Bertrams put up for sale

In the UK, wholesaler Bertrams has been put up for sale by its parent company Aurelius, reports the Bookseller.

Bertrams’ subsidiary companies Dawson Books and Education Umbrella are also up for sale. It comes after Bertrams confirmed it was conducting a strategic review of its business after the sale of its online bookshop Wordery to Elliott Advisors earlier this month.

The Norwich-based wholesaler has not been placed into administration, pending a possible sale, according to the Bookseller. Middleton Barton Valuation, which specialises in restructuring and asset recovery, is advertising for interest in the ‘leading B2B books wholesaler’, which has ‘200,000 titles held in stock’, ‘access to over 13 million titles’ and a 185,000 sq ft fulfilment warehouse.

The Bookseller writes that Bertrams hasn’t responded to requests for an update on its situation since the sale of Wordery, when the company said in a statement on its website: ‘We are not in administration. Apart from the sale of the businesses announced there is no change to the operations disclosed at the beginning of April which are in a furloughed state for the foreseeable future.’

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, on 1 April Bertrams temporarily closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Numerous publishers are reportedly owed money by Bertrams, with invoices that pre-date the pandemic. Despite these outstanding debts, the Bookseller reports that the large publishers it spoke to were ‘broadly supportive of the business’ and ‘remained hopeful that a buyer could be found’.

Category: International news