Gardners owner Little Group buys Baker & Taylor UK

The Little Group, the parent company of global wholesaler Gardners alongside firms including Browns Books and the Hive website, has bought wholesaler Baker & Taylor UK for an undisclosed sum.  

Baker & Taylor UK executive chairman Gareth Powell and Annette Burgess, managing director, will remain on the board of directors and will be actively involved in the day-to-day running of the company, along with the existing senior management team.

The company will continue to trade with its own identity and there will be no other staff changes, a spokesperson has confirmed. The business was acquired from c.e.o. Amandeep Kochar, who headed a private investment group that bought Baker & Taylor from previous owner Follett last year. The US business is unaffected by the new UK deal.

As part of The Little Group, the organisation says Baker & Taylor UK will benefit from access to the Gardners supply chain, with 500,000 titles in stock, enhanced by a six-million-strong catalogue, fast delivery times and a wealth of cross-trade knowledge from the wider group.

Jonathan Little, chairman of The Little Group, said: “We are pleased to welcome Baker & Taylor UK to the group, complementing our offer to the UK and international book markets, and we look forward to building on this to provide even better services in the future for both new and existing customers”.

Powell said: “We are delighted to be joining The Little Group for the next exciting chapter in the Baker & Taylor UK story. We are proud of the immense progress the business has made, particularly against the backdrop of the challenges of the past two years. Our teams have worked tirelessly, with skill and commitment, to make this business stronger than it has ever been and we are now honoured to take this forward with the support of our loyal customers for the new horizons this opens.”