Torbay Bookshop goes back up for sale

The Torbay Bookshop is being put back up for sale by owners Matthew and Sarah Clarke, who have run it for a total of 23 years.

The husband-and-wife team want to pass the bookshop, which also acts as Tourist Information Point and a Thorntons  chocolate franchise, onto someone else and are selling the store through agent James Sanders at Charles Darrow. The bookshop has previously won both the Independent Bookshop of the Year award and the Thorntons Franchise of the Year title.

The Clarkes originally put the bookshop up for sale in 2011, but changed their minds when an opportunity to become a Thorntons franchise came up.

The bookshop’s listing on Charles Darrow’s website says the shop’s turnover is £300,000 a year with “strong” net profits. Matthew Clarke told The Bookseller he hoped to sell the shop as a going concern with the freehold which has two flats above it.

He added: “Both Sarah and I have been in the publishing and bookselling business all our working lives and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Now is the time for us to look for new opportunities and we hope our business will find owners who will have the ideas and enthusiasm to continue its success for many years to come.”

The bookshop is the only one apart from WH Smith in the Paignton area. Paignton is the second largest town in Devon.