Angus & Robertson

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. In 1886, he went into partnership with fellow Scot, George Robertson with whom he had worked earlier.

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". 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 had over 170 stores spread throughout the country, it claims that it has more than twice as many stores as Australia's next largest bookseller. The number of stores has doubled since 1982. The brand name is recognised by 96% of the Australian population. The firm has approximately 18% share in the Australian book retail market.

Publishing history
Angus and Robertson began publishing in 1887 in Australia. Their first work was a book of verse, A crown of wattle, written by a Sydney solicitor, H. Peden Steel. As a publisher, Angus & Robertson has played a role in shaping Australian literature by publishing works by significant Australian authors such as Banjo Paterson, 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.

Ownership
Since 1977, the publisher has been a separate company under separate ownership from the bookseller. Angus & Robertson publishers have been an imprint of HarperCollins since 1989.

Ownership of the company has changed several times since the 1970s. In the 1990s, the company was owned by Gordon & Gotch, followed by the purchase by Brashs who merged Bookworld with A&R. 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 which was itself later purchased by W H Smith in 2001.

Angus & Robertson is the owner of Reader's Feast, a large bookshop in the Melbourne CBD, which doesn't run under its parent company's logo.

Angus & Robertson is currently under the portfolio of REDgroup, retail operations company owned by Pacific Equity Partners.

On 17 February 2011, RedGroup Retail (including the Borders, Angus & Robertson as well as Whitcoulls chains) were placed into voluntary administration with Ferrier Hodgson appointed as administrators.

Demand for payment from smaller publishers
In August 2007, A & R Whitcoulls Group's commercial manager, Charlie Rimmer, sent out a letter demanding payments ranging between $2,500 and $20,000 from smaller distributors and publishers to make up for reduced profitability compared to other suppliers.

The letter, leaked by Tower Books to the public, claimed that if the payment was not made, the books from the supplier would no longer be sold in A&R stores. Many publishers have expressed a disbelief at Angus & Robertson's decision, with Tower declaring that they will withdraw supply for Angus & Robertson as per the letter's requirement.

This situation has resulted in Chris Burgess, the general manager of Leading Edge Books, sending out a parody of the original A&R letter sent to publishers

In response to the situation, Dave Fenlon, Chief Operating Officer at Angus & Robertson, responded by claiming that the whole situation is blown up out of proportion and that A&R is simply negotiating a new business agreement with selected suppliers deemed to not be meeting their obligations to the company and that Angus & Robertson is committed to selling Australian published books from a large range of Australian publishers, large and small.