The Bookseller.com

1st December 2008

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Tesco schedules £5m Christmas books uplift

15.05.08 Graeme Neill

Tesco has set itself a target of £5.7m worth of extra book sales this Christmas as part of plans to grow its offer.

The supermarket intends to achieve the growth with the roll-out across 423 stores of a books section at the end of a shelving unit in the "power aisle"--the main shopping aisle when a customer enters a supermarket. The bays will be in place for two three-week periods in the run-up to Christmas, and Tesco anticipates that they will contribute £5.3m worth of sales.

Tesco, which sells books in 731 stores, will also roll out Best of 2008 paperback bays to 300 branches this autumn. It will also retain the 41 70 section of its paperback chart, after the move to drop it from 233 stores last year led to its market share in paperbacks falling. "We are looking for a bigger and better Christmas this year," said category manager David Cooke.

The retailer will increase its Price Blitz offer, where it sells titles from as low as £1, and there is to be a further roll-out of its £5 box set deal.

Last week, the supermarket chain revealed that it intended to grow its book sales to £200m in three years, and to up its online presence.

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