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Ottakar's renamed its stores for the Harry Potter launch.

Ottakar's was a chain of bookshops in the United Kingdom, now owned by, and rebranded into Waterstone's following its takeover by HMV Group plc.

Ottakar's was founded in 1987 by James Heneage. The name was taken from the Tintin book King Ottokar's Sceptre as Heneage was (and remains) a fan of the books, and most Ottakar's shops had a wide range of Tintin merchandise. The change of spelling is thought to have been made to avoid copyright infringement. Many branches had cafés or coffee shops (notably Costa) within.

The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1998 and expanded rapidly, making a number of acquisitions including small bookstores in the West Country, eight branches of James Thin Booksellers in 2002, and 24 branches of Hammicks Bookshops Ltd, a company with 35 years of bookselling history, in April 2003.

In mid-2006, the chain had shops in 141 locations throughout the UK. The historic George Street store in Edinburgh was closed at the end of April 2006, as the lease for the store had expired and the site owners wished to redevelop it.

In an attempt to compete with online booksellers, Ottakar's offered an online ordering service for several years, which was later withdrawn. The Ottakar's website is now linked directly to Waterstone's.

In August 2005, amid rumours of a forthcoming takeover attempt by HMV Group plc, the owners of Ottakar's, founders James Heneage and Philip Dunne backed by private equity firm Phoenix Equity Partners made a management buyout offer which has was initially accepted by Ottakar's independent directors, some of whom had only recently joined the company, until a higher offer was made by HMV, when they switched their recommendation to accept the HMV bid.

The Office of Fair Trading was due to decide whether to approve the buyout of Ottakar's by Waterstone's on 2 December 2005. On 6 December the OFT referred the case to the Competition Commission, apparently due to the high level of public concern that a merger would harm customers, authors, suppliers and employees.^{[1] [2]}

The Competition Commission provisionally cleared HMV Group, through Waterstone's, for takeover of the Ottakar's group on March 30, 2006. The Commission stated that the takeover would "not result in a substantial lessening of competition", and was "not likely to affect book prices, range of titles offered or quality of service." Through extensive research they also found that "contrary to widespread perception, Waterstone's, like Ottakar's, operates a book-buying system which mixes central and local input on stock selection." ^[3]

Waterstone's then announced that it had successfully negotiated a takeover of Ottakar's on May 31, 2006. HMV chief executive Alan Giles said in a statement: "A combined Waterstone's and Ottakar's business will create an exciting, quality bookseller, able to respond better to the increasingly competitive pressures of the retail market." Ottakar's chairman Philip Dunne said: "Over the last year the book market has undergone a significant change with new levels of competition from the supermarkets and online retailers impacting all specialist booksellers and in particular those with insufficient scale to compete on equal terms." ^[4]

The conversion of Ottakar's stores in to Waterstone's is now complete. By the run up to Christmas 2006 all stores were successfully converted, meaning the end of the Ottakar's brand.

• Some Ottakar's stores have a wall painted with an enlargement of the cover of the album King Ottokar's Sceptre from The Adventures of Tintin, and still exist in some of the Waterstone's branches that were previously Ottakar's outlets.
• Most stores have a mural painted by Chris Burke, showing elements of local history, behind the tills.
• Trade magazine The Bookseller ran a monthly diary column by bookshop manager Montgomery Bright, written anonymously. Although the location and owner of his branch of a chain bookseller is never stated, it was generally considered he worked for Ottakar's.
• The Ottakar store in Bromley, Kent has a large rocket — taken from the Tintin novels. Large enough for children to play inside and liven the store. Above the rocket is a cartoon picture of the night sky to add to the effect.
• Ottakar's was founded on the principle of customer service, and was widely regarded to be one of the few chains of bookshops that actually stuck to Tim Waterstone's original vision of creating a chain of bookshops that was "aimed to enshrine the values of traditional bookselling — personality, passion, eccentricity, intelligence — and remove some of the cobwebs." ^[5].
• A character in the Mark Haddon novel A Spot of Bother has a part-time job in an unspecified branch of Ottakar's.
• As two of the Heneage family attended Salisbury Cathedral School in Salisbury, Wiltshire, a library, funded by the chain and named Ottakar's Library, was erected within the school. It was furnished with £5000 worth of books and was opened on October 16, 2002.

1. ^ The Independent: Cover Stories: Ottakar's; The Book People; Hachette
2. ^ BBC News: HMV bid for Ottakar's gets review
3. ^ Forbes: UK Competition Commission gives green light to HMV takeover of Ottakar's
4. ^ The Telegraph: Ottakar's falls to Waterstone
5. ^ Tim Adams, "War of the Words", Observer Review, 18 September 2005

• Ottakar's official site (now linked to Waterstone's)
• Office of Fair Trading