The Bookseller 150 is sponsored by Mosaic Executive Search
Mike Roberts W H Smith Travel Trading controller for books
New Entry
Roberts has one of the most enviable jobs in retail, buying books for a whip-smart busi- ness that has a laser-focused
view of who its customer is, what they want, and when they might want it. WHS’ Travel stores have been the jewel in the retailer’s slightly worn crown—in bookshop, as opposed to share price, performance—for a number of years now; the 2019 annual report showed the division’s sales rose 22% to £817m. Shop expanson drove that growth, but books and Roberts’ smart picks are key, too.
David Prescott Blackwell’s Chief executive officer
More positive notes from the Blackwell’s boss, with the (primarily) academic bookseller posting its third straight year of growth, up to £58.3m, which represents a rise of £15m since 2016. The firm, however, is not quite there yet on profitablity, with a £0.9m loss, but that is a reduction from being £1.7m in the red the previous year. In February, Blackwell’s opened the latest of its new-build “flexible space” bookshops in Manchester’s University Green retail and leisure development, bringing the estate up to 32 stores and 10 business centres.
Robert Topping Topping & Co Owner
Renegade Waterstone-ite turned indie stalwart Topping returns to this list after 10 years, with a particualrly fruitful 2019 capped by the opening of a 4,000 sq ft new premises in Edinburgh this September. Topping and wife Louise’s mini-empire is now up to four outposts after the original Ely shop opened in 2002, Bath in 2007 and St Andrews in 2014. The Scottish capital store remains a family affair, led by the Toppings’ son and daughter Hugh and Cordelia, along with former St Andrews staffer Duncan Furness.
David Taylor Ingram/Lightning Source UK Senior v.p. content acquisition/ Group managing director
Green Ever
Taylor orchestrated a year of expansion and logistical moves for Ingram UK. A new distribution centre was opened
in Milton Keynes, close to print-on- demand specialist Lightning Source, as part of the ongoing plan to relocate distribution operations of NBNi— acquired by Ingram in late 2017—from its Plymouth base. The move will complete in 2020, enabling Ingram to have a full in-house operation, having previously had to outsource some warehousing.
TheBookseller.com
Alison Green Alison Green Books Publisher
With all due respect to bosses Catherine Bell and Steven Thompson, there may be no more valuable employee at Scholastic than Alison Green. Of Scholastic’s top 15 books of 2019, 10 are from her epony- mous imprint. OK, all 10 of those are Julia Donaldson titles, but it is Green’s close working relationship with Donaldson and Axel Scheffler at Macmillan that convinced the Gruffalo duo to come over with her when she set up Alison Green Books in 2005. But it’s not all Donaldson; other 2019 hits include Nick Sharratt’s Nice Work for the Cat and the King.
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Pete Selby W H Smith Books director
Selby joins W H Smith High Street at a interesting moment, with his boss Al Aldous moving sideways to
FunkyPigeon.com and Ben Carrington in as trading director. A former Sainsbury’s book buyer, Selby knows what works in the fast-moving consumer goods busi- ness, with price, convenience and display the three levers he has at his disposal. The new-look Bath store, with a 2,000 sq ft space dedicated to books, suggests a new, proactive approach to bookselling that will have new emphasis on chil- dren’s books and local markets.
Kate Skipper Waterstones Chief operating officer
With James Daunt spending much of his time in New York, hopefully steering Barnes & Noble into calmer waters, Skipper is essentially the de facto head of Waterstones, charged with maintain- ing the upward momentum of the chain. She is certainly up for the task, as she has been a crucial cog in the Daunt recovery. There are still bumps ahead: after a flat 2018, a new head-office buying structure was implemented and there remain shop-floor staff concerns about low pay. But the estate continues to grow, with six stores opening in 2019.
Editors
Sarah Adams Alison Green Alexis Kirschbaum Jacques Testard Carole Tonkinson Anna Valentine
Sarah Adams Transworld Fiction publisher
Having stepped up from crime books to direct all of Transworld’s fiction three years ago, Adams has steered the PRH division through a lengthy commercially successful and prize-laden purple patch. It helps that she has a crack team, such as commercial fiction star Frankie Gray, Doubleday editorial director Jane Lawson, and Kirsty Dunseath, who joined in March after being at Orion for 16 years. When the legendary Marianne Velmans retires next April, Adams will take over the editing of Transworld lynchpin Lee Child.
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