland. Amsterdam and Brussels play host to Waterstones’ European presence, and two further jewels in the bookseller’s crown are London’s Hatchards and Dublin’s legendary bookshop Hodges Figgis. Waterstones has opened several new shops over the last few years and invested in existing locations. The company also achieved a turnaround of fortunes for their online platform, Waterstones.com.… Read all

With almost 300 bookshops and employing over 3000 booksellers , Waterstones is the leading high street bookseller in the UK and Ireland. Amsterdam and Brussels play host to Waterstones’ European presence, and two further jewels in the bookseller’s crown are London’s Hatchards and Dublin’s legendary bookshop Hodges Figgis. Waterstones has opened several new shops over the last few years and invested in existing locations. The company also achieved a turnaround of fortunes for their online platform, Waterstones.com. In 2018 Waterstones further acquired British bookshop chain Foyles. Good bookselling and bookseller expertise is the driving force behind Waterstones’ bookshops, and every year Waterstones runs thousands of author events across the country from weekly story time sessions and book clubs to author talks and large book signings. One of the biggest events of the year is the prestigious Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, voted for by Waterstones’ expert booksellers. Other notable activity include the Waterstones Book Of The Year announcement and support for the Waterstones Children’s Laureate.

Set against six million companies

Size

1-1011-5051-100101-250251-500501-10001k-5k5k-10k10k+

1001-5000 people: larger than 97% of companies with a size listed. 2,078 people list it on LinkedIn.

Age

198219002026

44 years old.

Reach

Website ranked #21,859 in the world for traffic, about 3.1M visits a month. 61,947 followers on LinkedIn.

What it does

BooksRetailBooksAudiobooksBookselling

What it is known for

booksaudiobooksbooksellingbookstore environmentonline bookstoreretail innovationreading areasretail marketingretail resiliencebookstore customer experiencebookstore retailingonline retailcurated booksbookstore experiencebook genresbookstore offerings

What its website runs on

Google Search ConsoleApple Business ManagerCloudFlare CDNNetnames CedelApple School ManagerMailchimp MandrillMicrosoft Email ProvidersMicrosoft Exchange OnlineMimecastOutlookMicrosoft ExchangeAtlassianCisco CollaborationCisco Webex Control HubCisco WebEx TeamsMicrosoft 365Microsoft 365 Apps & ServicesFacebook Pixel

Funding, as listed

$165M raised in total

  • LatestDebt Financing, Aug 2025
  • Latest amountUSD 165,000,000

What the source datasets report. We have not watched these rounds ourselves, and do not hold this company in the startups database.

Annual revenue$767M
Part ofElliott Investment Management L.P.
Acquisitions made1
Apps3 · 37k downloads
Retail locations47
NAICS451211

Every detail we hold

Everything the source datasets list about Waterstones, field by field. Contact details are held but never shown.

The company

Name
Waterstones
Type
For profit
Status
Private
Founded
1982
Industry
Retail
Categories
Books, Retail
Specialities
Books, Audiobooks, Bookselling

Where

City
London
Region
England
Country
United Kingdom
Markets
Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)
Retail locations
47

Size and reach

Staff band
1001-5000
People on LinkedIn
2,078
LinkedIn followers
61,947
Web traffic rank
#21,859
Monthly web visits
3,143,005
Apps
3
App downloads
37,122
Annual revenue
$767M

Funding, as listed

Total
$165,000,000 USD
Latest round
Debt Financing
Latest round date
Aug 2025
Latest amount
165,000,000 USD
Listing status
private

Corporate family

Part of
Elliott Investment Management L.P.
Parent website
elliottmgmt.com
Sub-organisations
4
Acquisitions made
1

Classification

NAICS
451211
SIC
5191, 5942
Keywords
16 listed, shown above
Technologies
18 detected, shown above

About this record

Sources
Crunchbase, LinkedIn, Apollo
Last imported
Sept 2026

Growth, as the source summarises it

Waterstones may be growing as it has been featured in the E2E Profit 100 list, which highlights businesses experiencing significant growth. Additionally, there is discussion of a potential initial public offering, indicating a strategic move to raise capital and expand further. The company is also involved in the children's book market, with a £5k Waterstones Children's Book Prize, suggesting investment in literary awards and engagement with young readers.

Summaries written by the source dataset, not by us, and not checked.

Companies like it

Retail in United Kingdom.

See all in the directory →

From the company datasets we hold (Crunchbase, LinkedIn and Apollo listings), as listed there; 372,993 companies in United Kingdom and 5,926,251 in all. We hold no contact details for public display. Correct this, or ask for it to be removed.