Sainsbury’s looks at branded kids’ books

05.07.10 | Graeme Neill in The Bookseller

Sainsbury’s is in discussions with publishers about releasing a series of own-branded children’s books.

The supermarket made the announcement at its annual entertainment supplier conference, held at its head office in Holborn, central London, this week. It also revealed that it planned to concentrate more on gift titles rather than biographies and hardbacks at its checkouts this Christmas.

Phil Carroll, the supermarket’s head of books, said Sainsbury’s-branded children’s books were being investigated. He said: “We do particularly well with picture books but we think that having our own brand on them is something that could work particularly well.”

Sainsbury’s said it was anticipating value and volume market shares of 2.9% and 3.9% respectively for 2010, compared with a value share of 1.6% in 2009 and volume of 2.9%.

The supermarket also revealed it was currently discounting at a lower rate compared to the wider market. Sainsbury’s average selling price (a.s.p.) to date in 2010 is £4.92, up 9% on 2009.

However, it quoted the a.s.p. of Nielsen’s Total ­Consumer Market as £7.33, down 1.3% on last year.

Sainsbury’s said it was planning to increase its backlist range sales by 33% in 2010. It achieved sales of £2.7m in 2009 but book buyer Sharon Gurney described it as an uninspiring offer with “no clear customer proposition”. Since then, the retail giant has brought backlist paperbacks across 100 stores into its two-for-£7 offer and also concentrated on brand authors.

This Christmas, Sainsbury’s will devote checkout space to books for eight weeks with a focus on gift and humour.

Sainsbury’s head of entertainment Richard Crampton also revealed it would launch an online entertainment store within the next three months. He did not specifically refer to e-books but said: “It will have physical and digital products across all formats.”