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Services

Supply Chain

Clays provide a range of services to support the full publishing supply-chain, in addition to making the books. We work closely with publishers to ensure the most effective route to market for new and backlist titles, and to minimise risk by reducing inventory.

Consolidation of new titles (incl 3rd party books)

Distribute the bulk deliveries to all relevant distribution centres/shipping ports. This has the benefit of reducing the time from print decision to market (and thus reducing the risk of over/under printing) and also reducing the time and cost to market.

Benefits to Publishers:

  • Reduced risk on print decisions
  • Reduced transport cost
  • Improved carbon footprint
  • Reduced time from decision to market
  • Reduced administration

Backlist management

 Backlist falls into three distinct categories;

  • Fast selling recently published or ‘event-influenced’ titles – these follow the same route as new books, with just-in-time print decisions and direct deliveries to ensure continuous supply
  • Regular backlist sales, where an Annual rate of sale can reasonably be predicted
  • Slower-selling titles, for which there is a residual, but small, level of demand – these are best categorised as short run (though not necessarily print-on-demand)

Benefits to Publishers:

  • Advantage of a lower unit cost (based on an annual rate of sale – one printing replacing potentially several smaller printings)
  • Less stock held in DCs speculatively
  • Guaranteed supply
  • Reduced administration

IT links

In order to support a full service offering from Clays to Publishers, Clays can work with publishers to provide fully integrated IT system links to publishing systems and warehouse systems. This gives full visibility of stocks, and distribution history, wherever the books are stored.