And from the looks of things, this makes Wottakar’s look like small potatoes. The Bookseller reports that leading independent chain Hugendubel and Verlagsgruppe Weltbild have agreed to merge Hugendubel with the jointly owned book chain, Weltbildplus. The newly formed holding, DBH Buch Handels GmbH, has also acquired a majority share in regional book chains Buch Habel and Weiland with effect from January 2007. This makes DBH the top dog in German bookselling with combined sales of €621m (£419m), 451 branches and sales space of more than 170,000 square meters, relegating Thalia, with sales of €514.7m (£347m), to second place.
At a recent press conference with Nina and Maximilian Hugendubel, who took over the family-owned business last year after the death of their father Heinrich, Carel Halff, CEO of Weltbild, described the merger as “the only way to preserve the singular variety of classic German bookselling tradition”. Speculation that DBH may invite international investors or booksellers into the holding has been strongly denied, and all four bookselling properties plan to keep their own names and identities – for now, at least…