View source for Bertrams

{{Short description|British book reseller}}
{{For|the neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa|Bertrams, Gauteng}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Bertram Trading Limited
| logo = Bertrams Logo.svg
| type = [[Limited company]]
| genre =
| fate =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| foundation = 1971
| founder = [[Elsie Bertram]]<br/>Kip Bertram
| defunct =
| location_city = [[Norwich]]
| location_country = [[UK]]
| key_people = Mark Garrard
| industry = Book publishing
| products =
| services = Bookseller
| revenue =
| operating_income =
| net_income =
| aum =
| assets = l
| equity =
| owner =
| num_employees = 400
| parent = [[Bertram Group]]
| divisions =
| subsid =
| homepage = {{url|http://www.bertrams.com}}
| footnotes =
}}
'''Bertrams''' was the second largest [[United Kingdom]] based wholesaler of books,<ref name=telegraph>{{cite news |title=Elsie Bertram |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1446316/Elsie-Bertram.html |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=10 November 2003 |accessdate=18 August 2013}}</ref> owned since 2018 by Aurelius Investments. It has 200,000 titles available for same-day despatch and has access to over 13 million books in print. The group includes Bertram Books, Bertram Publisher Services and Bertram Library Services.
The company was founded in 1971 by [[Elsie Bertram]] and her son Kip, based on a business which Elsie had been running since 1965 in a chicken shed in the garden of her [[Norwich]] home.<ref name=telegraph/> It had and still does have independent booksellers as its core customers.
Bertrams was bought by [[Woolworths Group (United Kingdom)|Woolworths Group]] in 2007. The acquisition was reviewed by the [[Competition Commission (United Kingdom)|Competition Commission]].
The retail business of Woolworths Group and its distribution firm [[Entertainment UK]] entered [[Administration (law)|administration]] in November 2008, although Bertrams did not as it operated as a separate division within the group.<ref>{{cite news |title=Bertrams escapes as Woolies fails |author=Graeme Neill |url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/bertrams-escapes-woolies-falls.html |newspaper=The Bookseller |date=27 November 2008 |accessdate=18 August 2013}}</ref> Woolworths Group entered into administration itself in January 2009.
Bertrams entered administration on 20 March 2009 and sold on the same day by [[Ernst & Young]] in a "pre-pack" deal to [[Smiths News]] (now Connect Group) for £8,611,622.<ref>{{cite news |title=Bertrams sold to Smiths News |author=Graeme Neill |url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/bertrams-sold-smiths-news.html |newspaper=The Bookseller |date=22 March 2009 |accessdate=18 August 2013}}</ref> It was sold by Connect Group in 2018 and entered administration again on 19 June 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pringle|first=Eleanor|title=Hundreds made redundant as Bertram Books files for administration|url=https://www.edp24.co.uk/business/hundreds-made-redundant-as-bertram-books-in-administration-1-6708882|access-date=2020-06-19|website=Eastern Daily Press|date=19 June 2020|language=en}}</ref>
As of June 2020 many of the suppliers remain unpaid. Galley Beggar Press, based in Norwich, is owed £7,000, and its co-founder Sam Jordison said Bertrams has "quite a lot of stock of ours - we have printed the books, but don't know if we can get hold of them".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-53111229|title=Bertram Books collapses with 450 jobs at risk|work=BBC News|date=19 June 2020}}</ref>
==See also==
*[[List of book distributors]]
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{official website|http://www.bertrams.com/}}
[[Category:1971 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Book distributors]]
[[Category:F. W. Woolworth Company]]
[[Category:Publishing companies established in the 1970s]]
[[Category:Wholesalers of the United Kingdom]]