Book Depository will close at the end of April 2023, vendors and publishing partners have been informed. It comes after Amazon announced it would “eliminate” a number of positions in its Devices and Books businesses.
The Gloucester-based bookseller was founded in 2004 by Stuart Felton and Andrew Crawford, a former Amazon employee, with the mantra of “selling ‘less of more’ rather than ‘more of less’”. It aimed to sell 6m titles covering a wide variety of genres and topics, as opposed to focusing solely on bestsellers. While originally a rival to Amazon, it was acquired by the retail giant in 2011, causing some in the publishing industry to worry about the tightening of the American company’s “stranglehold” on the UK book trade.
According to the trade magazine the Bookseller, an email sent out to vendors and publishing partners explained that Book Depository will be closing, and that the last date customers will be able to place orders is 26 April.
An Amazon blog post in January outlined wider cutbacks at the company. “In November, we communicated the hard decision to eliminate a number of positions across our Devices and Books businesses,” as a result of the “uncertain economy,” CEO Andy Jassy wrote. “I also shared that we weren’t done with our annual planning process and that I expected there would be more role reductions in early 2023.” In total, the company was planning to make just over 18,000 people redundant, Jassy added. Amazon has not shared how many jobs will be lost specifically at Book Depository.
Source: The Guardian