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Waterstone's has unveiled its new buying structure to publishers, comprising new titles, range, regional commercial and publisher teams.
It marks the end of James Daunt's reorganisation of the retailer's buying team, which he began shortly after he was appointed managing director in June.
New books will be bought by the new titles team, led by Kate Skipper. The team has four buyers. Chris White and Mark Burgess will be responsible for fiction, Richard Humphreys for non-fiction and Melissa Cox for children's. The team will be supported by Lauren Mynott and Emma Herdman.
Sarah Clarke continues to lead the range team, which is responsible for ensuring each shop has the best tailored range. A review of the chain's range buying system is ongoing. Andrew Sinkfield, who previously managed the Eastbourne branch, is fiction range manager with responsibility for fiction, crime, classics and poetry. Kate McHale is assistant buyer for genre fiction, including sci-fi.
John Lewis manages the non-fiction range team, supported by Alister Babb and Paul McGonigal. Bea Carvalho, who previously worked at Oxford Street Plaza, is an assistant buyer focusing on travel
Andrew Lake is in charge of the academic range business, which includes support for campus stores. Kit Clothier, previously a bookseller at the High Street Kensington branch, is an assistant buyer. Ali Nadal is the administrator for the academic team. Children's range manager Clare Randle will be supported by former Piccadilly bookseller Leah Currie as assistant buyer and Alicia Bagier, who formerly worked in the Clapham branch, as children's assistant.
A new local interest team has been formed for Scottish and Irish titles, lead by Peter North. Scottish commercial manager Angie Crawford will be supported by assistant buyer Craig Birrell, who was previously at the Glasgow Sauchiehall branch. Irish commercial manager Alyson Wilson will be aided by Irish assistant buyer Susan Salters, who worked in the Belfast Fountain Street branch. George Gratton and Lorna Mayo will work as local interest buyers across the two categories.
Among the new appointments, Waterstone's has hired former Borders range and development buyer Pete Harvey as its commercial development manager. He will work with the regional commercial team to aid the switch to centralised buying. He reports to head of merchandising Nick Hudson.
Members of Waterstone's publisher team will each have specific publishers to work with, to provide single point of contact for publishers. The team is led by Jon Woolcott, Cathy Rentzenbrink and Simon Burke, with former head office buyers Janine Cook and Peter Saxton also joining the team. Waterstone's said it will add to the team as it establishes further working relationships with more publishers.