Friday, March 14, 2014

OUP named publisher of the year


Oxford University Press (OUP) has won two of the key awards at the Bookseller Association's Academic, Professional and Specialist Bookselling group awards.
The publisher was named as publisher of the year and distributor of the year at the awards, held at the APS conference in Brighton yesterday (12th March).

Chain bookseller of the year went to John Smith's, while Gillian Isbell at John Smith's University of East London in Stratford store won bookseller of the year.

Bookshop of the year went to Blackwell's in South Bridge, Edinburgh, while rep of the year was won by Cambridge University Press' Karen McWhirter.

Publisher of of the year, voted by bookshops, was assessed on rep support, terms, head office and publishing and was a very close run contest between Oxford University Press and Palgrave Macmillan.
Afterwards, Chris Holmes, head of UK retail and higher education sales for OUP, told The Bookseller: "The award is a credit to the whole team who put in very hard work every year. We do take our relationships with bookshops seriously because through them is the best way to showcase our products."

Bookshop of the year was assessed on criteria such as market knowledge and returns, with the overall award going to  Blackwell's South Bridge in Edinburgh. Its manager, Darrell Thrush-Denning [pictured, left, with awards presenter Roger Horton], said the shop's like-for-like sales were up 3% in the Back to University season, which he thought had helped the shop to claim the award. "I am chuffed for the shop and all its 60 staff," he said.

Roger Horton, c.e.o of Taylor & Francis, presenter on the night, said after the awards had been presented: "The industry has been ever changing and ever challenging and it will always be so. I do not believe believe the rumours that we are in decline or the beginning of the end but we do have to do things differently as the rate of change quickens every year. We have to create opportunities for ourselves and for our industry. I am proud to e a part of an industry that creates and provides education to the world."

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