08.03.12 | Lisa Campbell - The BooksellerGiving the keynote speech at the Independent Publishers Guild annual conference at Heythrop Park Resort in Oxfordshire today (8th March), the Daunt sought to explain the steps he had taken to make the company more efficient since he took up his post as m.d of the Russian-owned chain in June last year, telling publishers the new buying and IT systems he put in place are “taking time” but were “beginning to bear fruit”.
In answer to Faber’s Will Atkinson’s question: “When will the promised land arrive?” Daunt replied: “Although it is invisible we can already see change . . . I myself have always said and Alexander Mamut agrees, Christmas 2012 is when we should really sit back and judge how effective we will be."
But he added that Christmas 2012 would "see Waterstones firing on many, many more cylinders than it is at the moment”. Some publishers have privately expressed disappointment over the chain's Christmas trading, but Daunt said his first 8 months had seen the chain move "one step forward, one step back".
Daunt also told publishers the stores are currently operating with 20% less stock in the business than under its HMV ownership, but have 21% more titles on the shelves. He said the company hopes to continue that trend, with the help of independent publishers who can aid the chain store in providing the variety it needs to be the diverse bookshop it needs to attract more customers.
Daunt was frank about the issue of requiring more discount from publishers, saying: “We are having a new constructive approach in trying to work with publishers and understanding how we can better sell their books . . . We need to make slightly more money by selling less books.” He added: “We have asked for more discount but I think we have asked for that in a responsible manner. I don’t think we have asked for discount without promising anything in return. We have to sell more books and do it in a sufficient way.”
One way Waterstones plans to do this is by increasing the range of non-book items the stores offer, and by adding facilities such as coffee shops. Daunt said: “Selling related product needs to be done in a less willed- bizarre style than we do at the moment.”
In response to several publishers' questions around plans to enhance the company’s website, Waterstones.com, and integrating it more with the bricks and mortar stores, Daunt expressed his frustration that the website platform was still in the domain of previous owner HMV, but would return to Waterstones in June, when he planned to significantly boost it. Daunt said: “Once we have it in our sphere we will do different things when we start working on it,”; in terms of its calibre, he described the investment in metaphorical terms as more like a Mercedes Benz than a cheaper car. "At the moment our website is divorced from a shop experience and that is regrettable."
Daunt did not indicate when it could launch its own e-book reader, but hinted that it could compete with Amazon, while maintaining his view that some books would remain desirable as print editions. He said:"Kindle is the only effective proposition in the market at the moment and we have tbe expectation of providing a credible alternative. We will do that, spending an extraordinary amount of money." He also said: "Even within fiction I would be extremely surprised as digital takes more than 50% of the market. There will be a market for physical books in the future."
1 comment:
"We need to make slightly more money by selling less books." Fewer books, surely???
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