Australian Booksellers’ bonanza

Posted Date: 23/01/2012 -  By Inside Retail   Some Australian book retailers have experienced Christmas sales as high as 50 per cent above 2010 figures thanks to the collapse of the Borders and Angus & Robertson business in 2011. According to a post-Christmas survey conducted by Bookseller+Publisher newsletter, a massive 80 per cent of retailers reported improved sales compared to 2010. Another 10.5 per cent said sales were about on par with just 9.5 per cent reporting a sales decline. Inside Retail has heard anecdotal reports from some book retailers that sales growth has been as high as 50 per cent where competition has been taken out of the local market due to the RedGroup Retail collapse last year. More than 50 per cent of booksellers described the 20111 Christmas as “excellent” in the survey and a further 45 per cent as “good”, almost certainly making the nation’s book retailers the most satisfied of any retail group at the year’s end. It’s not all rosy, however. As the Nielsen BookScan data recorded, 2011 book sales were down 12.5 per cent in value and 7.1 per cent in volume - to an estimated 60.4 million books. As Bookseller+Publisher reports: “While sales data from before Christmas indicated that the market share previously held by RedGroup in Australia had been lost altogether, the market overall appears to have recovered some of these sales, albeit quite late in the piece.” According to the BookScan data, sales tracked very close to ex-RedGroup 2010 sales figures until the week ending December 17 where they began to climb - tracking higher than ex-RedGroup 2010 figures until the end of the year. While a large percentage of the RedGroup sales appear to have been lost to the industry (or perhaps transferred online) the balance has gone to those retailers remaining. About 95 per cent of stores connected to chains have reported a sales increase, with Dymocks the biggest benefactor, while just 40 per cent of independents have reported growth.