Bookspeed is celebrating four decades in business this year, and will be marking its 40th anniversary at Top Drawer in London
The Edinburgh-based wholesaler was founded in 1986 by Annie Rhodes and Kingsley Dawson, after the pair identified a gap in the market for a reliable next-day book distribution service.
Four decades later, Bookspeed supplies curated book ranges to more than 2,500 retailers across the UK and beyond, spanning sectors including gift and lifestyle, heritage, visitor attractions, food and farm, and garden centres.
The company is now led by Kingsley Dawson’s son, Lewis Dawson, as CEO, with a team of around 70 employees. Its continued expansion has included a 50% increase in warehouse capacity last year, strengthening its ability to support its growing customer base.
We wanted to get more books out into the world and we are still doing that. From the very beginning we wanted to offer our customers a distinct and reliable service.
Founder Kingsley Dawson
Bookspeed’s anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on how far the business has come since its beginnings in 1986, while remaining focused on the same core objective: helping retailers find distinctive, commercially relevant book ranges and providing a dependable service.
Founder Kingsley Dawson said: “It’s so hard to grasp that the fledgling Bookspeed that we nursed into being in 1986 is not only still with us, but operating from two warehouses here in Leith and with regular and longstanding customers all over the UK and beyond.
Bookspeed will mark the milestone at Top Drawer in London, where retailers will have the opportunity to discover its latest selection and celebrate the company’s 40-year journey.
From a small distribution business established to fill a clear gap in the market to a major supplier serving thousands of retailers, Bookspeed’s anniversary underlines the enduring role that carefully curated books can play within gift, lifestyle and visitor attraction retail.
