PETERS NEWS

What's New at Peters Booksellling Sevices

It's been a busy couple of months, and the diary has been full, handing over from Moira, visiting customers, publishers, authors and Illustrators, not to mention attendance at several notable award ceremonies and conferences.

Dinner with the talented David McKee (pictured) kick-started June, quickly followed by FCBG's Red House Children's Book Awards, the Children's Laureate presentation,the Library Information Show at the NEC, the Carnegie/Kate Greenaway Awards and the Campaign for the Book conference hosted by the marvellous Alan Gibbons, then the 2009 SLA Members' Day,which was held here at Peters at the beginning of July, and I'm very pleased to say that it was a resounding success.

As many of you will be aware, Moira Arthur is set to retire at the end of August and I wanted to provide an update on changes to personnel at Peters. Moira is certainly a champion of children's books and will be greatly missed by libraries, the book trade and of course ourselves. In terms of the future our seven qualified children's librarians and 160 magnificent support staff will maintain and grow Peters' reputation as a respected independent company and specialist in children's books. Both Ray Dyer and I will be visiting all authorities over coming weeks to assure you all of our continued commitment to exceptional service and attention to detail that has made the company the outstanding business it is today.

Peter Sheldon also retires at the end of August, although I am delighted to announce that he has kindly agreed to provide ongoing support for the foreseeable future, spending two days a month at Peters.

The team has already been strengthened with the recruitment of an additional librarian and an extra stock editor. This will underpin the high quality of our book range and ensure we meet the increasing requirement for supplier selection. We remain the principle UK supplier of children's books to libraries, and have exciting possibilities for the future. We are keen to explore how our Marketing and Promotions expertise can help customers to meet their goals and the Kitshop continues to grow at a pace with the free design service in demand.

During September we hope to be launching our new Petranet on-line ordering tool with a fresh look and additional functionality. Training and support will be available and the new system will initially run in tandem with the existing model to ensure a smooth transition for all our users.

I am very proud to have joined Peters and I look forward to a long and successful relationship with you all. If you require further information at any point then please do not hesitate to contact myself or a member of the team.

Yours faithfully,
Carl McInerney