UK Suppliers & Distributors | betterworldbooks

Suppliers & Distributors

Creating websites and applications to allow potential users to donate their books either by sending them via postal service (donators can thus be regional or even international) or putting the books in donation points[1].

Libraries : A report conducted by Theguardian in 2012 shows that the UK had 4,265 libraries compared to 4,612 in 2010. In addition, over 10 % of UK libraries are currently under threat. This might give BWB a dominant position vis-à-vis the negotiations with them. Finally, the Society of Chief Librarians (http://goscl.com) can be contacted to provide our team with more information regarding libraries and donations since the former has a vast network in the library field.

Universities: There are 163 universities in the United Kingdom (cf. annex 3 for more details). They aggregate more than 2 million students. Furthermore, universities’ libraries totaled more than 45 million pounds in book purchasing, concurring to the Publishers Association (2014 : manifesto).

Schools : According to the UK department of education (gov.uk, 2014), ‘in January 2012, there were 8.2 million pupils attending 24,372 schools in England (including nursery schools, state-funded primary schools, state-funded secondary schools, special schools, pupil referral units and independent schools.)’

Religion communities:
o More than 50,660 churches in 2013 and many educational associations to help poor: Blackburn diocesan board of education, British educational communications and technology agency, Emuno educational center limited, CARE (Christian action research and education) and others.
o More than 700 mosques. Different communities and philanthropic associations (Association of British Muslims, Muslim Educational Trust, The Young Muslims UK and Young Muslim Organization) In a nutshell, these communities might be a help to BWB when it comes to book supplies (from churches and mosques libraries or from other educational associations) or even to provide us with volunteers.

[1] We can create donation points all over the UK or use existing ones.

The following players are the tops within the British market:

Gardners (http://www.gardners.com): The biggest book suppliers (wholesaler) in the country. They have a stock catalogue of over 850 000 titles from over 4 000 publishers, with around 400 000 in stock at any one time.

Bertrams (https://www.bertrams.com): This one is the second largest wholesaler in the UK. It has 150 000 titles available for same-day dispatch and has access to over 600 000 books in print.