Chapters

Chapters Inc. is a Canadian big box bookstore banner owned by Indigo Books and Music. Formerly a separate company competing with Indigo, the combined company has continued to operate both banners since their merger in 2001. As of July 2017, it operated 89 superstores under the banners Chapters and Indigo, and 122 small format stores under the banners Coles, Indigospirit, SmithBooks and The Book Company. History Chapters Inc. was created in 1994 when founder and CEO, Lawrence Stevenson led the buyout and merger of Canada's two largest book chains at the time: Coles and SmithBooks (formerly the Canadian division of U.K. book chain W. H. Smith). SmithBooks was acquired from Federal Industries and Coles was acquired from Southam Inc. Canadian General Capital and Pathfinder Capital bought these two chains to build large-format book superstores comparable to those of the American bookstore chains Barnes & Noble and Borders. The new company was created in April 1995 and the first two book superstores were opened in November 1995. The original superstores were in Burlington, Ontario and Burnaby, British Columbia.