UK wholesaler and distributor Bertrams has confirmed the opening of its UAE office, a story broken on Thursday's BookBrunch; the move has received an enthusiastic reception here in Abu Dabi.
Group Sales Director Jason Cherrington said: "I’m delighted to be launching our enhanced presence in the Middle East–and with the book fair this week the timing couldn’t be better. This will now act as a hub focused on growing revenues across the entire region. The opportunity in both academic and trade book supply is significant and we see this as a key focus for our international strategy moving forwards. Ahmed Yasser and the team are really looking forward to meeting customers on our stand where you will be able to find out just how our business can help your business thrive."
Ahmed Yasser, recently appointed General Manager for the Middle East, told BookBrunch that he and his new colleagues are still fine-tuning the business plan but he anticipates proceeding cautiously, hiring a handful of staff to launch the operation. Dawson Books' existing warehouse facilities near Paris and Madrid will enhance Bertram's celebrated Norwich facility for the immediate future, but the goal is to have a distribution hub up and running in around two years' time.
Its location is not yet decided—the UAE is more expensive than other countries in the region but an easy place to do business. So a site in the Emirate's seven million square-metre Free Trade Zone near the airport is a location that provides a strategic crossroads between East and West and easy access to cargo facilities. Industry commentators have pointed out that Lebanon, which publishes the majority of the region's books, would be a more logical and cost-effective base, but there is probably too much baggage and too much (perceived) risk from the country's troubled past—one reason that Beirut has failed to establish itself as the region's premier international book fair.
Bertrams is promoting its key strengths, which include competitive prices on 10 million titles, a multilingual sales team and representatives worldwide, and same-day despatch to 120 countries. Meanwhile, the Dawson Books division manages the well-established Dawsonera e-book platform, which supplies e-books to the academic library market, offering 200,000 titles from over 450 publishers, mostly in English but also in French, Spanish and Swedish, and tailored outsourcing solutions which include seven-day rental of academic texts to students, with the ability to read the book off-campus. Dawson, which has a 200-year history, currently supplies e-books and academic titles to over 150 countries.
Kirsty McLaren, Bertams' international sales executive, and Dawson Books' service development manager Heather Sherman, who is based at the Rushden HQ, are attending the fair with Yasser. All three are having meetings with publishers, opening dialogues that will be continued at next month's London Book Fair. "We have some good leads."
Yasser, who has taught technology and strategic planning, comes to his new position from magazine and newpaper distribution and content aggregation, recommended to Smiths News CEO Mark Cashmore by mutual friends.
Asked about the logistical problems of setting up a distribution network in a part of the world which not only has censorship but censorship which varies between countries and which can be whimsically applied, Yasser said that magazines and newspaper distribution was more complicated in that regard but that a high-calibre staff with local and regional knowledge can manage the situation.
The news of the new MENA operation is another shot in the arm for Bertrams, which faced possible collapse in 2008-09 and was rescued by Smiths News, which had previously rescued the news and wholesale business of struggling Dawson Holdings from the administrator. Last summer, it bought the Dawson library and college supply business, so ending more than two centuries of independent book and newspaper distribution.
