Irish language publisher is Cló Mhaigh Eo is to launch three bi-lingual picture books by Carlow native Ciara Panacchia.

The three titles, Uimhreacha, Comhrá and Dathanna Agus Cruthanna feature illustrations by Ciara and English and Irish versions of the words used.

The launch to take place on Monday, 10th October at 8pm in The Lord Bagenal Hotel in Leighlinbridge. The event will be in association with County Carlow Childcare Committee and will be part of a larger event entitled “Introducing Irish to children in the Creche and Preschool”. Áine Ní Shúilleabháin who works with Forbairt Naíonraí Teoranta (an organisation which promotes Naíonraí) will launch the book.

The Irish Consumer Market (ICM) has seen a sales decline in the first twenty-eight weeks of 2011 of 4.5% in value and 6.9% in volume according to Nielsen Bookscan.

The company reported that the market had sales of €57.8m in value and 5.6m units down from the same period lat year.

Reflecting the situation in the UK consumer market Fiction was the sector worst affected in the ICM with sales by value of €17.5m (down 6.7%) and sales by volume of 1.9m (down 8.5%).

Despite the dominance of Fiction in the top ten, Non-fiction has outperformed Fiction although it has also seen a decline with sales to date of €28.1m (down 4.1%) and 2.1m units (down 5.0%).

Children’s books performed best of the major sectors with sales of €11.8m (down 2.3%) and 1.6m in volume terms (down 7.5%).

Nielsen’s figure cover between 60 and 70% of the market including Amazon’s physical sales, Easons, Tesco and a panel of independents.

Image Credit
Some rights reserved by James Byrum

Irish author Kathleen MacMahon has signed a £600,000 two-book deal with UK and US publishers according to RTÉ News.

Her debut novel, So This Is How It Ends, will be published in the UK by Little, Brown and in the USA by Grand Central Publishing, both divisions of global Publisher Hachette.

MacMahon, an RTÉ Journalist, has described writing the book to RTÉ as ‘a lovely time sitting at my own kitchen table working on these characters and this stories that I was so caught up in.’

Little, Brown Senior Editor, Rebecca Saunders, described MacMahon’s first books to RTÉ as a ‘love story for our times.’

MacMahon was represented by Marianne Gunn O’Connor who described the author to RTÉ as a natural storyteller.

According to documents filed with the Companies Registration Office, Colour Books,  Ireland’s largest dedicated book printer, has been placed in receivership.

Liam Dowdall of Smith & Williamson Freaney was appointed receiver and manager on 23 March 2011 at the request of Bank Of Scotland Ireland.

The company’s most recent accounts filed in November 2010, show that it incurred a loss of €238,812 in the year ending 31 December 2009. The accumulated profit and loss account showed the company’s accumulated losses were €1,831,636 .

The accounts also show that the company had an overdraft at the end of 2009 of €888,745 and that its net debt position at that time was €3,031,244.

More as we have it.

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

Eason has updated its retail website with a new design.

The change comes earlier than indicated during the company’s presentation to Irish Publishers at Publishing Ireland’s conference earlier this month.

A spokesperson for the company said in a statement today that the website has ‘been refreshed in order to enhance the current user experience. This is only an interim measure as the company plans to relaunch its online offering as part of a new digital strategy at a later date.’

The news design increases the emphasis on the company’s popular Facebook Book Club and Twitter accounts.

After two weeks of non-fiction being shifted out of the top ten, this week sees the return of some well-known names and the arrival of a new one.

Powered by Eason’s selling it for just 9.99, Rachel Allen’s Entertaining At Home enters the top ten. Compared with the remarkable sales for her 2009 title, HomeCooking, which proved to be one of the top titles of that year, Entertaining At Home has been somewhat disappointing in Ireland. The fact that the selling price is what is driving sales is not very encouraging for either the author OR the publisher, especially given how successful Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals was and the very low-level of discounting that title saw.

Even with the reappearance of non-fiction titles, the strength of fiction is impressive again this week with Patricia Scanlan’s Love and Marriage leading the field with a huge 2,058 sales and Marian Keyes’The Brightest Star In The Sky, Emma Donoghue’s Room and David Nicholls’ One Day all making the top ten with solid figures. What’s more, after just missing out on the top ten last week Ghost Light, Joseph O’Connor’s novel newly released in paperback makes a return to the top ten.

The strength of the fiction and the return of several non-fiction titles also changes the author make up of the top ten so that Irish authors are now dominant a strange week when Irish authors do so well but not a single one of them published by an Irish owned publisher.

Only one of the World Book Day titles. Dr Suess On The Loose, is still in the top ten.

1: Love and Marriage, Patricia Scanlan, 2,058
2: The Brightest Star in the Sky, Marian Keyes, 1,020
3: Entertaining at Home, Rachel Allen, 905
4: Room, Emma Donoghue, 791
5: One Day, David Nicholls, 746
6: Dr Seuss on the Loose, Dr. Suess, 703
7: The Feel Good Factor, Patrick Holford, 686
8: Ghost Light, Joseph O’Connor, 662
9: The Truth About You, Melissa Hill, 630
10: My Boy:The Phil Lynott Story, Phil Lynott, 619