Charity bookshop chain broken up

WESLEY Owen, the UK’s largest chain of Christian bookshops, is to be broken up following the administration of Christian charity, IBS-STL UK.

Administrators at Baker Tilly  have sold 14 of the 40 Wesley Owen  book stores, along with trading divisions Authentic Media and STL Distribution.

Eight Wesley Owen Stores in Bath, Birmingham, Bristol, Bromley, Coleraine, Derby, Glasgow and York have been sold to Sydney-based Koorong, which already operates 18 stores throughout Australia.

Koorong has also bought Authentic Book Publishing, along with all of the Authentic and Paternoster intellectual property and author contracts, the freehold properties in Glasgow and York, the Wesley Owen trading name, and the domain name, wesleyowen.com.

A further six Wesley Owen stores, in Bolton, Cambridge, Coventry, Guildford, Kingston and Stockport, have been acquired by CLC International (UK) which operates as CLC Bookshops.

STL Distribution has been purchased by John Ritchie, a book publisher and distributor based in Kilmarnock, Scotland that is a subsidiary of The Lord’s Work Trust, which supports Christian projects around the world.

Authentic Music, based in Milton Keynes, has been bought by Kingsway Communications operating from Eastbourne.