The book trade
Thalia: model instead of a rehabilitation case
Soft position on the German book market: The German Herder Verlag, the 40 times is buying up the larger book chain Thalia and introduces new strategies for the industry. An E-Book Reader helps.
There are a few ways in which a book buyer can be found. This summer, for example, a campaign under the title “book on Board in Germany”, and a whole flight line is involved. You stick the label “book on Board” on his suitcase, gives the Airline Condor when you check in a Kilo of free Luggage. That’s enough for a thick book, bought in the book store that gave the customer the sticker.
The Herder-Verlag made in this week with a book strategy to an entirely different level of sensation: The traditional German house bought a whole book trade chain. Thalia is one of the largest in the German book trade – will have a market share of around 15 percent, and 4000 employees. The Herder publishing house is very old – it was founded in 1801, but quite small: Thalia is 40 times as large as the publisher, takes him now.
Disassemble, refurbish, and sell
Behind it, a strategy that reveals a lot about the situation in the book industry: books not sold alone, only one way, the book store, but on all the other possible channels (and it was with the help of flight lines). In the fact Thalia was in the last few years, so successful that the chain was from the refurbishment of a role model in the industry.
Classic Book Trade
The collaboration between the publisher and the book chain, i.e., between Herder and Thalia, has a long history. Thalia has been a part of the Douglas Holding, is a chain of perfume stores, candy shops and many other things. The owner-family Kreke took over 20 years ago, some of the book shops of Herder, and brought to you in the Thalia chain.
So now the way back. In between, the involvement of a financial investor, who could now cash in, however, was. In October 2012, the investment company took over Advent 80 percent of the Douglas-Holding to redevelop for approximately € 1.5 billion with the stated goal of dismantling the group, and to sell. After four years, Advent said chief Ranjan Sen now, the German “Handelsblatt”: “We have achieved everything we set out to do.”
Thalia, formerly part of the Douglas group
Colorful shops with books
Thalia has experienced in the last few years, a sharp restructuring of the course. Branches have been expanded and made tight, the sales area is reduced, the range. In some of the multicolored Thalia-shops, we had to look finally to find between Games and all sorts of transportable articles, the books. The profits have doubled from 20 million to 40 million euros, it said in financial circles. Now Thalia operates 281 stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Thalia also stands for the successful attempt, a digital strategy beyond the printed book in the German-speaking countries to enforce. And beyond the major competitors Amazon. This has saved Thalia’s own Survival, and now wants to benefit the Herder.
The success of this digitization strategy depends on a small reading device called the Nook. Behind it is a pretty big coalition: Several major book chains came together in 2013 with Deutsche Telekom, Amazon with its Kindle devices stand up for ourselves. From the Telekom, the technology, the book chains offer sales channels. The Anti-Amazon-strategy-In Germany, Amazon has the Kindle has a market share of less than 40 percent, calculated the market research Institute GfK, in the UK or the US, the Kindle comes up to 70 to 80 percent.
Read E-Books
A Model Of Success Tolino
The Tolino reader is now sold in almost two-thirds of the approximately 6000 German bookstores. “We want to shape the digital change,” said the new Thalia-Chairman of the Supervisory Board Leif Erik Göritz the “Handelsblatt”. Thalia is in the sale of E-Books in Germany, now the number two behind Amazon.
On the so-called stationary book trade, so the shops where you can take a book that you want to buy, in the Hand, don’t want Thalia and Herder, but. No wonder: in The total turnover of the book market had 2015 trading in the book stores, with 48 percent, the largest share. Even if the return was total turnover in the last year by 1.4 percent to 9.2 billion euros. This year, however, the book stores to make up for lost ground, reports the industry Association: In the first four months, revenue has grown 1.9 percent, said the managing Director of the stock exchange Association Alexander Skipis. The have managed to the industry, despite an “unprecedented media change” in the course of digitalisation.
The book trade in Amazon
But also in the classical book store needs to be in the industry to the new conditions. Also Thalia wants to re-open new stores, but no longer as large as before, so the Thalia-in-chief. 400 to 500 square feet of sales area must now rich – until a few years ago, there were giant stores in the book trade, which had to close all again. Last year alone, 150 shops are to be made, there are 40,000 square feet of retail space was lost.
Book|German Federation in Berlin
The Pope and the Dalai Lama
Small is fine and pays for itself (maybe), the white now and again, some of the book dealer, making a name for themselves with 90 or even just 60 square meters of space. If you have your own ideas, in order to assert itself against the Market and speed of Amazon. So the bookstore “Patz” in the lower Saxon Village of bienenbüttel is making every year a book festival – a week with small publishers. In Berlin, the bookstore “book|Federal” has only two small rooms in a side street, but it makes the events almost on a weekly basis to Eastern European literature. With such specialization, small book stores have opportunities, because the big book temple have failed – and many new Small go at the Start.
The Herder publishing house for his books now with Thalia, a separate sales chain; there’s then, in the future, also the books of the Dalai Lama or Pope Francis. Also, are the authors of the traditional publisher, your books are paper or digital. Both of you can take with you to the aircraft as a “book on Board”.