Hachette UK to join Hachette Book Group USA for Canadian sales and distribution

From January 1st 2010

• Hachette UK titles will be sold in Canada by Hachette Book Group’s New York Sales Department
• Hachette Book Group Canada will be responsible for the publicity and marketing of Hachette UK titles in Canada
• Hachette UK titles will be distributed from HBG’s distribution center in Indiana with customer fulfillment services provided by HBG’s Boston office

In keeping with the Hachette Group’s overall plan to bring its Canadian representation and distribution in house and following the move by Hachette Book Group USA (HBG) to represent and distribute its titles directly to the Canadian market at the start of 2009, Hachette UK (HUK) today announces its plans for representation and distribution to the Canadian market.

From 1st January 2010, HBG will be responsible for the sales in Canada of titles published by the Hachette UK group.* Sales will be handled by HBG in New York and fulfilled by the HBG warehouse in Indiana. The arrangement with HB Fenn to represent and sell HBG titles to certain accounts in the Canadian market will also apply to UK titles after 1st January 2010. Publicity and marketing for Hachette UK titles will be handled by Hachette Book Group Canada. Extra staff including a dedicated sales person will be appointed to work in the New York office and a dedicated marketeer and publicist will be appointed to work in the Toronto office of Hachette Book Group Canada.

Tim Hely Hutchinson, CEO of Hachette UK said: “Canada is a vital market for our books. Transferring our sales to HBG and our publicity and marketing to Hachette Book Group Canada will enable us to build a more direct relationship with our major accounts and to build on our already substantial success in the Canadian market with authors such as Maeve Binchy, Sarah Dunant, Ian Rankin and Penny Vincenzi. We look forward to working with HBG and with Hachette Book Group Canada to continue developing the presence of our books and authors in the Canadian market.”

Currently the majority of Hachette UK’s titles, including those published by Orion, Hodder & Stoughton, Headline, John Murray and Hachette Children’s Books, are represented to the Canadian trade and media by McArthur & Co with distribution handled by HarperCollins Canada. It is intended that McArthur & Co will continue representing these lists until the end of 2009, after which their representation will become the responsibility of Hachette Book Group.

Tim Hely Hutchinson commented on McArthur & Co and HarperCollins Canada:
“McArthur & Co and HarperCollins Canada have provided us with first class representation and distribution of our titles in Canada. We are extremely grateful to them for all their hard work on behalf of our books and our authors over the years. McArthur & Co has done an outstanding job of publicizing and selling our books and has contributed enormously to the high profile of our authors in Canada. We have the greatest respect for Kim McArthur personally. Put simply: no one does it better. We look forward to continuing to work with Kim, Ann Ledden, Devon Pool, and the McArthur team on sales and publicity matters and on transitional arrangements until the end of the year, and we will be wishing them the very best of good fortune for their future beyond that time.”

Kim McArthur of McArthur & Co said:
“It has been our great pleasure to launch, sell and publicize many wonderful British books and authors on behalf of Orion, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Octopus, Hodder & Stoughton, Headline, John Murray and Hachette Children’s over the past 20 years. We have worked with so many outstanding authors and staff who are all now part of Hachette UK that it’s difficult to believe it’s coming to an end. However, we fully appreciate Hachette’s decision to work with Hachette Book Group and Hachette Book Group Canada, and will continue to support all of Hachette UK’s imprints and authors throughout this transition.

All of us at McArthur & Company wish everyone in the Hachette Group continued success for many years to come.”

Titles published by Little, Brown Book Group (also part of Hachette UK) are currently represented and distributed by Penguin Canada and this arrangement will come to an end in the same way at the end of 2009.
Ursula Mackenzie, CEO and Publisher of Little, Brown Book Group commented: “Penguin Canada and in particular Don Robinson, Tim Carter and Yvonne Hunter have done an outstanding job for Little, Brown’s books and their authors ensuring that they were published in Canada with flair and dedication. It has been a great pleasure to work with the whole team, ably led by David Davidar, over the years and we shall miss them. However, last Frankfurt we bought a wonderful novel from them, The Disappeared by Kim Echlin, so are sure we shall continue our strong connection one way or the other!”

David Davidar, President of Penguin Canada said “All good things must finally come to an end but I would like to say that we’ve had a wonderful time working with Little, Brown Book Group – they were, from every point of view, the perfect overseas publisher to distribute in Canada so I’d just like to say thank you from all of us at Penguin Canada.”

Titles published in the Piatkus imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, currently represented by Georgetown Publications, will also move to the new arrangement at the beginning of 2010.
David Kent, Chief Operating Officer of Little, Brown Book Group said:
“Georgetown Publications, have given Piatkus a first class service. We are extremely grateful for this and would particularly like to thank their sales force led by Sales and Marketing Director Brian Skerret for achieving such great exposure for this small list, under the overall management of President Larry Sisnett.”

Brian Skerret, Sales Director of Georgetown Publications said:
“We are sorry to see an end to our longstanding representation of Piatkus Books in Canada. Both under the direction of Judy Piatkus and since acquired by Little Brown, they’ve brought us some great authors and books and saw triple digit growth in 2008. Through Georgetown Terminal Warehouses we continue to appreciate an ongoing relationship with Hachette Book Group Canada, and will be working to make the transition as seamless as possible for retailers.”

An additional release with further distribution information and details of the move will be circulated nearer later in the year.

Notes to Editors:

Hachette UK is the largest and one of the most diversified book publishers in the UK. The UK group is made up of several publishing companies and imprints including Hachette Children’s Books, Headline Publishing Group, Hodder & Stoughton, Hodder Education, John Murray, Little, Brown Publishing Group, Octopus Publishing Group and Orion Publishing Group with international companies Hachette Book Group Australia, Hachette New Zealand, Hachette India, Hachette Ireland and Hachette Scotland.
Hachette UK is owned by Hachette Livre, the second largest publisher in the world, based in France, and led by Président Directeur Général Arnaud Nourry. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère, a leading company on the Paris stock exchange.