Waterstones posts flat Christmas after ‘nerve-wracking’ peak period

Daunt said despite earlier predictions, the general election and bad weather, the book specialist’s Christmas sales were flat in December compared with the previous year.

“I would have said it would have been down on last year,” Daunt said. “Christmas came later this year and every time it falls on a Wednesday you have to whack everything into the last four days.

“It was fine in the end, but I found it rather nerve-wracking,” he added.

He said Waterstones had to work harder this Christmas as there was not a blockbuster book to be sold during the crucial Christmas trading period.

During Christmas 2018, sales of Michelle Obama’s autobiography accounted for 1.8% of all its sales in December.

“We get blockbusters almost every year – it’s rare when we don’t get one,” Daunt said.

Waterstones’ online and click-and-collect sales both “grew strongly” at around 20% over the calendar year, albeit from a smaller base, Daunt added.

Now the Christmas trading period is over, Daunt is heading back to New York to focus on his other role as chief executive of US book store chain Barnes & Noble, while chief operating officer Kate Skipper heads up the UK operation.

Barnes & Noble was acquired by Waterstones’ parent company Elliott Advisors in June last year for an all-cash deal worth $683m (£538m) and is the largest bookseller in the US, serving 627 communities across all 50 states.

Daunt plans on taking the Waterstones model to America as part of the turnaround strategy for the struggling US retailer.

“We have to change everything that we do [at Barnes & Noble] and curate [the stores] more individually, and work very hard to put in the bedrock to make better booksellers and make the stores look nicer,” Daunt said.

“The markets are the same but different. In the UK, we understand our customers, but we don’t have that in the US yet.”