Wakefield indie to shut bricks and mortar bookshop and move focus online

Wakefield indie Rickaro Books will close its bricks and mortar bookshop in March and move its focus to its website selling rare and antique books.

Husband and wife team Richard and Carol Knowles set up shop Horbury in 2001 selling general stock including children's and local history books.

Richard Knowles told The Bookseller: "It is with a very real sense of sadness that we have made the decision to close our shop and focus on the antiquarian side of the business. We opened some 19 years ago and it has always been and still is a profitable little business."

Knowles, a former commercial director at Askews and library supplier Cypher, has been in the book trade since 1975 but he says competition and discounting from online retailers and supermarkets means it has become increasingly challenging to run the bricks and mortar site.

He said: "A lot has changed and it's difficult with heavy discounting on the internet and people buying from Amazon. The big change has been the advancement of mobile phones: you have people looking in the shop window and checking if they can get buy it cheaper online. I was at Askews when the Net Book Agreement came in and that was the beginning of the end.

"It's a real pity and we've had a good run. It's been profitable every year since we opened and we have a turnover of around £200,000 a year. We've always sold antiquarian books and they've always sold well and you don't need a shop to do that."

Knowles and his wife will now turn their attention to their online offering of antique and rare books . Their two members of staff will be made redundant with plans to close the shop in March.

He added: "We were the only bookshop in Horbury when we opened and we still are. The nearest bookshop is a Waterstones two miles away and other than that, there isn't a bookshop for 20 miles. We will close during March and will get the stock cleared by the end of February. The library will be coming in to buy some stock with a very big discount but we won't be having a closing down sale as such, I think that would be a real shame."

Meryl Halls, m.d. of The Booksellers Association, said: "We’re very sad to hear about Rickaro Books. Richard has been a fixture of bookselling - an engaged and active part of the bookselling community and a thoughtful participant in bookselling conversations - for very many years. He’s been a valuable part of his community and will be much missed on his high street. We wish him well for the next chapter of the bookshop story."