Aurelius's Bertram to make wholesale division insolvent, sells Wordery

Several publishers have confirmed that they are no longer supplying Bertram due to unpaid bills that predated the UK government's lockdown measures, according to a report by The Bookseller.

Elliott Advisors, owner of the book retailer Waterstones, completed the acquisition of Bertram's online book retail arm Wordery in the last week of April 2020.

At the end of March, Bertram sold its European library businesses – Erasmus Antiquariaat en Boekhandel and Houtschild Internationale Boekhandel – to Italian company Casalini Libri, a strategic partner and family-owned business.

A statement on Bertram's website said it had temporarily closed Bertram Books as of 1 April 2020 due to uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

Aurelius acquired Connect Books, as it was then known, from its parent Connect Group for £11.6m in December 2017.

Company
Founded in 1968 and based in Norwich, Bertram Books, the wholesale division of Bertram, employs 400 people. The division is a supplier of books to schools and high-street retailers, as well as Education Umbrella, Dawson Books (a partner of UK Universities and French libraries), and Bertram Library Services, which serves public libraries across the UK.

Wordery was founded in 2012, is based in Norwich and employs 25 people. It is an online retailer of fiction, non-fiction, educational and children's books. For the 16 month period ending on 31 December 2018, the company reported revenues of £79m and an operating profit of £1m.

People
Aurelius Equity Opportunities – Dirk Markus (CEO).

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