Smiths News buys Bertram

Mark Cashmore, Chief Executive of Smiths News, said: ‘Bertram will operate as a standalone business and will not distract us from our core priority of providing excellent service to all our newspaper and magazine retailers.

‘These are early days but there are great opportunities for the two businesses to work together for the benefit of independent retailers.’

According to Smiths News, Bertram will benefit from its commercial expertise, particularly its track record of driving process efficiencies and service improvements in a logistics environment. The IT capability of Smiths News will also be a significant addition for Bertram, helping it improve service to customers.



There was positive reaction from some of the major book publishing groups: ‘My colleagues and I warmly welcome today’s announcement that Bertram has been acquired by Smiths News,’ said Tim Hely Hutchinson, Group Chief Executive of Hachette UK. ‘I am personally delighted at the prospect of working again with my much-respected former colleagues from Smiths News. The publishing industry is delighted that Smiths News has acquired Bertram and that there is a firm commitment to the future of the company and to the development of its business.’

Michael Neil, Managing Director of Bertram, said: ‘This is a great opportunity for Bertram. We are looking forward to being part of the Smiths News Group and drawing on the best of their expertise.’

About Bertram: Bertram is based in Norwich, with a depot in Leeds, and has interests in book wholesaling, library services and publisher services. Bertram is one of the UK’s two main book wholesalers with a growing number of international customers. Bertram provides distribution services to a wide range of client publishers. Bertram is an industry-leading supplier of books, tapes, CDs, games and many other audio-visual products to public libraries, schools, universities and educational institutions in the UK and around the world.