As predicted, the bankrupt UK wholesaler EUK has failed to find a quick buyer for what it is basically an unsustainable basis and bankruptcy administrator Deloitte announced today that “700 employees have today been made redundant.” The business will “continue to operate with a reduced workforce of 375 employees” while they try to extract whatever small value they can from the company. “Whilst we will continue to consider offers for the sale of the business as a going concern, we will now focus on realizing value from the company’s assets.” That will likely increase the efforts to sell Bertram’s–which is […]
Industry Statistics
UK Book Chains Fare Worse than Trade
Revenue from sales at UK High Street booksellers (like Waterstone’s and WH Smith) fell 12.7 percent in the week ending December 6–almost five points worse than the overall decline in sales tracked by Nielsen BookScan. The Telegraph says “high street book sales are plummeting as discounting, the growth of internet operators such as Amazon and dwindling consumer spending hits retailers.” As a result, “Discounting is becoming more aggressive as retailers fight to win customers with consumer spending dwindling in the wake of the economic downturn.”Telegraph
Rowling Wins UK Sales Race
Earlier this fall there was a minor trade squabble in the UK when Christopher Paolini’s first-day sale of BRISINGR outpaced the opening of Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT, but the release of JK Rowling’s TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD has settled all disputes about the year’s biggest launch. Beedle tracked sales via Nielsen BookScan of 367,625 copies in its first four days on sale. Number two was the Guinness World Records 2008, which sold about 73,000 copies in the same period. Delia Smith’s How to Cheat at Cooking sold 49,000 copies in two days, and Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care registered 44,000 […]
BookScan UK: Sales Down Again
For the last week, sales revenues tracked through Nielsen BookScan in the UK were 6.9 percent below the same week from a year ago, “the biggest weekly decline since July” (when the comparison was to last year’s Harry Potter release.) For the year, however, sales are just slightly negative, down 0.8 percent.Bookseller
There is Good News–In Canada, and Currency Markets
BookNet Canada, which tracks point-of-sale data covering approximately 75 percent of the market, says that for the four weeks ending November 23, dollar sales rose 2 percent and unit sales rose 4.9 percent, concluding that “Canada might be the only English book market still in positive territory.” Unfortunately, that could be due in part to the relative cheapness of books in Canada compared to the US, with the Canadian dollar still trading at a very low .80 against the US dollar.Release In general, the dollar has retained its recent strength, which for the time being helps lift the performance of […]
UK Sales Down Over 4 Percent
Even as holiday sales volume picks up in the UK, as compared to last year sales are consistently down 4 percent or more. According to Nielsen Bookscan figures, total expenditures for the four weeks ending November 15 were down 4.1 percent, while unit sales declined 4.5 percent. For the recent week by itself, total spending dropped 3.9 percent compared to last year.Bookseller