Member Profile: Poppies Feilding

Poppies Feilding: The North Island Thorpe-Bowker Regional Bookseller of the Year is part of a community coping with tragedy.

From sombre candlelit vigil on Friday to cork-popping celebration on Sunday, last weekend was emotional for Poppies Feilding owner Margaret Kouvelis. Feilding has seen a spate of tragedies this year and 2,000 came together for the vigil, held around the town’s clock tower.

Poppies has been part of Feilding retail since opening in 2006 in the historic courthouse building. At only 100square metres and housed in two rooms – one the former holding cell for prisoners – Margaret Kouvelis has invested the space with exciting book stock, a thoughtful greeting card selection, glamorous décor, eclectic displays and her own outgoing personality. The business has worked so well, she and her husband have since bought the building!

Nor is it in Margaret’s nature to stand still – the following year she opened Poppies Wanganui, again in a historic building – this time a bank – and again in two rooms (which people told her ‘would never work’). It is decorated like a gracious home, Margaret says, with an imposing antique Flemish painting and Edwardian mirror and a sixteenth century chest on loan as background for displays. An old Wanganui clockface converted into a table is a talking point.

The Wanganui store includes a selection of quality glass from local designers, and Margaret is pleased to have it as a further drawcard for customers.

What got Margaret into bookselling? In part, it was a suicide bombing in Qatar. Margaret’s career has been in education and she was Director of the NZ Teacher’s Council before educational consulting overseas (China before Qatar). “Just come home,” was the message from husband and family following the bomb scare.

Unable to go from full time to full stop, Margaret became aware of Poppies bookstores as a franchise. The fit seemed good, the premises easily found and so her second career began.

Margaret is full of praise for publishers’ reps. “My reps have been my book trade education, and the best I could have received,” she says.

“I’d always read, but drawing on their many, many years of experience was a wonderful thing. I learned the point of difference between quality and mass market fiction and gained the confidence to stock books that would educate people and books which I believed people needed to know about.”

Margaret must have been an apt pupil, because it is reps who nominate stores for Bookseller of the Year Awards in both the North and South Islands. The accolade is also remarkable because it has been achieved in only four years.

“Margaret is a fantastic bookseller,” says Random House’s Keith Bitchener. “She’s so enthusiastic and willing to learn. She switches on like a light bulb, has huge energy and relates to her community. She’s encouraged the formation of book groups and makes events work for authors and publishers – outstanding really.”

The community focus Keith speaks of is extremely important to Margaret. Earlier on the Friday of the vigil, Poppies held an in store lunch and signing session for Brendon Deere’s Spitfire- return to flight. Deere is a local author, and the self published book commemorates those who have been killed recently at Ohakea. Already the store has sold a remarkable 55 copies.

[Brendon Deere at Poppies signing session on Friday.]

“One can never underestimate the role of a small bookstore in a community to unite people and heal the hurting,” Margaret reflects regarding her community’s recent losses.

The Feilding tragedies have prompted her to further action. Margaret Kouvelis is standing for the Manawatu District Council. “It is a last minute rash decision,” she says, “But this community is so vibrant I want to ensure it stays that way.” Husband Brian Kouvelis couldn’t make the trip to Auckland to be with her for the conference dinner – he was too busy putting up Margaret’s signs for the upcoming electoral campaign!

[L-R: The Poppies Feilding team, Raewyn Buddle, Margaret Kouvelis, Tania Allerby]

The Poppies Bookshop business won’t suffer while she is campaigning. Margaret has two wonderful long time assistants who have been with her since the store opened, Tania Allerby and sister in law Raewyn Buddle. As soon as Margaret had discovered how she wanted her store presented and how it needed to be run, she immediately trained Tania and Raewyn in all aspects of the business.

The careful planning freed Margaret to travel with husband Brian Kouvelis. And it looks like that will pay off if she becomes an elected councillor. Many who know her might regard election victory as a foregone conclusion for this talented and enthusiastic businesswoman, winner of the Thorpe-Bowker North Island Regional Bookseller of 2010.