NZ book trade compares apples with apples in 2010

The panel now comprises Borders, Dymocks, Kmart, PaperPlus, The Warehouse and Whitcoulls plus sales figures from a weighted sample of independent booksellers.

So was trade up or down? Surprisingly, it was both: volume was down slightly, with 1.56 million units sold in 2008 against 1.55 million in 2009. Despite this, value was up with 2009 sales of $41.5million up 1.5% on the 2008 sales of $39.9million.

A New Zealand Herald report in their business section on January 19 commented that while results may have been flat, other retail sectors probably looked on with envy.

One chain reporting strong growth in books was PaperPlus. CEO Rob Smith said book sales showed good gains right across the group. “Where individuals in stores focused on books, they were supported by reps and showed phenomenal growth,” he commented. The 30 refurbished Concept 6 stores also performed strongly. Smith thinks Nielsen BookScan is a big asset “It is proving beneficial to the industry. We can look at what is moving and be proactive.”

Of the independents, Christchurch’s Scorpio Books was pleased with the season. “We expect to be up 10 percent year on year at Christmas,” said co manager Jo Hewitson. “It started so late this year that we thought we wouldn’t get there but we did. A good Christmas but not one over the top.”

Pat Mravicich of Carson’s Bookshop in Thames is another independent who says she is pleased with the store’s Christmas trading, which was up on the same period in 2008.

Louisa McKenzie of Bruce McKenzie Books in Palmerston North says the season was “Definitely down for us. This Christmas was really late, didn’t start until well into December and we didn’t catch up.”

Co-owner of Benny’s Books, New Plymouth, Paul Phillips said the store’s Christmas was solid. “After a hard year it was nice to finish on a positive note.”

Fortunately for the trade, Christmas seems not to be losing its edge as a booktrade moneymaker. A casual analysis of the year’s figures would indicate that industry reckoning that Christmas trade should treble or more the average monthly turnover was on target.

So if your Christmas trading was 5 percent up, count yourself lucky. If it was 5 percent down, your store is also within the 2009 ups and downs parameters.
Nielsen BookScan’s New Zealand service now tracks approx 95% of general retail book sales within New Zealand on a weekly basis. Further good news, says Ka Meechan, Managing Director Asia Pacific of Nielsen Book Services, is that from this point on, meaningful month-on-month comparisons will be part of the data supplied to the trade.

And how did the Kiwi December top five titles rate against other markets? According to Nielsen BookScan, we had The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown; Ali’s Book of Tall Tales; The Story of Danny Dunn Bryce Courtenay; Guinness World Records 2010 and A Song in the Daylight, Paullina Simons.

In Australia: Guinness World Records 2010; The Lost Symbol; The Story of Danny Dunn; MasterChef Australia: The Cookbook Vol 1 and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson.

For the UK: The Lost Symbol, Guinness World Records 2010; Eclipse; Twilight (both Stephenie Meyer) and Driven to Distraction, Jeremy Clarkson.

In the US: Going Rogue, Sarah Palin; The Lost Symbol; I, Alex Cross, James Patterson; Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom and Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer.