Mare Nostrum Group acquires Eurospan's publishing distribution, sales and marketing business

Mare Nostrum Group (MNG) has acquired the academic distribution, sales and marketing business of Eurospan.

The news comes after the United Independent Distributors group, comprising of Eurospan, Marston Book Services and Orca Book Services, was put into administration on 24th July 2024, with Alex Cadwallader and Dane O’Hara of Leonard Curtis as the joint administrators.

The acquisition offer from MNG, which provides a range of services to publishers, was accepted on 29th July before the deal was formally completed on 16th August. MNG’s distribution partner, Wiley, will integrate the Eurospan publisher client inventory into its facility in Bognor Regis, from where Eurospan’s client publishers will be distributed.

According to MNG, the acquisition will bring "significant growth" in turnover and staff numbers for the Group. This will allow the company to improve its sales and marketing service whilst "leveraging synergies" within the organisations.

"In the past, we have worked with and admired Eurospan, and we were saddened to see its gradual demise and the significant problems that this situation created for Eurospan publisher clients," said MNG managing director David Pickering. "With this in mind, we intend to make the transition for Eurospan publishers as smooth and as efficient as possible. With the assistance of our fulfilment partner Wiley, and the expertise and experience of the combined Mare Nostrum Eurospan team, we aim to build on and further improve Mare Nostrum Group’s ability to provide the strongest possible sales and marketing service to academic and professional publishers in international markets.”

Wiley’s print partner, CPI, has digital print machinery located within the Wiley facility and will offer a "fully integrated zero inventory POD option" to MNG clients.

“We are actively executing an accelerated on-boarding plan to help minimise the disruption to both clients of Eurospan and their customers," Cary Hamill, the vice president of Global Supply Chain at Wiley, commented. "With the addition of the Eurospan publishers into MGN, Wiley’s distribution business will now be providing services for 28 clients, representing over 200 publishers across a range of more than 400,000 active titles.”

Dane O’Hara, director at Leonard Curtis, added: “We are pleased to have found a home for the Eurospan business and, crucially, their staff. We have worked hard with the team at MNG to conclude this transaction in challenging conditions and believe this is a positive outcome for all stakeholders in the circumstances.”