Situation on the book market: the beginning of the end of the crisis

Already three weeks before he could open the first book fair since the outbreak of the pandemic, fair director Juergen Boos made it clear that the crisis is not over for him and his company.

“The 18 months were okay for the book industry, they weren't okay for the book fair,” he said and then described the strange feeling that creeps over him when he's standing in the well-known halls, but still many chairs have to remain empty.

Sarah Obertreis

Editor in business.

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Because when the 73rd Frankfurt Book Fair begins this Wednesday, visitors may again come to the exhibition grounds, exhibitors set up their stands and authors present their books, but there are far fewer than in 2019. The city of Frankfurt has allowed 25,000 visitors per day - in total so a maximum of 125,000. Two years ago it was more than twice as much. Boos can consider the fact that around 2000 exhibitors from 80 countries have registered by the end of the year as a success, even if 7500 came in 2019 and he had hoped for at least 2000 more in March. He now calls this year a “year of transition” and this edition of the fair “one with a different sign”.

"If we had known in the spring of last year, after the Leipzig Book Fair was canceled, we would have lost our courage," said the top representative of the German book market, Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, in her opening speech on Tuesday.

But it also made it clear that the book fair and the book market themselves are in different stages of crisis - sales in the industry up to October were 0.7 percent higher than sales in the same period of 2019. The book market was already 0.1 percent in 2020 record a slight plus.

“The race to catch up is also promising this year,” said Schmidt-Friderichs.

"Imaginative omni-channel strategy"

How big the upheavals are, which are hidden behind the 0.7 percent plus, can be seen well in the largest bookseller in the republic. While Schmidt-Friderichs and Boos open the book fair, Michael Busch sits in front of a video camera. The managing director of Thalia added a photo of a T-shirt as a background. “Save our stores now!” It says on the t-shirt. Thalia has been able to increase its sales in the past twelve months by 7 percent, to around 1.1 billion euros. The company will not publish the operating result until the end of the year, but Busch is already saying that it will by no means be in the red. He and the rest of the board did not have to fire anyone, and did not have to close a single branch. Nine more stores have even been added.“As Thalia, we are emerging from this crisis stronger than before,” says Busch.

An industry expert calls Thalia's "imaginative omni-channel strategy" the reason for this.

Because if you take a closer look at the bookseller's numbers, the consequences of the pandemic are of course clearly visible.

Busch says Corona caused damage of 65 million euros to his company.

Sales in the Thalia branches fell by 16 percent in the past twelve months compared with October 2019 to September 2020.

A third fewer people visited the shops.

In the entire stationary book trade, sales are still more than 13 percent in the red compared to the first ten months of 2019.

Schmidt-Friderichs, who particularly likes to be an advocate for small publishers and independent bookshops, is very worried.

Challenge to Amazon

On the other hand, she shouldn't worry about Thalia. Even if a large part of the now around 320 branches in Germany had to close for months, the industry giant's strategy has proven itself. Thalia's e-commerce business has grown by 65 percent in the past twelve months. Online trading now accounts for 40 percent of total sales, more than half a billion euros. Busch calls it “a hit”. When the branches had to close and the fear of all crippling corona cases in the logistics centers was great, Thalia converted its IT and turned the branches into hundreds of small logistics centers. From now on, customers could get advice in the chat, which should soon also be possible via video.This month Thalia took up the idea of ​​the small independent bookseller and now also delivers goods by cargo bike. But most of all, the company is currently working on a platform with which it wants to declare war on Amazon. “In the end, the crisis put us in a position that we actually only thought possible in two to three years,” says Busch.

The book fair also wants to take its digital experiences from the past 18 months with it into the future. This year there is again the format "The Hof". Here, the industry representatives should be able to make contacts from a distance in a virtual bar with live music. In the long term, the book fair wants to offer online formats all year round. “The future of trade fairs will be digital,” says the head of sales. That also means: becoming more flexible. Out of necessity, the book fair had already radically shrunk its core team last year - of what was once around 90 employees, only a few dozen are still there. It should stay with a small, agile, but “breathing” team, as Boos describes it. But even if he assures that his company is 73 years old.Book fair now again "economically well and securely positioned" - the existential worries that Corona has brought with it have not yet disappeared.