Harry Potter works magic for Ottakar’s
Book retailer sees sales soar
July 17 2003
UK book retailer Ottakar’s has reaped the benefits of its strong support for the fifth Harry Potter book, with a 34 per cent increase in sales over the 23 weeks to July 12.
The figures were also boosted by the acquisition of 24 Hammicks stores in April.
Ottakar’s stores sold 80,000 copies of [i]Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[/i] in the first 24 hours of publication, with total sales to date of 122,000 copies sold to date. The retailer said it had outperformed other specialist book retailers on sales “due to the extraordinary creativity of our staff.”
Wizard Quest, a competition run in association with the Daily Telegraph in the run-up to the book’s launch, also helped generate publicity for the Ottakar’s brand. Like for like sales over the 23 weeks increased by 7.9 per cent, and were up 5.2 per cent excluding the Harry Potter effect.
Twelve of the newly acquired Hammicks stores have been rebranded as Ottakar’s stores, with the remainder to be changed by the end of September.
Ottakar’s chairman Philip Dunne said: “Trading has been strong so far this year, driven further by the exceptional success of the fifth Harry Potter novel and the extended period of publicity for books in general in the weeks leading up to its publication. It is too early to anticipate the outcome of our full year, which will, as ever, be dependent on the crucial Christmas trading period.”
