PW - By Judith Rosen | July 11, 2013
It’s not just publishers that are consolidating. While Penguin and Random House were completing their merger, Baker & Taylor’s majority owner, the private equity firm Castle Harlan Partners IV, L.P., was finalizing a transaction of its own. Late last week it purchased 41-year-old Bookmasters in Ashland, Ohio. Baker & Taylor and Bookmasters now have a contractual commercial relationship that will enable Baker & Taylor to offer many of the same publisher services as its largest competitor Ingram Content Group.
The impetus for the move, according to Cully, is for Baker & Taylor to offer publishers more services and to position publishers to improve services in the supply chain during a time of transition to digital in the book business. “This partnership enables us to go from zero to 60. Baker & Taylor is excited to offer our publishing partners the unique benefits and value of Bookmasters’s suite of services,” he said. “This is a real complement. We’ve offered so many services to our retail, education, and library partners. We thought it was time to offer a complete suite of services to our publishers as well.”
Through the partnership with Bookmasters, Baker & Taylor will provide third-party fulfillment, POD, offset printing, and e-book conversion, as well as content, editorial, book sales, and marketing services. “We look forward to working with Baker & Taylor to build value and to become a leader in the publisher services industry,” added Dave Wurster.
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