Monday, June 13, 2011

Foyles to open at Westfield Stratford City



Foyles, Britain’s largest independent bookshop chain and twice UK Bookseller of the Year in 2008 and 2010, announced today that it is to open its seventh branch at Westfield Stratford City.

The new shop will be in Europe's largest urban shopping centre, next door to the site of the 2012 Olympics.   With over 1.9million square feet of retail and leisure space and home to over 300 shops anchored by John Lewis, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and a 17-screen Vue cinema, the new bookshop will trade from over 5,000 square feet.   It will be situated on the ground floor, with an additional mezzanine space, near Waitrose and John Lewis, and surrounded by leading children’s retailers.

Foyles at Westfield Stratford City, due to open later this year, will be under the overall management of Tom Nind, the Company’s Operations Manager. The process of recruiting a shop manager, shop supervisor and full time booksellers will commence soon. 

The shop will have over 25,000 titles featuring a range of fiction, children’s, sport, travel, business, art and more. 

Sam Husain, CEO of Foyles, comments,
Our aim is to get books to as many readers as possible, so we're very excited about the opportunity to reach book lovers in a part of London that is new to us. Westfield's vision for cultural experience, education and youth engagement makes the Stratford City centre, adjacent to the 2012 Olympic site, a particularly strong fit. Following our successful partnership with Westfield in establishing our bookshop in Westfield London, we look forward to working closely with the centre and the community for years to come.”

Bill Giouroukos, Director of Operations at Westfield, said:
“Foyles is an extremely important part of our overall retail mix and we are delighted that they will be opening their seventh UK branch at Westfield Stratford City, building on the successful partnership we have established together at Westfield London. Westfield Stratford City is creating a new leisure and lifestyle destination for London and, as the gateway to the Olympic Park, will provide a world stage for retailers next summer.”

Foyles recently opened its first shop outside London in Bristol’s Cabot Circus.  Its flagship store is on Charing Cross Road and its other bookshops are at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank, in St Pancras International, One New Change and in Westfield London.  Additionally, Foyles has a specialist library supply and commercial accounts division (now incorporating Grant & Cutler’s foreign languages) and a fully transactional web site, selling a range of print and electronic books. Foyles was founded in 1903 by two brothers – William and Gilbert Foyle; trading on Charing Cross Road for over 100 years.

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