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THE LEAD STORY IGLOO BOOKS
06.08.18
www.thebookseller.com
Igloo overhaul puts business back on track
New c.e.o. outlines ambitions for Bonnier Publishing division
SUPERMARKET SWEEP
BY CHARLOTTE EYRE
an overhaul thanks to its new chief executive officer, who has affirmed the division’s future profitability. Paul Gregory, who until 2015 was
I
Igloo Books partnered with Aldi last year to publish a picture book based on the supermarket’s Christmas campaign, with Kevin and Katie’s Christmas Adventure a runaway success for Igloo when it hit Aldi shelves. Written by in-house writer Melanie Joyce, and illustrated by Adam Horsepool, the book is about two carrots who win tickets to ride on Santa’s train to the North Pole. The company had only eight weeks to bring the project to fruition and supply 100,000 books to Aldi’s 762 stores in the UK, but the first print run of 100,000 copies sold out within two days of publication. Another 100,000 copies were delivered within a three-week period, and sales reached 200,000 units in four weeks, the company said. Sales of Kevin & Katie’s Christmas Adventure didn’t track through Nielsen BookScan’s TCM, but it was the second biggest-selling children’s book of 2017, according to Igloo. The price was set at £2.99, to keep the book affordable for all readers, but copies are currently selling on eBay in excess of the r.r.p.; one seller has listed the book and a set of plush toys for £60.
the president and chief operating offficer of Parragon, and thereafter managing director of another publisher, Hometown World, said it was a “difficult time” for the Igloo business when he took over its leadership last summer.
“Bonnier is not fundamentally a mass-market player and it acquired this mass-market business [in 2014], which was a logical piece in the jigsaw of Bonnier building a host of complementary businesses. But it operates so differently from a traditional publisher,” he told The
gloo Books, the mass-market children’s books business owned by Bonnier Publishing, has undergone
Bookseller. “John [Styring, Igloo’s founder] left [in 2016], so there were several months without any continuity. Then Dan Shepherd came in as chief executive officer for 10 months, but when he left the business was back to having no management.”
MAKING PLANS When asked what goes wrong when a company such as Igloo is lacking leadership, Gregory said: “our numbers”. “We’ve got £40m turnover and 25 million books, the volumes are incredibly high, but our margins are running behind the industry average. You can easily see that if you don’t have control of your costs or if you don’t have control of your buy-in, it becomes problematic.” Igloo has closed one of its two
warehouses and will this year produce fewer books—around 750, compared to 1,000 in 2017. Gregory has also
made “significant” changes to the leadership structure, hiring Darren Witherall, his former right-hand man at Parragon, as chief operating officer, and Steve Wakely, formerly of boiler company Vaillant, as financial director. In the US, Bonnie Hunter, also a former Parragon staffer, has joined as joint vice-president to lead the US business alongside Jeremy Nurnberg. Gregory has split the UK sales team
to maximise its Disney business (see panel, opposite) and created new publishing structures. Some former members of the team, including publisher Mike Phipps and art director Nick Gage, have left the company. Gregory confirmed their departures were not voluntary but was keen to stress he has made appointments, too. “Staff numbers year-on-year have not changed significantly [and hover around 160]. The reality is that Igloo is still growing. All businesses,
Igloo’s base in rural Northamptonshire
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