Kingston Bookshop

THE KINGSTON BOOKSHOP continues to live up to its tag line ....all you need to know. For more than three decades this company has been providing Caribbean peoples in general, and Jamaicans in particular, with basic requirements for an education - books, stationery and more recently, access to the wider world through the internet. The company serves its Jamaican clientele through seven retail stores and a Stationery Centre. Six of the seven stores and the Stationery Centre are located in Kingston; the seventh store was opened in Spanish Town in June 2005, breaking the 30-year corporate area monopoly. While the company enjoys the privileged position of being the leading suppliers of educational textbooks in the Caribbean, the flagship store located at 70b King Street holds primary place as the store selling most school texts in the region. Although the Kingston Bookshop chain is best known as "the place for school texts" (and we are #1 there!) the stores also stock a wide variety of other reading materials, stationery items and unique gifts. Since 2002 the offerings have expanded to include internet services as well as laminating and binding facilities. The company has seen phenomenal growth in its 30 odd years. From the original base at 70b King Street in downtown Kingston (by the Kingston parish church), stores now cover the city of Kingston moving into Spanish Town. The convenient locations are 74 King Street (a welcome addition for downtown shoppers); Shop 1-The Springs and Shop 6 - Boulevard SuperCentre (offering internet access, binding and laminating services and a Children's Corner); Shop 23 - Pavilion Mall (an oasis in the busy Half Way Tree area); Shop 1 - Liguanea Post Mall (focus on life-style reading and tertiary level books while offering a Children's Corner); and Shop 6 - Spanish Town (KB's first out- of- Kingston store). The Stationery Centre is located at 80 King Street. Staff has grown from eight to 140 permanent with the number swelling to over 3100 during the back-to-school period. The growth in retail outlets has been complemented by representation of an enviable portfolio of publishing houses - the UK-based Nelson Thornes, Macmillan Publishers, Oxford University Press, The Hodder Group and Evans Brothers and the Trinidad-based Royards Publishing. In spite of the difficult economic times the Kingston Bookshop continues to grow and maintain its profitability. This success can truly be attributed to the astute and inspired leadership of managing director, Steadman Fuller and director of administration Mrs. Sonia Fuller, coupled with the hard work of the management team and rank and file staff.