MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
August 21 – August 28, 2008 Edition
Smith Named
Managing Director
of Book Depository
UNITED KINGDOM/8/21/08–Kieron Smith has been named managing director of The Book Depository Ltd. in Gloucester, United Kingdom. He comes to his new post after serving as managing director of BookRabbit. Six other BookRabbit employees will join The Book Depository. The new team will be responsible for growing direct business, working with suppliers, and developing relationships within the book trade and Internet markets. The first assignment will be to develop a new commercial website for BD in the UK and US, according to Andrew Crawford, new CEO.
Those moving from BookRabbit to similar roles at the Book Depository include: Will Jones, as BD’s IT directory; Kwen Wan, design directory; Steve Potter, commercial trading manger; and Tony Dillon, Rob Johnson and Jason Merry.
The Book Depository is the fastest growing book distributor in Europe, shipping to thousands of customers everyday throughout the world. According to the company’s website, The Book Depository is "not in competition with Amazon, we complement Amazon by providing books which have poor availability and offering good discounts on certain titles which Amazon are unable to. On the other hand, we recognize that our customers want books quickly and so if we do not have stock or if Amazon is considerably cheaper, our customers are able to order direct from Amazon via a link from our website. Our aim is to make ‘All books available to All.’" Its catalogue is reciprocated on Amazon in the UK, Europe and the United States.
BookRabbit, online social networking site online since March, reduced its staff in July to seek additional investment for its "unproven revenue model." BookRabbit is backed by Charles Denton’s ArgentVive group.
The Book Depository reportedly had sales over the last 12 months of more than £40m.
