Client Stories

Client Stories > Wholesale, Distribution & Logistics (3PL) > Turnaround Publisher Services

Based in Southern England, with offices in London and a warehouse in Hertford, Turnaround is a leading distributor of independent presses. We sell and distribute books, periodicals, and stationery to customers in the UK, Ireland, Europe, the Middle East, and most parts of Asia. The company was formed in 1984 and has now been trading successfully for over 35 years.

In addition to working for a large number of relatively small independent presses, Turnaround also provide a service for the US offices of a number of major publishing houses such as Penguin Random House, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster. Through these relationships, we distribute some much larger publishing houses in the UK, such as Marvel and Dark Horse, two of the world’s most significant publishers of graphic novels.

In addition to distributing books, we’re also involved in selling and distributing one of the world’s most iconic stationery brands, Moleskine, whom we look after in the UK, Ireland, and Iceland.

Our major customers are booksellers — large chains such as Waterstones and W H Smith, and many smaller outlets across the territories in which we operate. Online sales are an increasingly important part of our market, and, in addition to Amazon, we run accounts with all the significant online players.

In addition to bookshops, we also supply gift stores, museums and galleries, and speciality stores such as Urban Outfitters.

In 2013, the management team at Turnaround implemented a new ERP system and our company faced challenges often associated with this level of change.

Claire Thompson, Marketing Director and Co-Owner commented:

‘In 2018, our Managing Director Bill realised that the company had to make some decisions regarding IT. The Directors met with Freeman Clarke, outlined the key issues, and subsequently David Tellis was introduced to us. We needed him to overhaul IT within the company and drag it into the 21^st century.

David was originally appointed as our IT Director for 3 months, but 2 years on he is still with us. During his time he has built a strong understanding of our business, has reviewed our external IT support, and moved to us another provider. He is in the process of migrating Title Management to a new and more effective platform, has overhauled our purchase order system, is driving down costs wherever possible, and is raising efficiency through various process improvements.

David is very approachable and supportive, and great to work with. He is highly skilled and effective at presenting the business case for change. We enjoy working with David very much and consider him an invaluable asset to any organisation.’

Turnaround Publisher Services

Migrated Title Management to a more effective platform and overhauled the purchase order system dragging it into the 21st century

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