Speaking on RTÉ’s Today With Pat Kenny radio program Derek Hughes of Hughes & Hughes has condemned the decision to allow WH Smith enter the market in Dublin Airport by awarding them the contract for Terminal Two saying: ‘You also have WH Smith in T2 (Terminal Two) which I think is a shame. T2 should represent the best of Irish retail, you may as well be in Manchester or Birmingham. All best Irish retailers should be represented and it would have been lovely to have Hughes & Hughes there.’

In a wide-ranging and open interview Hughes gave an explanation of the collapse of Hughes & Hughes in February 2010. According to the retailer, the business failed because of a huge drop in business principally at Dublin airport where passenger numbers dropped from 24 million to 18 million. Hughes said that the company had ‘a €12 million drop in turnover and we had actually an increase in our rents and we had rates going up significantly also … it didn’t add up’

Hughes has returned to bookselling with Sivota Ltd which now trades under the Hughes & Hughes brand and has now opened a seventh 6,000 sq foot store in the Jervis Street Centre which offers books, stationery, cards and toys and it sited in the former Waterstone’s store.

Speaking about the financial health of the company he said, ‘This year we’ll certainly get to break even. Within the retail business, and more especially the bookselling business, Christmas is absolutely critical to us.”

Asked about the impact of ebooks Hughes said that ‘the whole industry is hit by the ereaders, but the physical book itself is so important’ and that ereading had ‘captured about 20% of the market ..  it is a competitive threat.’ Hughes said, ‘we do have a strong digital strategy going forward … we will be a clicks and mortar retailer in 2012.’

Mother’s Day clearly worked wonders for book sales, and the winner, as seems to be the case at the moment, was fiction. Patricia Scanlan sold a positively Christmas-like 5,759 units last week, while Joseph O’Connor (aided no doubt by the One City One Book status) sold 2,500. Cathy Kelly also scored 2,305 sales.

The top ten as a whole was much stronger than last week rising by an impressive 65%. The sales were reflected in the UK too where Jean M Auel’s latest sold well.

The strength of the top ten was reflected in the next ten too with some well-known authors like Jamie Oliver, James Patterson and Melissa Hill just missing out on the top ten.

1: Love and Marriage, Patricia Scanlan, 5,759
2: Ghost Light, Joseph O’Connor, 2,500
3: Homecoming, Cathy Kelly, 2,305
4: The Brightest Star In The Sky, Marian Keyes, 1,654
5: Entertaining at Home, Rachel Allen, 1,411
6: Two Stories: A Girl in the Mirror,The AND The Memory Maker, Cecelia Ahern, 1,337
7: Room, Emma Donoghue, 1,226
8: The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas, 964
9: Minding Frankie, Maeve Binchy, 955
10: My Boy:The Philip Lynott Story:Fully Updated with Remarkable New Revelations, Philomena Lynott & Jackie Hayden, 865

Top Ten Dynamics
IPN is running a top ten dynamics section looking at the top ten with some data drawn out. Nothing too dramatic, but useful nonetheless.

Volume: 18,976 Units
Increase since last week: 7,507 units
% increase since last week: +65.45%

~~
Fiction: 8 titles, 16,700 units or 88.01%, RRP £9.24
Non-Fiction: 2 titles, 2,276 units or 11.99%, RRP £19.00 (though we know Allen’s cookbook is retailing at €9.99 in Eason)

~~
Authors: 11 (one book is co-authored)
Irish Authors: 10, 72.72%
Irish Published Books: 1, 90.9%

~~
Average RRP: £11.19
Increase in RRP since last week: +£1.24
% Increase in RRP since last week: 21.11%*
*It is important to note that RRP does not reflect actually selling price.

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 2nd April 2011.

The first thing to say about Eason’s Strategic Plan is that it isn’t very encouraging (full text below). The plan is described by the company as, ‘wide ranging and combines significant investment over the next three years in IT platforms, store refurbishments and renovations, new category developments and an up-weighted digital and online offering.’ In fact, most of the release is dedicated to cost cutting rather than a vision for the future.

As the company has already made clear it doesn’t see widespread store closures and is likely to open new ones, the bulk of those cost savings will have to come from payroll cuts. While that could mean anything from pay-cuts to reductions in sick pay and overtime, the reality is redundancies are very likely both voluntary and compulsory.

Staff Costs
Looking at the company’s staff costs from their most recent accounts, you can see that achieving €8 million in payroll saving will mean reducing them by 25% from €32 million or so to €24 million, including Social Welfare contributions and pension costs. Even if we allow that a sizable chunk of the €8 million can be found elsewhere, say €3 million. Then €5 million in staff costs means a cut of 15.5% in total payroll cost.

[pullquote]achieving €8 million in payroll saving will mean reducing them by 25% from €32 million or so to €24million or so, including Social Welfare contributions and pension costs.[/pullquote]

That will be tough for the management to achieve and will be a harsh blow for the staff to accept. Considering the already difficult relationship between staff and the board, it would seem likely that further industrial unrest lies ahead for the company.

Investment
As a headline figure the €20 million investment highlighted seems impressive at 10% of turnover. On examination it is actually a fairly small amount especially as it is over three years, meaning the per annum investment is only €6.66 million or just under 3.33% of turnover.

[pullquote]the per annum investment is only €6.66 million or just under 3.33% of turnover.[/pullquote]

In the company’s defence it might be said that they need to avoid taking on a heavy debt burden in what are very uncertain times and having successfully pulled back their debt in 2009-2010, to recklessly spend on a strategy of investment in teeth of a recession like the one Ireland is experiencing would be foolhardy to say the least. However when you consider that the company will, in effect, finance the investment through their cost cutting program it becomes clear that the strategy is a conservative rather than a radical move.

Strategic Challenges
The truth is that Eason faces three major immediate problems and a fourth medium to long-term issue.

Firstly the consumer is spending less and less money, as IPN reported just this week, the Book Stationary and Magazine segment of the Retail Index is down to 80% of the 2005 value. That won’t change any time soon, if it stops dropping that will be a relief.

Secondly the company faces stiff competition from supermarkets moving into its space. MD Conor Whelan himself expressed his surprise at the almost exact match the Tesco Extra stores in  Northern Ireland were to the existing Eason offering there. Likewise in the Republic, Tesco, but also Dunnes and other supermarkets, are taking market share for popular titles in books and magazines offering cut prices and limited selection.

[pullquote]in the Republic, Tesco, but also Dunnes and other supermarkets, is taking market share for popular titles in books and magazines offering cut prices and limited selection.[/pullquote]

Thirdly the company faces cut-throat competition from online retailers like Amazon and The Book Depository who can beat its prices with ease. To a lesser extent it faces an online challenge from Kenny’s and other smaller scale Irish bookstores who can compete online where they might not in the physical world. Their strategy at least hints that we can expect major changes in this area.

The fourth concern is ebooks and how they plan to weather the shift to digital content. With their options limited, they don’t have much room for manoeuvre. After all competing with Amazon, Google and Apple is probably a step beyond what Eason are capable of, even with the best management.

[pullquote]the company faces cut-throat competition from online retailers like Amazon and The Book Depository who can beat its prices with ease[/pullquote]

Conclusion
In short, Eason are in a considerable better position than many bricks and mortar book chains. The cost cutting measures will be painful and their investment strategy, while not radical, is probably about right given the economy in their major market. They remain however without a viable long-term solution to the digitization problem just over the horizon, in that, at least, they are not alone.



http://irishpublishingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/EasonsPressRelease2011003029.pdf

The books, newspapers and stationery segment of retail sales saw a very modest increase in December 2010 of .2% volume and .4% in value when compared with November 2010.

However, the newly released Central Statistics Office data on retail sales in December 2010 show that overall retail sales were down 3.9% in volume when compared to December 2009 while in value terms the figure was 4.1%.

The year on year comparison for books, newspapers and stationery were much worse with value plummeting 9.3% since December 2009 and volume down 10.7%.

The comparison figures are much worse than the data from Nielsen suggested earlier this month. That information suggested that a string Average selling price of €12.38 held off the worst of the volume falls with the four weeks to Christmas finishing down only 3% on 2009.

However, that data related only to book sales reported to Nielsen, which covers only around 70% of the Irish market.

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Despite the wall to wall publicity and the drama of a leadership challenge in the air, The Fitzpatrick Tapes failed to unseat Emma Donoghue’s Room from the top spot. Nonetheless it put in a strong performance for a January title and racked up 1,667 units against Donoghue’s massive tally of 2,096.

More interestingly, Emma Hannigan’s run of good fortune in book sales continued. She sold more units of her memoir Talk To The Head Scarf pushing it into the top ten, and despite dropping some sales for her paperback edition of Miss Conceived it stayed in the top ten. Both her publishers, Hachette for the memoir and Poolbeg for her fiction, will be pleased.

In fact it was a strong week for fiction and annuals with Neil Jordan’s Mistaken and David Nicholls One Day rolling in nice totals.

1: Room, Emma Donoghue, 2,096
2: The FitzPatrick Tapes: The Rise and Fall of One Man, One Bank, and One Country, Tom Lyons & Brian Carey, 1,667
3: Disney Playhouse Annual:2011, 1,314
4: Talk to the Head Scarf, Emma Hannigan, 1,094
5: The Killing Place, Tess Gerritsen, 1,046
6: Mistaken, Neil Jordan, 1,041
7: Official Manchester United FC Annual:2011, 923
8: One Day, David Nicholls, 871
9: Justin Bieber Unauthorized Annual:2011, 836
10: Miss Conceived, Emma Hannigan, 834

Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 15th Jan 2011
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A media blitz and a front page story in the Sunday Times Ireland would almost certainly be every publishers dream publicity for a book launch weekend, but for The Fitzpatrick Tapes, by Tom Lyons and Brian Carey, Penguin Ireland took strange and impressive measures to keep word of the book from the wider world until the VERY last-minute.

This is all the more impressive an achievement given that the book has been underway since Spring 2010. How did they do it?

Systems
For instance, the book was not listed in the company’s internal systems, on Amazon or the Book Depository in advance of publication as would be normal. In fact the only sign of a forthcoming book was this page on Penguin Canada under a false title, Lions And Tigers, fake author name, James Barrington, but the correct ISBN, 9781844882601.

Online Retailers
These action have created problems for online booksellers who are now rushing to catch up with the demand for the book as Irish Publishing News covered here. So far, only the Book Depository has create an accurate page for the title though that company does not yet have copies for sale.

Bricks & Mortar
The problems created by this secrecy for the online retailers is nothing compared to the issues the secret release created on the ground for bricks and mortar book stores.

Penguin Ireland MD, Michael McLoughlin, made clear in an interview with Irish Publishing News, that the retailers were only informed of the forthcoming title on Friday, and even then, they were not told the title or the subject. Several agreed nonetheless to take copies into stores on Sunday morning.

Getting copies to bookstores on a Sunday morning required the staff at the publisher to deliver copies directly from their Stephen’s Green office rather than via a distribution company.

That was how media organisations other than The Sunday Times got their copies and press releases too (though admittedly email and PDF versions did make this process easier).

And that is how you publish secretly, keep the loop small, limit information and break cover quickly!

Starting tomorrow, Wednesday 5 January and running until Sunday 13 February 2011 Easons will be offering 20% off a range of more than 90 self-help titles.

Maria Dickenson, Head of Purchasing at Eason said: ‘The New Year is a wonderful time for renewal and Irish consumers tend to look for focus and motivation from the wide array of self-help titles on offer. Given the current economic climate, I’d imagine that lots of people will be looking at ways to help themselves – be it emotionally, financially, or spiritually – during these challenging times. Books are a great value way to gain fresh perspectives and motivation and every year we see a range of new titles offering guidance and the continuing popularity of a number of classic titles.’

Titles in the promotion include, What Women Know by Michelle Jackson and Juliet Breslin, Angels In My Hair by Lorna Byrne, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, Anam Cara by John O’Donoghue and The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Another firm favourite at this time of year, Colm Rapple’s Family Finance 2011 is also in the promotion

An emotional Emma Donoghue spoke of the importance of recognition by her homeland as she accepted the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel Of The Year Award at Thursday evening’s ‘Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards in the Round Room Of the Mansion House.

It was a theme echoed by many of the winners, including Maeve Binchy who was awarded with a lifetime achievement award by the guest of Honour for the evening, President Mary McAleese.

Perhaps the least surprising winner of the evening was Late Last show host, Ryan Tubridy who won the Newcomer Of The Year Award.

Donal Óg Cusack won the John Murray Listeners’ Choice Award, Donal Skehan won the IES Irish Published Book Of The Year, Neil Richardson won the Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book Of The Year, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly the Easons Popular Fiction Book Of The Year, Gene Kerrigan won the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book Of The Year,  Niamh Sharkey took the Junior category of the DAA Irish Children’s Book Of The Year while Derek Landy took the senior category as well as accepting his Book of the Decade award.

Tom Owens, Trading Director Eason and Chairman of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards, said, ‘The Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards allow us the opportunity to celebrate and honour Ireland’s best literary talent. This year’s winning authors illustrate the diversity and vibrancy of the Irish book world, and each book is an outstanding literary achievement in its own right. As a country, we should be incredibly proud of these authors and the wealth of home-grown talent we have on offer.’

The full list of winners
The Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year: Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador)
RTÉ Radio 1′s The John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice Award: Come What May by Donal Og Cusack (Penguin Ireland)
The Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year: Dark Times in the City by Gene Kerrigan (Vintage)
The Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year: A Coward If I Return A Hero If I Fall by Neil Richardson (O’Brien Press)
Eason Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year: The Oh My God Delusion by Ross O’Carroll Kelly (Penguin Ireland)
Energise Sport Irish Sports Book of the Year: A Football Man by John Giles (Hachette Books Ireland)
Irish Newcomer of the Year: JFK in Ireland: Four Days that Changed a President by Ryan Tubridy (Collins)
International Education Services Best Irish Published Book of the Year: Good Mood Food by Donal Skehan (Mercier)
The Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children’s Book of the Year:
Junior - On the Road with Mavis and Marge by Niamh Sharkey (Walker Books)
Senior – Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil by Derek Landy (Harper Collins Children’s Books)

Irish readers can win one of ten €100 One-4-All vouchers simply by buying a copy of one of 25 specially selected titles and emailing it to Publishing Ireland. The competition is part of the Irish book publishers associations new Christmas promotion, Great Irish Books.

Publishing Ireland has selected 25 titles that cover everything from Irish language books, Irish history, fiction and children’s books. The goal according to the association is to champion ‘Irish-published books, Irish publishers, and Irish bookshops’ with the aim of ‘making book-buyers think about what they are buying.’

Jean Harrington, president of Publishing Ireland said, ‘Irish publishers provide great Irish books; the quality and variety are second to none. This campaign celebrates and promotes books, and we would ask people to look out for some truly great Irish books when they are considering purchasing a book this Christmas.’

Con Collins, publisher at The Collins Press, who has three titles in the group of the 25 selected titles said, ‘This promotion highlights the best of what Irish publishers are producing and emphasises the importance of supporting Irish companies and writers and staying positive in difficult times. The Great Irish Books campaign is good for everyone: publishers, authors and readers.’

As part of the campaign, Publishing Ireland has set up a website, a Facebook page, a twitter account and is running ads in The Irish Times today to back the campaign.
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The Complete List
Gluaiseacht
Gabháil Syrinx
Where Are You Really From?
Yeats and Sligo
An Irish Country Christmas
Agus Rud Eile De And Another Thing
Máirtín Ó Direáin Na Dánta
Sceon na Mara
Great Endeavour: Ireland’s Antarctic Explorers
Abandoned Mansions of Ireland
Ireland’s Animals: Myths, Legends and Folklore
Cliúsaíocht í nGaeilge – Making Out in Irish
1916 Seachtar na Cásca
1972 And The Ulster Troubles
Strangest Genius – The Stained Glass Of Harry Clarke
An tEagrán Gaeilge/The Irish Issue
The Gathering of Souls
Leading Lights – The People Who’ve Inspired Me
Capital Sins
Renegades – Irish Republican Women 1900-1922
2016 – A New Proclamation for a New Generation
The Rebel Prince – The Moorehawke Trilogy: Book 3
A Coward If I Return, A Hero If I Fall – Stories of Irishmen in World War I
Lansdowne Road – The Stadium; the Matches; the Greatest Days
Sharp Sticks Driven Nails – Anthology of Short Stories

The William Hill Irish Sports Book Of The Year 2010 shortlist marks an impressive result for the Irish-based foreign publishers with Hachette Ireland, Penguin Ireland and Transworld filling four of the six shortlist slots.

The last two slots are filled by UK-based Orion (part of the Hachette UK group) and Irish-based and owned Gill & Macmillan.

This year’s shortlist has a heavy emphasis on autobiography and memoir. The list features titles by John Giles, Bernard Dunne, Ruby Walsh and Tony Griffin.

Only two of the shortlisted books, The Club by Christy O’Connor and Days Of Heaven by Declan Lynch tackle stories beyond memoir.

The winning title will receive a €3,000 prize and the result will be announced in early December.

William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year 2010 – Shortlist
A Football Man – John Giles (Hachette Ireland)
My Story – Bernard Dunne (Penguin Ireland)
The Club – Christy O’Connor (Penguin Ireland)
Ruby – Ruby Walsh (Orion Publishing)
Days of Heaven – Declan Lynch (Gill and MacMillan)
Screaming at the Sky – Tony Griffin (Transworld Publishing)

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