Angus & Robertson

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Angus & Robertson is a bookstore chain in Australia. Its first bookstore was opened in 110½ Market Street, Sydney by Scotsman David Angus in 1884; it sold second-hand books.^[1] In 1886, he went into partnership with fellow Scot, George Robertson with whom he had worked with earlier.

1 Bookselling history
2 Publishing history
3 Ownership
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Bookselling history

In 1895 the company moved to 89 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. The head office of the firm was at Castlereagh Street until the 1950s. The shop was known as the "biggest bookshop in the world".^[2] In 1907 the partnership was converted into a public company - Angus & Robertson Limited. In 1938 A&R opened a publishing office in London, and in 1951 a store was established in Australia's High Commission in London, which operated until the 1970s. In the 1950s, Angus & Robertson began the growth which led it to become Australia's first nationwide chain of bookstores. In 1977, it opened its first franchise store in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. In 2006, the company has over 170 stores spread throughout the country, it claims that it has more than twice as many stores as Australia's next largest bookseller.^[3] The number of stores has doubled since 1982.^[4] The brand name is recognised by 96% of the Australian population.^[4] The firm has approximately 18% share in the Australian book retail market.^[5]

[edit] Publishing history

Angus and Robertson began publishing in 1888. Their first work was book of verse, A crown of wattle, written by a Sydney solicitor, H. Peden Steel.^[1] As a publisher, Angus & Robertson has played a role in shaping Australian literature by publishing works by significant Australian authors such as Banjo Patterson, Henry Lawson and Norman Lindsay.

In the early years of publishing to 1900, Angus and Robertson developed a successful marketing formula and mix of products: they established a pattern of literary publishing together with educational publishing.^[6]

Angus and Robertson published the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 edited by Charles Bean.^[1]

[edit] Ownership

Since 1978, the publisher has been a completely separate company under separate ownership form the bookseller. Angus & Robertson publishers have been an imprint of HarperCollins since 1989.^[2]

Ownership of the company changed several times since the 1970s. In the 90's, the company was owned by Gordon & Gotch (Newsagent Supplier/Publisher) followed by the purchase by Brashes (Home Entertainment Chain) who refitted many of the stores and merged Bookworld (A Queensland Bookchain) with A&R to increase the overall size (For several years the company went by the name Angus & Robertson Bookworld before eventually dropping Bookworld as part of the name). Ownership of the company then passed on to whitcoulls (New Zealand chain) which was itself later purchased by W H Smith (who sought to introduce the W H Smith brand into Australia), the most recent change being the 2004 sale by W H Smith, who had owned the company since 2001.^[2] The current owners are Pacific Equity Partners.