Georgia Firm Prominent at Spring Book Show 2006 in Atlanta March 17-19
Spring Book Show 2006, the largest bargain book show in the South, will be held March 17-19 at Atlanta's World Congress Center. More than 50,000 book titles will be offered to buyers. Among the more than 100 sellers at the show will be Kudzu Bargain Books of Cartersville, Ga.
Atlanta, GA, March 11, 2006 --(PR.com)-- When Spring Book Show 2006, the largest bargain book show in the South, opens on March 17 at Atlanta’s World Congress Center, one of the leading companies exhibiting its wares will be Cartersville’s Kudzu Book Traders. Kudzu is the sister company of Academic Book Services, and though the companies now occupy two warehouses with more than 270,000 square feet and employ 160 full-time and many more part-time employees when seasonal demand is high, their inception was a lowly one.
Founded by Georgian Steve Wilson from the trunk of his car in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, the business that would become Academic Book Services grew out of Wilson’s love of books and his experience working at a college bookstore while a student at Georgia State University. Since 1991, Academic has refurbished textbooks for school systems across the country. One day, a major publisher called Wilson with a proposition: They had a lot of remainders to sell—was Wilson interested in bidding on them? He was, he did, the books arrived in several semi trailers, and Kudzu Book Traders was officially born in 1998.
Though Wilson is still active in the businesses, Britt Hinton assumed the presidency of both Kudzu Book Traders and Academic Book Services in 2005. Like Wilson, Hinton started his career in the college bookstore business, and was with the college textbook division of Follett Corp. in Chicago for more than 20 years. Hinton was originally from Georgia, so when Wilson offered him the opportunity to lead in Cartersville, he was happy to come home.
Kudzu will have one of the largest presences at Spring Book Show 2006 in Atlanta. “We’ll have at least six salespeople there,” Hinton said. “It’s a big, exceptional show for Kudzu. We’ll have a large number of our home office people there, as well. The show has been very successful for us in the past.”
Hinton explained that bargain books include “hurts” and “remainders." ”’Hurts’ are books that are returned to publishers by bookstores that were unable to sell them,” he said. “Publishers may decide to sell many of these returns to wholesalers at bargain prices for resale. ‘Remainders’ are books still in pristine condition in publisher warehouses. Publishers decide to sell them for various reasons, but often because a new format is coming out – as when a new mass market or trade paperback edition reduces demand for the hardback version. Remainders and hurts make up the bargain book industry.”
Hinton estimates that the remainder business accounts for only a small part of the publishing business or about $100 million annually. Kudzu is a big player in this remainder segment of the book market, handling about 40,000 remainder titles a year from major publishers. The books are sold by Kudzu to a diverse customer base, which includes large bookstore chains, small independent bookstores, the college bookstore industry, the secondary school market and institutional buyers like the Smithsonian. Among Kudzu’s biggest customers are Barnes & Noble, Borders, Walden Books, Hastings and Books-A-Million. A “big deal” for the firm might be anywhere from 10,000 to 1,000,000 books, or even more.
While Kudzu’s primary acquisition channel is the major publishing houses in New York, Hinton said the company also works with small presses. “More book titles are being published today than ever before, and the barriers to entering the publishing field have been lowered because of new technologies. The major publishers still have the infrastructure such as professional editing, design, marketing, and distribution and the majority of the books being sold still come from them,” he said.
Though the number of small independent bookstores is falling victim to “big box” chain stores, “we still do a lot of business with the independent booksellers,” Hinton said. “The niche markets are also big buyers. But the large chains always have made up a large portion of our remainder business. What I see is a small store closing on one corner and another one opening three blocks away. The large retailers in some ways have an advantage but it still comes down to customer service and where people like to shop. Finally, I think, it’s no surprise to anyone that more and more people are buying books from the Web. I think the Internet is having more impact on the small Mom and Pop booksellers than anything else. The Web is also having an impact on the chains.”
When it comes to bargain books, Hinton said just about every genre sells well. “I think everything from fiction to juvenile, cookbooks to self-help, inspirational to nonfiction – all books that are bargain books sell well,” he said. “People love bargains, and people love books. We have over 40 categories at Kudzu, and we have millions of books, 40,000 titles, and they all sell. I think you just have to put the right book in front of the right person at the right price at the right time, and they’ll buy it.”
In addition to its relationship with brick and mortar booksellers, Kudzu has relationships with companies like Amazon.com that do most of their selling via the Internet. “The online business is growing,” Hinton said. “Most independent retailers, as well as the large chains, with brick and mortar stores have established an Internet presence as well. Booksellers are trying to make sure they reach both markets, and have done a fairly good job of that.”
Kudzu made an early attempt to sell bargain books directly to the retail book buyer market. The company had a popular store on Peachtree Industrial Blvd. in Atlanta that offered a wide variety of bargain books to its clientele. The goal initially was vertical integration with a string of retail stores. Over time, however, it was decided that the retail business was not part of Kudzu’s core competencies, and the last store was closed in 2005, leaving wholesaling as Kudzu’s core business. “Today, Kudzu’s primary market is business to business,” Hinton stressed.
The business that was born and raised in the South has matured into a force to be reckoned with on a national scale, and Hinton sees continued growth for Kudzu in the years ahead: “We are excited about the future of bargain books and feel that people will be buying and reading for years to come,” he said.
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Founded by Georgian Steve Wilson from the trunk of his car in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, the business that would become Academic Book Services grew out of Wilson’s love of books and his experience working at a college bookstore while a student at Georgia State University. Since 1991, Academic has refurbished textbooks for school systems across the country. One day, a major publisher called Wilson with a proposition: They had a lot of remainders to sell—was Wilson interested in bidding on them? He was, he did, the books arrived in several semi trailers, and Kudzu Book Traders was officially born in 1998.
Though Wilson is still active in the businesses, Britt Hinton assumed the presidency of both Kudzu Book Traders and Academic Book Services in 2005. Like Wilson, Hinton started his career in the college bookstore business, and was with the college textbook division of Follett Corp. in Chicago for more than 20 years. Hinton was originally from Georgia, so when Wilson offered him the opportunity to lead in Cartersville, he was happy to come home.
Kudzu will have one of the largest presences at Spring Book Show 2006 in Atlanta. “We’ll have at least six salespeople there,” Hinton said. “It’s a big, exceptional show for Kudzu. We’ll have a large number of our home office people there, as well. The show has been very successful for us in the past.”
Hinton explained that bargain books include “hurts” and “remainders." ”’Hurts’ are books that are returned to publishers by bookstores that were unable to sell them,” he said. “Publishers may decide to sell many of these returns to wholesalers at bargain prices for resale. ‘Remainders’ are books still in pristine condition in publisher warehouses. Publishers decide to sell them for various reasons, but often because a new format is coming out – as when a new mass market or trade paperback edition reduces demand for the hardback version. Remainders and hurts make up the bargain book industry.”
Hinton estimates that the remainder business accounts for only a small part of the publishing business or about $100 million annually. Kudzu is a big player in this remainder segment of the book market, handling about 40,000 remainder titles a year from major publishers. The books are sold by Kudzu to a diverse customer base, which includes large bookstore chains, small independent bookstores, the college bookstore industry, the secondary school market and institutional buyers like the Smithsonian. Among Kudzu’s biggest customers are Barnes & Noble, Borders, Walden Books, Hastings and Books-A-Million. A “big deal” for the firm might be anywhere from 10,000 to 1,000,000 books, or even more.
While Kudzu’s primary acquisition channel is the major publishing houses in New York, Hinton said the company also works with small presses. “More book titles are being published today than ever before, and the barriers to entering the publishing field have been lowered because of new technologies. The major publishers still have the infrastructure such as professional editing, design, marketing, and distribution and the majority of the books being sold still come from them,” he said.
Though the number of small independent bookstores is falling victim to “big box” chain stores, “we still do a lot of business with the independent booksellers,” Hinton said. “The niche markets are also big buyers. But the large chains always have made up a large portion of our remainder business. What I see is a small store closing on one corner and another one opening three blocks away. The large retailers in some ways have an advantage but it still comes down to customer service and where people like to shop. Finally, I think, it’s no surprise to anyone that more and more people are buying books from the Web. I think the Internet is having more impact on the small Mom and Pop booksellers than anything else. The Web is also having an impact on the chains.”
When it comes to bargain books, Hinton said just about every genre sells well. “I think everything from fiction to juvenile, cookbooks to self-help, inspirational to nonfiction – all books that are bargain books sell well,” he said. “People love bargains, and people love books. We have over 40 categories at Kudzu, and we have millions of books, 40,000 titles, and they all sell. I think you just have to put the right book in front of the right person at the right price at the right time, and they’ll buy it.”
In addition to its relationship with brick and mortar booksellers, Kudzu has relationships with companies like Amazon.com that do most of their selling via the Internet. “The online business is growing,” Hinton said. “Most independent retailers, as well as the large chains, with brick and mortar stores have established an Internet presence as well. Booksellers are trying to make sure they reach both markets, and have done a fairly good job of that.”
Kudzu made an early attempt to sell bargain books directly to the retail book buyer market. The company had a popular store on Peachtree Industrial Blvd. in Atlanta that offered a wide variety of bargain books to its clientele. The goal initially was vertical integration with a string of retail stores. Over time, however, it was decided that the retail business was not part of Kudzu’s core competencies, and the last store was closed in 2005, leaving wholesaling as Kudzu’s core business. “Today, Kudzu’s primary market is business to business,” Hinton stressed.
The business that was born and raised in the South has matured into a force to be reckoned with on a national scale, and Hinton sees continued growth for Kudzu in the years ahead: “We are excited about the future of bargain books and feel that people will be buying and reading for years to come,” he said.
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Contact
Spring Book Show
Larry May
865-922-7490
www.springbookshow.com
Larry May
865-922-7490
www.springbookshow.com
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