Entertainment products marketer the Webb Group acquired Book Club
Associates (BCA) from Germany-based holding company Aurelius
Group for an undisclosed sum in March.
The Webb Group supplies home-entertainment products to retailers
including Wilkinson and Next, as well as selling direct to
consumers through its Razamataz, Simply Entertainment and
choicesuk brands. The transaction was funded by Webb’s
private-equity investor Endless.
Aurelius had acquired BCA from Germany-based Bertlesmann’s
DirectGroup Division at the end of 2008. Since then, the company
has undergone a major restructuring, which saw the business
invest in a new IT system, bring customer service functions back
in-house, and make improvements in the online offering.
David Robinson, group marketing director at the Webb Group, says
that for now the company will continue to operate from BCA’s
Swindon headquarters, but ultimately the plan will be to relocate
from Swindon to Burton-on-Trent, where Webb is based.
Cross-marketing opportunities
One of the main benefits of the acquisition, explains David
Robinson, is the cross-marketing opportunities it presents. The
two businesses have similar customer databases with clear
synergies, particularly in customer demographics. Among the first
tasks is to trial a book offering for Webb’s buyers of home
entertainment products. Even before the acquisition, Webb was
already testing new titles; it recently launched a spin-off for
its DVD brand Simply Entertainment. Called Simply Sound, the new
title sells music. “If it can work with DVDs and music, it
can work with books,” says Robinson. He also plans to
expand the book range in the charity catalogues Webb operates for
organisations such as PDSA, Diabetes UK and Goodwill, as well as
add a larger range of books to the white-label sites Webb runs
for media partners like Radio Times and the Daily
Mail.
Among other changes, Robinson also says that reviewing the BCA
catalogue is high on the agenda, with size and weight of mailings
a top priority. Although predominantly known for being a book
club, Robinson says BCA has been moving away from the continuity
model in recent years. Nonetheless, some old continuity practices
remain, such as invoicing customers after they have received the
goods. Eventually, says Robinson, customers will be migrated to
the payment-with-order model, but this will be a gradual,
incentivised migration “as there’s relatively low bad
debt” in BCA’s customer database.
Investment in kiosks
The acquisition of BCA also fits in well with Webb Group’s future
growth plans, allowing it to extend its reach into new product
categories and adding 250,000 new names to its 1-million-strong
customer database. The acquisition follows a £2 million
investment in Rent It Here, Webb’s DVD-rental service to the
retail convenience sector. Robinson says the company is in talks
to expand the concept from rental to sales and is in discussions
with high-profile high-street retailers about setting up
Buy-it-Here kiosks. The web kiosks, explains Robinson, will
complement a retailer’s existing product range where space limits
how many books, DVDs and CDs can be stacked on the shelves. The
web kiosks and Buy-it-Here sites can also be branded for each
retailer, ensuring a consistent shopping experience for the
customer.
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