Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers, has announced from New York a hugely significant development in supply chain management for HarperCollins companies around the world.
As part of a larger announcement on the supply chain relationship between HarperCollins and RR Donnelley in the US Murray said: “As a global English-language publisher, our supply chain must meet the needs of our customers everywhere to provide our authors with the broadest possible reach for their work, regardless of physical location.
“Our vision is to have the entire HarperCollins book catalogue available for customers in all major territories and ready for delivery in minutes. This agreement with RR Donnelley provides new capabilities which will allow us to achieve this goal. In the U.S., time and money are saved by co-locating printing and fulfilment for fast moving titles. In the UK and ANZ, POD technology will enable us to competitively offer the entire HarperCollins catalogue to customers without expensive freight costs and long lead times.
“These changes will serve to not only increase our operating efficiency and lower costs; they will also help to reduce our environmental impact. HarperCollins remains committed to reducing its carbon footprint, and more efficient shipping and paper use will go a long way towards helping us achieve these goals.”
“Later this year, RR Donnelley will use the latest advances in digital printing to provide Global POD services to HarperCollins Publishers, enabling most titles to be produced anywhere HarperCollins holds the publishing rights. Most HarperCollins books will be available in each territory in any format (print or digital) in a matter of minutes.”
CEO of HarperCollins ANZ, Michael Moynahan added: “For Australia and New Zealand, as we know getting books into the hands of our consumers in a timely fashion, to help us all compete with international retailers and meet the expectations of readers, is one of the most significant challenges we face. This initiative heralds the greatest development in supply chain management we have seen in decades. This means that hundreds of books which we were unable to keep stock of here in our distribution centres will be available to supply from this side of the world within minutes of an order being placed.. Gone will be the waiting for stock to arrive by air or sea from distant locations and a modern solution using efficient digital printing will mean we have a real opportunity to meet the needs of the ANZ consumer.
“More detail will emerge as we get closer to implementation, towards the end of the year, and we will keep everyone informed.”
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