On an unremarkable street adjacent to Euston station in London, there is an unassuming office block that is home to one of the world’s best-known brands. Guinness World Records celebrated its 60th anniversary this week – six decades in which global sales of the book have been bettered only by the Bible and the Qur’an.

At the helm is Alistair Richards, who runs a team of 150 people from the small London office on Drummond Street and four other offices around the world. “Like lots of brands, the awareness and reputation is bigger than the brand actually is,” he said.

The company’s collection of world records includes the tallest ever person (Robert Pershing Wadlow), the bestselling music single (White Christmas), and the fastest man and woman over 100 metres (Usain Bolt and Florence Griffith Joyner).

However, Guinness World Records’ own statistics are less well known. It has sold more than 134m books in more than 100 countries, including 2.75m last year. Roughly 97% of people in the US and the UK recognise the brand, which is a percentage that most companies could only dream of.

The business behind the world records is substantial. The latest accounts filed by GWRUK Acquisition Corp Ltd, the UK parent company, show that in 2013 it generated revenues of £23m and pre-tax profits of £4.5m.

According to Richards, 70% of the business comes from publishing and other media such as its television shows, but a further 30% comes from corporate events, such as organising the world’s largest champagne tasting event with Eurostar.

Guinness World Records was founded after Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of the Guinness Brewery, argued with the hosts of a shooting party he was attending in Ireland over the fastest game bird. As a result, he asked the sports journalists Norris and Ross McWhirter to compile a book of facts that would be part of a Guinness promotion designed to settle arguments in the pub. Guinness Superlatives was incorporated in November 1954 and the first book was bound on August 27, 1955. The book became a bestseller in Britain by Christmas.

Guinness World Records remained attached to the Irish stout until 2001, when Diageo, the new owners of Guinness, sold the brand for £50m to Gullane Entertainment. It was then passed on to Hit Entertainment, which produces Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine, before it was bought by Canadian tycoon Jim Pattison for an undisclosed fee in 2008.

Pattison’s holding company, the Jim Pattison Group, has annual revenues of more than $8bn (£5.2bn) and is the second largest private company in Canada. When Pattison bought Guinness World Records, he already owned Ripley’s Believe It or Not, which had the rights to run Guinness World Records museums and attractions around the world.

Richards said the brand has found much needed stability as part of the Canadian conglomerate. “It is not the Jim Pattison way to be sold,” he said. “It has been much better for us. We have been able to invest. We have not needed to grow sales and profits in line with the external shareholder expectations.”

Richards joined Guinness World Records in 2002 from his role as UK boss of toymaker Hasbro, the company behind Nerf guns and Mr Potato Head. With the backing of Pattison, he wants to expand the business into India, China, Australia and other places. More specific books could also be launched, possibly focused on records by a certain country. A book of videogame records has already proved lucrative.

However, the most ambitious plan is to open new Guinness World Records attractions, in conjunction with Ripley, where people will be able to try to set their own world records.

Richards said museums had not really worked for the brand, but the new attractions would be kitted out with up to 80 machines that allow families to try to produce the loudest scream or clap. The first location is likely to be in the US and could open sometime next year, according to Richards.

“The view is to have 30 to 50 of these around the world in the next 10 to 15 years,” he added. “That would double the size of the business currently. It will be huge for us. Not only will it be a third leg to our stool, but it will be a strong marketing tool.”

These plans suggest that Guinness remains confident for the future. Despite the pressure on publishers from the rise of ebooks and online shopping, revenues for Guinness World Records rose 16% in the latest UK accounts.

“It is still a book despite the trials and tribulations of the publishing market,” Richards said. “It responds brilliantly to promotions within stores. Demand is bigger than supply when you tickle interest.”

In the UK, the biggest sellers of the books are WH Smith, Tesco and Asda, rather than Amazon. However, increasing investment has gone into the Guinness World Records website, which includes a database of records, articles about new records being set and famous past records, and an application form to post your own record.

Richards said Guinness World Records had remained appealing because its basic principles appealed to all generations. “You can’t limit what success looks like just to what a school or business say,” he said. “Also, it is really simple and digested way of learning about the world and the universe. These are the two basic principles that lie behind the brand.”

According to Richards, the biggest threat to Guinness World Records would come from undermining its own integrity – damaging the brand by chasing short-term profit targets and publishing dubious records that have been promoted by other companies.

“We can’t be under pressure to do poor record-breaking,” he said. “It may pay money, but it undermines our independence and integrity in the long term.”