BA welcomes Gardners expansion as helping to ‘stabilise the landscape’

Meryl Halls, Booksellers Association m.d., has welcomed the news that Gardners has bought Bertrams' assets, suggesting that high street booksellers and local employment will directly benefit.

Gardners revealed on Friday (10th July) that it had taken on the Bertrams warehouse in Norwich after buying the assets to give it extra warehouse capacity in addition to its Eastbourne operation, allowing it to continue to expand its range and stockholding.

“We are happy to see anything that helps to stabilise the landscape for high street booksellers”, Halls told The Bookseller in reaction. “It looks like a sensible move for Gardners to expand their capacity in this way, now that they have the responsibility of being the sole wholesaler for books in the UK. If it also leads to re-employment for book warehouse staff locally in Norwich, then that is clearly a good thing for local employment and for book trade personnel being able to stay in the industry.”

Waterstones’ chief operating officer Kate Skipper said the chain was “pleased to hear that Gardners has bought the Bertrams assets and plan to reopen the warehouse in Norwich. This is good news for the industry, both in terms of availability and breadth of range.”

However, though publishers and booksellers praised the “brilliant” service that Gardners offers, some admitted they were concerned about the lack of competition.

Andrew Franklin, founder and publisher at Profile Books, said: “It’s great that some jobs will be saved and fantastic that Gardners are rising so strongly to the challenge. But it is still a pity that there is only one significant wholesaler in the marketplace. Gardners are great but competition is always, always a good thing.”

Emma Milne-White, co-owner of Hungerford Books, praised the wholesaler’s performance during lockdown but agreed that choice was important to booksellers. “I think Gardners has been brilliant, and lifesavers during lockdown, but it’s not an ideal position to be in when you just have one wholesaler operating,” she said. “I’m quite glad Amazon aren’t branching out into that area. We want choice really. There are greater lead times now when it comes to reprints, probably because of the impact of Covid, and we need to get things quickly. Gardners do generally have good availability but we’ve always been a bookshop that has one prime wholesaler and then used the other as back-up, particularly at Christmas time.”

Most stakeholders The Bookseller spoke to were positive how the industry would benefit from Gardners’ expansion and optimistic about what this could mean for employment prospects in the area.

Sheryl Shurville, owner of Chorleywood Books, said: “It sounds like a good idea to have more warehouse space. It was all set up and it wasn’t that old, the Bertrams warehouse. It seems a shame not to use it. The logistics of running a company at two different sites, I don’t know how that will work really. But it’s great news for the workforce. Presumably, if they wanted to, they could employ those people [who previously worked for Bertrams] locally. It would surely be an advantage to Gardners to employee people with experience.”

However, many publishers are owed in excess of £15K by Bertrams, and think they are unlikely to be compensated quickly. Those wishing to retrieve stock will need to liaise with Turpin Baker Armstrong, the company which has handled Bertrams administration.

Jazzmine Breary, sales, marketing and publicity director at Jacaranda Books, said the company was “very concerned over Bertrams' unpaid debts”. However she added: “Gardners acquisition of Bertrams' assets and the planned relaunch of the Norwich warehouse appears to be a positive move... It is encouraging to see Gardners expanding its capacity and reinforcing its dedication to support the industry”.

“I am hopeful that this growth and increased capacity will offer new opportunities and ways to work with publishers and booksellers, particularly the indies and those dedicated to diverse and inclusive literature”, she said.

Juliet Mabey of Oneworld agreed that there is “definitely some good news in Gardners' purchase of Bertrams' assets, hopefully for the staff—many of whom are likely to be retained—but also for booksellers and publishers going forward, since the acquisition of Bertrams’ warehouse will expand their capacity to the benefit the industry as a whole. However, publishers will now have to absorb their substantial losses at a time when most are already suffering financially from the lockdown, which will be tough for many, through I think we all saw this as inevitable.”

Karen Sullivan, founder and publisher at Orenda, said: “While we are obviously grateful that assets have been purchased, and there is another physical base, it does mean that there is ostensibly a monopoly, and that is never a good thing when discounts are concerned. Spreading our books between two wholesalers, both of whom had dedicated customers, provided that all-necessary competition and also ensured that bookshops who do well with our books and enjoy something a little quirkier, were catered for.

“I worry that the warehouses are now more likely to be filled with sure-bets, I worry that some independent bookshops may not get the discounts, payment terms, service and original book presentations that they did with Bertrams gone. I also worry about the number of returns we are likely to see, with much stock unquestionably duplicated.”

Mog Harris, co-founder of Warwick Books, said the transition from using Bertline, which was purchased last month by the BA, had left the stock system “temporarily in limbo.”

“Our daily struggle at the moment is our Bertline stock system being taken over by BATCH at the moment,” she said. “We are concerned about only having one wholesaler as it’s always been really beneficial to have the competition and increased stock availability to help fulfil our next day customer order service. Since Bertrams ceased trading we’ve had to rethink our buying system and have increased ordering directly from publishers to get more competitive discounts. We are happy that jobs may be saved and the promise of increased title availability that a larger warehouse for Gardners can offer. It’s also encouraging to think Gardners are healthy enough to make the acquisition. We’ve been on a bit of a rollercoaster over the last 3 months keeping up with the changes and thinking about the possible ramifications these will have on our business and the industry as a whole in the long term.”