Foyles reaping benefits of new decentralised buying method

An overhaul in the way Foyles buys books from publishers is already bearing fruit for the company, its chief executive Paul Currie has told The Bookseller.

After noticing a "significant" drop in its market share for sales of range titles—those outside the TCM Top 5,000—the seven-shop mini-chain has recently implemented a new buying structure designed to address the issue and empower booksellers to make better buying decisions and free up their time to talk to customers.

"Foyles is known as a range retailer and we want to rebuild our market share outside the top 5,000 titles, which has dipped over the past 18 months," Currie said. "We have done incredibly well in selling popular titles and increased our share there, but now we are trying to enhance our range credentials." All the company’s buying is now being handled by booksellers in stores, with the central buying team instead acting as "conduits of knowledge", devising the chain’s central promotions and advising stores on book trends.

"We have developed a more robust campaign and promotional process, which will ensure that all promotions are managed over all channels, and ensure we get the maximum commercial benefit from these campaigns," Currie said. "We want to keep the local knowledge and flair that our booksellers have, but what we need to do is have a much more centralised view of what the trends are through the relationships we have at central level."

Whereas before the central buying team was split by publisher, now they are divided by genre, led by head of buying Jasper Sutcliffe. 

Heather Baker will take the role of campaign manager, Gary Powell will cover non-fiction and Drew Hunt has been assigned fiction. The firm is recruiting for a dedicated children’s buyer.

The new buying approach follows a streamlining of the company’s supply chain, designed to free booksellers of burdensome back-office tasks so they can concentrate on serving customers.

Whereas previously Foyles stores received several deliveries of books a day directly from publishers, now bookshops are served from either Foyles’ warehouse hub
in Sittingbourne or wholesaler Gardners. The streamlining has enabled Foyles to make savings by negotiating higher discounts on books from publishers who, in return, spend less on sending multiple deliveries to separate Foyles stores.

Currie explained: "Instead of publishers supplying each of our stores with lots of small orders, we can now buy in bulk and publishers can supply to our hub in Sittingbourne. Everyone is benefiting from economies of scale.

"Before, around 30%–40% of booksellers’ time was spent taking in orders and unpacking them. This was a legacy arrangement from when Foyles was just one shop. This new supply chain is one which works for Foyles the mini-chain."

The Foyles chief, who has led the chain for three years, said that the developments had gone down well with booksellers, and were already having a positive commercial impact. "Effectively, if we want to be viewed as a service retailer we have to take away tasks that are distracting so that there is a real opportunity for booksellers to use their knowledge and skills for customers, rather than on admin," he said.

"Staff have responded well to the changes, particularly booksellers, who feel more empowered and excited that they can make those localised decisions on buying. So far it has worked very well. Staff are very happy and we are starting to see progress from a financial point of view and a range point of view." Foyles’ sales rose 6.4%, to £26.6m, in the year to 30th June 2017, but the chain incurred an operating loss of £68,000—down from a profit of £131,447 a year earlier— after investing in its supply chain and logistics systems.

Earlier this month it was reported that the building housing Foyles’ iconic flagship store on London’s Charing Cross Road had been sold by the Foyle family’s Noved Investment Holdings vehicle to real estate fund Brockton Capital for a sum of around £45m.