PUBLISHING company Hachette UK has officially opened Europe’s most advanced book distribution centre near Didcot.
In 2015 Hachette UK announced its plan to build a state-of-the-art book distribution centre, representing a major investment in the books trade.
On Tuesday the Hely Hutchinson Centre was officially opened in Milton Road, near Milton Park, by Tim Hely Hutchinson, CEO of Hachette UK until his retirement in 2017.
The 242,000 sq ft centre will provide a comprehensive distribution service for more that 45 publishers, shipping over 65 million books globally every year.
David Shelley, CEO of Hachette UK, said: “We are very proud of the distribution service we offer our authors, our customers and our client publishers.
"The Hely Hutchinson Centre is a sign of Hachette’s present and future commitment to great service and of our ambition to become an even bigger player in print distribution than we already are.
“Our aim is to become the UK’s centre of excellence for distributing Hachette’s books all over the world as well as those of our very valued third-party publishing clients - and we hope many more clients who are yet to join us.
READ AGAIN: Publishing company opens distribution base near Didcot
“Our ambition is to deliver one in every two books sold in the UK because, quite simply, we have the best site, the best technology and the best people working with us.”
The new centre, employing 350 staff, represents a substantial investment programme by Hachette’s parent company, Hachette Livre, including the replacement of Hachette’s Vista warehouse management and sales order processing systems, with modern, market-leading software solutions from suppliers.
Combining leading edge technology with a wealth of experience in distribution, building work began on the centre, the most advanced of its kind in Europe, in 2016.
The first publisher – Octopus Publishing Group – moved in in August 2018.
READ AGAIN: Historic Covered Market butchers gets a major revamp
All the publishers within the Hachette UK group and the third-party publishers distributed by Hachette will be distributed from the site by the end of the second quarter of 2019.
Bookpoint, Hachette’s centre nearby at Milton Park, will remain in service as a bulk storage area for the Hely Hutchinson Centre.
Chris Emerson, COO of Hachette UK, said: “The challenges of our changing market and shifting retail landscape means that our customers want a faster, more complex, bespoke distribution service.
READ MORE: Woman charged with causing motorcyclist death crash
“Our response to this challenge has been to build the most advanced book distribution supply chain in Europe.
“The scale, design and creation of the Hely Hutchinson Centre and the systems within it is statement to the ambition of our business.”
Joanne Westbrook, COO of Hachette UK Distribution said the centre provided an unrivalled, world-class service for publishers, authors and customers now and in the future.
She added: “We are enormously proud of the cutting-edge systems and technology and the amazingly talented and knowledgeable team that deliver this.
“We are in the process of welcoming our current customers into the centre and we look forward to demonstrating our capabilities to potential new customers in the months ahead.”
Hachette UK is the second largest publishing group in the UK. The group consists of over 50 different imprints including Hodder & Stoughton, the Headline Publishing Group, Little, Brown and Orion Publishing Group.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here