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Bertrams completes Dawson Books acquisition
19.09.11 | Charlotte Williams
Bertrams has made three management team appointments, with Nick Harknett joining as group commercial director as parent company Smiths News Group completes its purchase of the Dawson Group.
Smiths News now owns the Dawson Group, including Dawson Books, and has reiterated its plan to integrate the Dawson Books academic library supply business with Bertrams.
Nick Harknett, Dawson Books managing director, has been appointed group commercial director, with responsibility for all commercial functions including buying, publisher relations, sales and marketing across the wholesale, academic and public library businesses. Buying director Roger Miah, UK sales and marketing director Chris Rushby and library services commercial director Jaimie Dorward will all report to Harknett.
Bertrams m.d. Graeme Underhill said: "Nick is currently managing director of Dawson Books and I have asked him to retain that responsibility until the business is fully integrated into Bertrams. This means that for a time he will have the challenging dual role of leading Dawson Books as well as his wider responsibilities for commercial matters in Bertrams. We are delighted to have Nick on board."
Additionally, Dawson Books sales director Jason Cherrington has been appointed international sales director, with responsibility for international sales across the wholesale and library businesses. He will report to Harknett, and will retain his responsibility as sales director for Dawson Books, combining with the new role until the point of integration.
Supply chain manager Wilf Mulliner has been appointed libraries operations manager, with responsibility for the operational side of both Bertram Library Services in Norwich and Dawson Books in Rushden, reporting to Bertrams operations director Barry Robinson.
Underhill added: "I am delighted that Jason and Wilf will also be joining the senior team here at Bertrams. They bring a wealth of experience and a fresh outlook that will be a real asset to our company as we look to the future."
Harknett said working groups from both companies are currently looking at how Smiths News and Dawson Books and their staff will be integrated, with no decisions taken as yet. He added they were assessing "what is the best thing for the businesses" and that they were hoping to announce the integration plan in early October.
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Whats the point in having a comments section if you remove them, whoever keeps removing these comments clearly has something to hide, the idea of a comments section is for people to express their opinions. I don't see that there was anything wrong with fred's comment or mine for that matter, whatever happened to freedom of speech
Well said 'return of the Ted'. Unfortunately Charlotte Williams all though most of your report is accurate the last section is not as no Dawson staff from servicing or wear house depts have been offered transfers to any other locations in the UK. Only management have been offered anything, the rest of Dawson staff kept in the dark about everything that is happening at the company and too their jobs. I wonder how long it will take this comment to be censored and removed as was Freds earlier, some people obviously don't like the truth known!
Hello,
We are not censoring comments - if they are flagged as unsuitable then they are removed automatically and take a while to return.
We are also seeking clarification on this story. We previously reported that transfer offers were on the cards http://www.thebookseller.com/news/smiths-news-acquires-dawson-books.html so are following this up now.
Thanks, Katie
To Katie Allen,
Thank you for that clarification on that matter of posts being removed.
This shouldn't be release until all parties Bertrams, Smiths or Dawson staff be informed. This statement came as a massive shock to all in the servicing and other departments. To say we are fumming is an understatement.
It is bad enough that we have been told that we have to train some of Bertrams servicing department how to service our libriaries and universities. Which by the way we will NOT BE DOING!
as a dawsons employee lm disgusted at the way we have been treated as many dawson employees have been loyal to dawsons for years!the lack of information we should have been given is appaulling and an insult to staff who should of been treated far better in this uncertain time!all we ask is to be told the truth as this is are livelyhood and the not knowing is causing a lot of stress.PLEASE JUST LET US KNOW THE TRUTH THATS ALL WE ASK!!!!!!
This sounds just so unBertrams, although it does look like the communication problems are at Dawson's end ??
It's weird to read about the CEO of Bertrams -as a person of whom I have never heard. Probably time for me to move on .
Good luck to Roger ,Chris and Barry and my other ex-colleagues, and also good luck to the Rushden Dawson personnel. Norfolk is really lovely maybe give it a try ?
It is no surprise that the staff at Dawson find out this information on the internet. Once again, communication is lacking. All the staff ask for is a heads up as to their fate rather than it being plastered all over the internet. No-one, bar senior management, have been informed of any changes or redundancies despite promises of being kept informed every step of the way...At least the management team are sorted, ay?
I see all the other comments have already been removed. I do hope people rewrite them. None of the previous comment were within Bookseller comments policy so Katie Allen a direct question for you, Why have they been removed again. I look forward to your response. Should this comment be here long enough for you to read.
To say that the staff have been offered anything is incorrect. They haven't been told anything, other to keep up their good work, which might help in keeping Rushden open. Just the management seem to be looked after. Let's hope the hard working staff at Rushden get this well looked after!!
Oh golly gosh, even Julian Rivers comment yesterday evening has been removed as "unsuitable" by TheBookseller censorship czar.
Dawsons Books m.d. Nick Harknett has since been in touch with The Bookseller to clarify the situation. No decisions regarding the integration of Smiths News and Dawson Books staff have yet be made, and the company is hoping to announce the integration plan in October. We have amended the story to reflect this, but please refrain from making personal attacks.
Regarding the removal of comments, this is done by outside parties, not us, and the can take a while to be reinstated.
Katie Allen
I thought that "unsuitable" meant offensive eg using inappropriate language, or maybe making a libelous or personal remark, but my comments could not possibly register as either .
I do know a bit about Bertrams and Dawson , and incidentally Rushden and Norwich having lived in both places and relocated from one to the other myself.
Over sensitive censorship can only result in more comment not less . The Bookseller needs to grip this urgently or frankly I can see little reason to post on the site at all .[Hurrah I hear you say].
Then reinstate Bookseller.....
Surely the removal of posts is a Bookseller editorial issue and not that of "outside parties"?
Surely a request to remove as "unsuitable ", needs to go through some sort of editorial assessment before it is enacted. Goodness they will be removing my never ending criticism about the BA and Supermarkets next ......
Incidentally sometimes "unsuitable " comments may be correct but unpalatable as Fred suggests.
Maybe the Bookseller need to change their web programme so that comments stay on the site pending a human's review to remove , rather than the current position which appears to be the converse.
Hi all, thanks for the feedback. We changed the way the comments worked about 10 months ago. As Katie has explained they are now removed when the unsuitable link is pressed pending an editorial review. We try to be prompt when reviewing comments, with a bias towards publishing rather than permanently removing, however it is not an exact science, and can involve additional investigation as well as a continuing dialogue with the people/companies involved. As many of the comments posted on this thread (and other threads) are anonymous, it can make life even more difficult. We do it this way round because it simply better to do that review with a comment off the site, rather than leaving what might be an offensive comment online while we ponder.
It is slight compromise (and as Julian suggests one we continue to review), and I appreciate this may be both annoying and confusing, but in truth most comments are reinstated pretty quickly and without fuss - even unpalatable ones.
On threads such as this it can take longer though for reasons I hope you can understand - I'm happy to reinstate the comments that correct an inaccuracy that crept into our original report, but not reinstate speculation about people's jobs particularly as the integration process has yet to be finalised. Comments about those individuals already recruited also don't seem to me to be fair - at this stage (I am referring to your comments here, Fred, since you ask). We all enjoy the open nature of these threads, by acting responsibly when comments are objected to we are more likely to be able to keep it that way.
Cheers,
Philip
Deputy Editor
The Bookseller
OK, I give in. I mayt not have been fair but it wasn't exactly DawsonGate. Why are corporations with highly highly paid directors so bad at dealing with this. It is not as thoughit is a surprise. I assume they have been planning a purchase like this. DO they sit and plan on how to upset their best asset? It is not as though these are world leading massive companies. Poor poor effort all round and the staff deserve all our sincerest best wishes.
To the staff who know nothing the whole community outside the ones getting pay rises and new jobs wish you the very best. It doesn't mean anything and won't help pay the bills but we understand and wish yo all the best.
I would like to appologise to Paul Whittington at Dawson books.
Paul is playing a key role in the integration and developing sales through the tender process.
Only three people have been taken on by Bertrams, Nick Harkett, Wilf Mulliner and Jason Cherrington.
As he told us today He is in the dark!
I appologise for any comments I have put that has offened people.
But as Jermaine has commented Communication is the big key. So to Dawson Management "All the staff ask for is a heads up as to their fate rather than it being plastered all over the internet."
Just to add to the comments already made:
It is not an understatement to say that the staff at Dawson's are DEVASTATED at the prospect of losing their jobs. Many have worked for the company for a very long time. They take great pride in their work, having worked with libaries for many years and are immensely proud to be a part of the educational process, knowing that a quality product is going to be sitting on the library shelf. It is such a shame that loyal staff have to resort to trawling the internet to find out what is going on. Some consideration, please!
My heart goes out to the staff at Dawson Books.
It is such a shame to see this excellent team of people who in the majority of cases, have worked together for years treated with such disrespect.
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