What is "bertrams"

Bertrams is the second largest United Kingdom based wholesaler of books, owned since 2009 by Smiths News. It has 150,000 titles available for same-day despatch and has access to over 600k books in print. The group includes Bertram Books, Bertram Publisher Services and Bertram Library Services.

The company was founded in 1971 by Elsie Bertram and her son Kip, based on a business which Elsie had been running since 1965 in a chicken shed in the garden of her Norwich home. It had and still does have independent booksellers as its core customers.

Bertrams was bought by Woolworths Group in 2007. The acquisition was reviewed by the Competition Commission.

The retail business of Woolworths Group and its distribution firm Entertainment UK entered administration in November 2008, although Bertrams did not as it operated as a separate division within the group. Woolworths Group entered into administration itself in January 2009.

Bertrams entered administration on 20 March 2009 and sold on the same day by Ernst & Young in a "pre-pack" deal to Smiths News for £8,611,622.