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Supply from Entertainment UK into its retail customers needs to begin within "48 hours" to safeguard the long term future of the distributor, the president of the Publishers Association has claimed. Ian Hudson said he was "75% confident this would happen" bringing to an end the halt in the supply of books through EUK.
Publishers have been trying to thrash out a deal with administrator Deloitte since the wholesaler went into administration on November 26th. "[Supply] needs to restart within the next 48 hours,” said Hudson. "We feel that we are close to brokering a deal for EUK to begin supplying the books they have at its warehouse."
Publishers speaking to The Bookseller have also warned that if supply to supermarkets remains blocked they could be forced to reprint their key Christmas titles. "We are having that conversation at the moment," said one insider. "Do you abandon the stock caught up in administration and reprint or do you try to retrieve it?"
EUK supplies Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Zavvi and Woolworths with books, many of which have been exploring alternative sources of supply. While key new music releases by Take That and Britney Spears failed to hit some stores this week, all of the key book releases of 2008 have already been released, The Tale of Beedle the Bard aside.
However, Bloomsbury has once again stressed that it is confident stock will arrive within supermarkets for the launch tomorrow (4th December) of the Harry Potter offshoot, with observers suggesting that special arranagement have been made at EUK for the book to be released, the proceeds from which are going to J K Rowling's charity The Children's High Level Group.