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Smith joins Book Depository as m.d.

19.08.08 Graeme Neill

The Book Depository has hired former BookRabbit managing director Kieron Smith as its new m.d. and employed the six other BookRabbit employees made redundant from the retailer last month as it looks to expand.

The Book Depository's founder and current m.d. Andrew Crawford has been appointed c.e.o. He said that the seven hires would be responsible for "growing our direct business, working with suppliers, and developing our relationships within the book trade and internet arenas". He added: "The primary focus for the next three to four months will be on getting a new commercial website up and running for the UK and US."

The Book Depository said its sales over the last 12 months had topped £40m.

Will Jones, BookRabbit's former IT director, has been appointed The Book Depository's IT director; BookRabbit's former design director Kwen Wan has been employed as design director; Steve Potter, commercial trading manager at BookRabbit, has also joined The Book Depository as commercial trading manager.

The Book Depository has also hired BookRabbit's developers Tony Dillon, Rob Johnson and Jason Merry. Smith said he hoped to launch "lots of exciting ideas" over the next 12 months. "I think this is a fantastic opportunity. The Book Depository's focus on delivering real availability within the long tail of titles and their solid growth means that with extra resource we can help grow the business even further," he said.

Social networking books site BookRabbit launched in March, backed by Charles Denton's ArgentVive group, but in July it made six staff redundant, including Smith, saying that it needed extra investment and had an "unproven revenue model".

Graeme Neill Home Kieron Smith The Book Depository bookrabbit News

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By a book lover

Good luck to all of the gang who have just moved in. They are a great working team with lots of exciting ideas, The Book Depository are very lucky to have them all on board.

19 Aug 08 16:35

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By Rabbit Hunting

Told you so. What a swoop by The Book Depository. In one hit they cheaply recruit a fully established (apparently excellent) team who clearly have a lot of innovative ecommerce ideas in them. Its farewell to bookrabbit I imagine. I'd watch the Depository closely over the next year or so.

19 Aug 08 19:31

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By Rabbit Fan

It's great to see a happy ending for the BookRabbit gang and I wish them the best of luck in their new roles. I agree that this should be good news for the BD crew but don't think this means the end of BookRabbit! First of all, assuming that BD try to repiclate BookRabbit, surely there is room in the marketplace for another social network application for booklovers? Secondly, it looks like whoever is still with the BookRabbit project is keeping very busy as a lot seems to have changed with the site in recent months - see "Alive and Hopping": http://www.bookrabbit.com/topics/showposts/topicid/342 I'm a huge fan of the site and hope the team manage to keep it going and growing. Since joining a couple of months ago, it has done exactly as promised and has opened a whole new bunch of authors and titles that I never would have bought but I have totally enjoyed. The only downside is my other half who is complaining about a lack of attention and the fact I've spent his money buying a lot of books. Good luck to both sides - surely us readers can only benefit from the continuation of BookRabbit and whatever the old BookRabbit team create in their new roles?

20 Aug 08 09:08

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