/ 23 July 2007

Potter publisher wins over retail giant

In a titanic battle worthy of Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort, one of Britain's largest supermarket chains and the country's most powerful independent publisher squared up this week over the latest and last novel about the young wizard. Less than a week before the launch of <i>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows</i>, supermarket chain Asda launched an attack on Bloomsbury.

In a titanic battle worthy of Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort, one of Britain’s largest supermarket chains and the country’s most powerful independent publisher squared up this week over the latest and last novel about the young wizard.

Less than a week before the launch of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in JK Rowling’s series, supermarket chain Asda launched an attack on Bloomsbury, the publisher of the book, accusing it of “blatant profiteering” and “attempting to hold children to ransom” over the recommended retail price of the novel.

Bloomsbury, in response, threatened to cancel the chain’s order of 500 000 copies of the novel, which will be released in South Africa 1am on Saturday July 21, claiming Asda was in arrears over monies it owed the publisher.

It also instructed its lawyers over the statement, which the firm’s marketing director, Minna Fry, described as “extremely provocative and … potentially libellous”.

On Monday night it was clear that the boy wizard’s publisher had ­prevailed.

Asda issued an unreserved apology for the statement, which was made by its director of general merchandise, Peter Pritchard, and removed it from its website, having earlier also settled the outstanding debt. The book will go on sale in Asda’s 340-plus stores.

“We look forward to a good relationship with Bloomsbury going forward,” the firm said in a statement, “including selling the latest Harry Potter book from 0001 BST on Saturday July 21, and many other Bloomsbury books in the future.”

Minna Fry, marketing director of Bloomsbury, said: “We are pleased this situation has been resolved and look forward to working with Asda in the future.”

The spat had arisen because of the intensely aggressive competition between retailers over the sale of the novel, which has driven prices in the major retailers to less than half that recommended by the publisher. Bloomsbury’s ­recommended price for the book is £17,99; Asda, like rival Tesco, will be selling it for less than half price.

At that level both are losing money on each copy of the book, which sells wholesale at about £10,74 a copy.

Bloomsbury argued that £17,99 was a reasonable price for the hardback novel, which runs to 608 pages, and that Asda’s comparison with the first book in the series was mischievous. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, released with a recommended retail price of £11,99 a decade ago, had 223 pages. The publisher is known to be unhappy about major retailers selling the book as a loss leader.

Joel Rickett, the deputy editor of the Bookseller, described the confrontation as “quite extraordinary”. “It really shows the strength of the underlying resentments between the big publishers and the most aggressive discount retailers. These tensions have been building for years, but this specific row is absolutely amazing, the fact that Bloomsbury has been bold enough to threaten not to supply any books to Asda.”

Publishers have felt increasingly assailed by discount retailers attempting to use their financial muscle to negotiate better deals, he said. “Asda has been in protracted negotiations with a lot of ­publishers trying to negotiate new payment frameworks, and Bloomsbury has angered them by having no ­flexibility.

“Independent bookshops, of course, argue that the overall structure is unfair because there is no way they can compete. It is heartbreaking that some small booksellers lose money on what is the biggest publishing phenomenon of their lifetime.”

More than 3-million books are believed to have been supplied for what will almost certainly be the biggest book launch ever. The last Potter book sold almost 2-million copies in its first 24 hours — more than The Da Vinci Code sold in a year. — Â