New Initiatives from B&T
by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 6/7/2004
Baker Taylor has introduced two new programs in a bid to up its business with independent booksellers. And in an agreement that will go into effect later this year, the company has teamed with the U.K. wholesaler Gardners Books to offer U.K. titles in the U.S.
Effective immediately, B&T is implementing a new freight policy that lowers the minimum number of copies needed to qualify for free freight from 50 books to 10. The offer applies only to booksellers who make B&T their "first call distributor." Bill Preston, senior v-p, retail, at B&T, said the new program is designed to ensure that B&T's best customers are able to use the wholesaler to meet their "just-in-time needs." Preston said that while B&T realizes that booksellers who use B&T as their primary wholesaler generally will place orders that are considerably bigger than 10 books, the company made the change to show that it is willing to work with booksellers who make B&T their number one wholesaler.
In another shift, B&T will no longer require minimums for special orders. Shipments of one to four books, which previously would have been canceled, will now be shipped with a 35% discount. Preston said B&T "has become pretty good" at shipping books directly to consumers, so it decided to extend its expertise in shipping single titles to booksellers.
In B&T's deal with Gardners, all 330,000 titles stocked by the U.K. wholesaler will be loaded into the B&T database and will appear on B&T's Title Source II and Link Online listings. B&T expects a two-week turnaround from the time it receives an order to when it receives the book from Gardners. The service is expected to begin operation by the end of 2004.
