The Perseus Books Group has begun assembling its own sales force and will start to sell its own titles by January 1, 2003. The company will continue to use HarperCollins, which has sold Perseus's titles and handled back-office operations, for customer service, warehousing, distribution, billing and credit functions under a new long-term agreement. HC will also continue to sell Perseus's titles into the ID wholesale market.
In March, Perseus acquired Running Press, which has its own distribution and fulfillment operations, and ever since there has been speculation that Perseus would eventually undertake some sort of sales reorganization. Jack McKeown, president and CEO of Perseus, said the purchase of Running Press, combined with the expiration of its distribution contract with HC and capacity constraints the HC sales force was facing from the growth of the HC and Perseus publishing programs, made it the right time to examine Perseus's sales needs for the future. Under the restructuring, the new sales team will sell books from all Perseus imprints, including Running Press, while Running Press's warehousing and other back-office functions will move to HC. Perseus will begin transferring the inventory from Running's warehouse in Philadelphia to HC's Scranton facility in November. Running will accept returns at its warehouse until June 30, and the facility is expected to be closed by next September.
The new sales force will comprise members from the existing sales operations of both Perseus and Running who will call on national accounts. "No one from either sales organization will lose their job," McKeown said. The new sales operation will be managed jointly by Matty Goldberg, v-p and director of sales and marketing for Perseus, and John Whalen, executive sales director for Running Press. Both men will report to Al Stuzinski, Running's chief operating officer. Perseus will maintain a sales presence in both its New York headquarters as well as in Running Press's Philadelphia offices. Goldberg and Whalen are hiring five regional sales reps who will call on independent bookstores, gift and specialty stores and regional wholesalers. The reps will be complemented by commission rep groups as well as support staff. The first addition to the new sales organization is Wayne Jackson, who has been named director of field sales. He had been with Adams Media Corp.
By having a sales force dedicated to selling only Perseus titles, McKeown is confident sales will increase. The creation of its own sales team will also allow Perseus to "implement a multi-level distribution system," that will include selling Perseus's titles into gift and specialty stores, while Running's titles are sold into trade outlets. Buz Teacher, president of Running, said the economies of scale from combining Perseus and Running Press make it worthwhile to handle sales themselves.
McKeown said further details about the new sales organization will be released before Perseus's December sales conference. He added that while the Perseus sales team will assume selling all titles by January 1, Perseus sales reps will call on accounts that "need a longer lead time" before then.
