THIS WEEK
Peter Gray J S Group
Chairman and c.e.o.
Academic bookselling has been one of the trickiest parts of the trade to navi- gate, but Gray’s J S Group has stayed in and ahead of the game—and profit- able—by altering its offering and busi- ness model to suit the changing needs of the modern student. Another strategic shift this year had the group ramping-up its Aspire Engage smartcard bursary scheme, which is geared towards online shopping and e-learning. This has not been without pain, as nine of its physical shops have closed across the chain as their institutions shift to the scheme.
Claire Johnson Amazon
Head of Kindle UK and Australia
New Entry
We cannot pretend to have the inside track on Johnson or her plans for self-published books on Amazon’s Kindle—the
e-tailer remains as secretive as the Kremlin—but under her stewardship Amazon has twice run its £20,000 Kindle Storyteller Award for authors published via its Kindle Direct Publishing service. In 2019 the awards ceremony was held on the same night as the Booker Prize, controversially awarding just one winner, with the top prize going to Ian Sainsbury for The Picture on the Fridge.
Bob Johnston Te Gutter Bookshop Owner
New Entry
This November marked the 10th anniversary for Johnston’s Gutter. In the decade since opening in Dublin’s Temple Bar
(the first book it sold was Where’s Wally Now?), Johnston has made Gutter the country’s pre-eminent indie and a key player in Ireland’s literary scene. A second branch in Dalkey launched in 2013 (a consequence of being asked to be the retailer for the Dalkey Book Festival). Gutter won the Nibbie for Independent Bookshop of the Year in 2017, after several shortlistings.
Jonathan Little Gardners Books Managing director
There was a 3% dip in revenue at the Little family firm (to £283m) this year, but that must be contextualised in that Gardners was coming off a record 2018 which saw sales rocket by 30%. The bottom line—which at the moment is a rather tasty £12.9m after-tax profit—is that business is booming. But Little is far from complacent, as the firm has worked tirelessly to seek out new businesses at home and abroad. Technology is being invested in, too, such as its partnership with tech firm NearSt to give indies real- time stock information.
26 13th December 2019
Raj Patel Bertram Books Chief executive officer
There have been ructions galore at the top of Bertram over the past couple of years, but all the drama in the board room undoubtedly went completely unnoticed by the booksellers and customers the distributor serves. Patel came in as c.e.o. following the sale of the business to private equity firm Aurelis, and his first set of accounts were pretty nifty, with Bertram Books posting an £8.5m profit on sales of £246.6m (over an extended 16-month period). Rob Moss’ Wordery division remains a star with sales surging to nearly £80m.
The Lead Story The Bookseller 150
Liam Hanly Easons Chief executive officer
Two and a half years in the top job at Ireland’s biggest bookseller and things are going pretty well for Hanly. In fact, in its latest set of results Easons posted its biggest profit (€3.9m) since 2006. There is some devil in the detail: that profit haul was largely owing to a strategy of selling off part of its property portfolio (the iconic O’Connell Street flagship is on the market for €24.5m at the moment). Operations were more challenging, with revenues slipping overall by 5% to €131m, with sales down 3% in Ireland, and 19% down in Northern Ireland.
Simon Johnson Amazon Country Manager (UK), books
A slight change this year, with Simon Johnson, country manager for UK books at Amazon, chosen ahead of Doug Gurr, who leads the entire UK business. Johnson is well-known in the book business after his stint at HarperCollins, where he worked under then-c.e.o. Victoria Barnsley during a period when it won the Man Booker and a Publisher of the Year Nibbie. Johnson joined Amazon in 2015: a book man with mathematical leanings, he finds himself in the right job at the right moment, overseeing the retailer’s relentless books push.
Roly Keating British Library Chief executive officer
The British Library this year announced the acquisition of the 40-year archive of Granta magazine, featuring letters and papers from authors including Margaret Atwood, J G Ballard, Angela Carter and Kazuo Ishiguro. It revamped the bookshop in its flagship London location to make it bigger and better and outside the capital, the organisation invested in its existing Boston Spa site, near Wetherby, to expand archival storage facilities and upgrade staff spaces. At the start of the year, John Lee joined the British Library’s books arm as publisher.
Nick Poole CILIP Director
The library sector continues to struggle, but Poole hopes innovation can turn things around, teaming up with US firm the EveryLibrary Institute to launch Libraries Deliver, an Arts Council-funded project bringing existing campaigns together, expanding their support and creating a database of supporters. Elsewhere, Poole got political, criticis- ing Boris Johnson’s suggestion that library closures were down to councils’ financial mismanagement, and leading a campaign calling for politicians to make local libraries a big election issue.
Paul Hulley Clays
Managing director
Hulley has run the UK’s biggest printer for five years, calmly steering it through some choppy waters, including last year’s acquisiton by Italian firm Elcograf (from former parent St Ives, for £23.8m) and a board restructure. But the busi- ness is rock-solid: revenues did dip some 7% last year to around £75m, but that was largely owing to the loss of its HarperCollins business the previous year (even though it gained a huge PRH contract). The Italian bosses are supportive, and Clays has continued its investment in short-run technology.
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