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Job Posting: Sales Operations Manager

by Siobhan
News + Vancouver / June 13, 2011

Raincoast is hiring a Sales Operations Manager.

Job Posting: Sales Operations Manager
Reports to: EVP Sales and Marketing
Supervises: Sales Analyst, Inventory Coordinators

Major responsibilities
The sales operations manager ensures that the operational and sales departments are fully aligned in terms of key customer expectations and processes, acting as liaison between the sales team and the company’s operational departments.

This position also is responsible for inventory forecasting and analysis, including communication with client publishers and management.

Goals

• Ensure that operational departments, especially systems and warehouse, fully understand and implement the specific requirements of key customers as identified by senior management, with an eye to maximizing profitable sales.
• Work with the sales team to develop realistic title-level forecasts each season, and continue to monitor and adjust as necessary throughout each season.
• Communicate forecasts to key stakeholders, including client publishers and management, meeting varying deadlines
• Through forecasting and regular reviews of current stock holdings, help the inventory team to maximize turns while supporting the sales team in the achievement of annual sales goals.
• Work with sales analyst to develop new reports and streamline existing reports, both to support sales and to satisfy the needs of client publishers and management.

Skills and Experience
The successful candidate will be fluent in both written and spoken English and will hold a post secondary certificate or degree from a recognized public institution. Experience or study in areas such as business operations management, database applications, supply chain management, business processes and inventory forecasting would all be assets, as would relevant work experience.

Applicants should be proficient in the Microsoft suite of products and have extensive Microsoft Excel experience.

This position requires excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to build and maintain strong working relationships at all levels within the company and with external stakeholders.

Experience in book publishing or distribution would be a plus.

We regret that we can only acknowledge applications from candidates selected for interviews. No phones calls or agencies, please.

To apply, please email your resume to Paddy Laidley by June 24, 2011:
paddy [at] raincoast.com

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Macmillan Announces Raincoast as Sales and Distribution Partner in Canada

by Dan
News + Vancouver / June 09, 2011

MACMILLAN ANNOUNCES RAINCOAST AS SALES AND DISTRIBUTION PARTNER IN CANADA FOR INDEPENDENT, LIBRARY AND SPECIALTY ACCOUNTS

June 9, 2011 — Raincoast Books has reached agreement in principle with New York-based Macmillan U.S. to handle sales, fulfillment and marketing for the Macmillan imprints previously sold by H.B. Fenn and Company in Canada.

Raincoast will be responsible for the independent bookstore, library, and specialty markets as well as for Costco Canada. Farrar, Straus & Giroux will continue to be sold by Douglas & McIntyre in Canada.

Both companies will begin the transition immediately. Raincoast will be responsible for selling in Macmillan’s fall lists and books will be available to ship from Raincoast in early July.

In a unique arrangement to increase efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, larger Raincoast accounts located in the eastern half of Canada will receive books directly from Macmillan’s Gordonsville, Virginia warehouses. The sales, billing and customer service for those shipments will remain with Raincoast in Vancouver.

John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan said, “We are pleased to have found an excellent business partner in Raincoast for Canada. Raincoast has a stellar reputation, knows the market and was creative in helping us find ways to make the fulfillment portion of the agreement more sustainable.”

Alison Lazarus, President of Sales added, “We met with many fine companies in Canada, but Raincoast’s systems and reporting strength, adept and creative marketing, modern warehouse and network of award-winning sales representatives made them a great fit. We are looking forward to working closely with them to renew our strong Canadian sales.”

John Sawyer, CEO of Raincoast said, “In discussion with Macmillan it soon became apparent that the two companies share common values; total focus on customer service, respect for the environment and great optimism about the future of quality publishing. Our partnership with Macmillan sends a strong signal about the book market in Canada and the importance of Canadian customers.”

Paddy Laidley, Executive Vice-President of Sales & Marketing agrees. “The independent and specialty market in Canada has always been core to our business. We choose our distribution partners carefully; for the quality of their publishing, how they fit with our other publishers and the way they do business. We look for companies that can make us better at what we do. Macmillan fits the bill perfectly.”

About Macmillan:

Macmillan is a global publisher of books, magazines, textbooks, scientific information and digital content and services.  In the U.S., the group includes Farrar,Straus & Giroux; Henry Holt; St. Martin's Press; Tor Books; Picador; Macmillan Audio; Bedford St. Martin's; W.H. Freeman; Worth Publishers; i-clicker; Hayden-McNeil; Palgrave Macmillan; Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group; and Scientific American Magazine. 

Macmillan is a subsidiary of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, GMbH, a global media company based in Stuttgart, Germany. 

About Raincoast:

Founded in 1979, Raincoast offers full-service sales and marketing expertise for leading publishers from Canada and around the world, along with a wholesale division that drives our customer service standard. Raincoast has been awarded an Ethics in Action Award for Environmental Excellence for our commitment to sustainable environmental practices and has been voted Distributor of the Year by the Canadian Booksellers Association more times than any other publisher or distributor.

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Job Posting: Data Specialist at Raincoast

by Siobhan
News + Vancouver / June 07, 2011

Raincoast Books is looking for a data specialist to start immediately. Raincoast maintains a central database that stores bibliographic data, enhanced book descriptions, book covers and interior images supplied by our client publishers. The data specialist maintains the database as it pertains to individual book content and its application by Raincoast sales and marketing departments.

The data specialist is responsible for adding new titles every season from ONIX and text files, while problem solving any data deficiencies and creating seasonal runtime eCatalogue applications for two divisions of Raincoast and other companies. The job will entail constant communication with our client publishers.

The successful candidate will show a great concern for detail and be able to multitask at a very high level. They will have excellent communication and organizational skills and a high level of proficiency in the Office Suite of programs, especially Excel. Strong copyediting skills would be beneficial. An interest in publishing is not essential, an aptitude for data management is.

Candidates should send a CV and cover letter by June 17, 2011 to Jamie Broadhurst, Vice-President of Marketing via email: jamie [at] raincoast.com

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Job Posting: Customer Service Representative

by Siobhan
News + Vancouver / June 06, 2011

Raincoast Books is hiring a Customer Service Representative.

Job Summary

• The Customer Service Representative assists all customers with orders, shipments, and stock information, and has specific responsibilities for warehouse club and prepaid orders.

Job Responsibilities

• Providing Service to customers
• Coordinating the processing and shipping of warehouse club orders
• Overseeing the release of prepaid orders
• Providing back-up for the tasks of the Customers Service Supervisor
• Sending out desk copies request as required

Qualifications

• Excellent phone and interpersonal skills
• Excellent customer service and problem solving skills
• Good numeric ability and attention to detail
• Computer literacy and familiarity with spreadsheets

Previous customer service and book industry experience are assets.

This is a part time position with a minimum of 30 hours per week. Remuneration is commensurate with qualifications and experience.

If you are interested, please submit your resume to Bev MacNeil at Raincoast Books via email: bev [at] raincoast.com by Friday, June 10, 2011.

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Job Posting: Designer in Marketing Dept at Raincoast Books

by Siobhan
Job Posting + News + Vancouver / May 24, 2011

Raincoast Books is looking for a Designer to fill a part-time position in the Marketing Department, working in-house two days a week.

Duties will include designing marketing materials, order forms, ads and point-of-sale promotions; preparing files for print; liaising with printers, suppliers and service bureaus as needed to produce finished products; processing book cover images and interior spreads and distributing them to online partners; preparing image files to be sent to media as requested; creating graphics for eNewsletters and updating the Raincoast website where necessary.

The successful candidate will be proficient in InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat and Fetch on a Mac. Experience creating graphics for the web and experience with Photoshop Actions are assets. The successful candidate will be creative, resourceful and able to work on a number of projects efficiently to meet deadlines.

If you are interested, please submit a digital portfolio (PDF or link to website), by May 31, 2011, to Siobhan Long, Marketing Manager, Raincoast Books, via email to: siobhan [at] raincoast.com

We thank you for your submission but only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

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Part-time Job Posting: Inventory Coordinator

by Dan
Job Posting + News / January 05, 2011

Raincoast Book Distribution is seeking a highly organized individual to join our inventory team. Part of the sales department, each of our three inventory coordinators is responsible for a distinct group of client publishers. Raincoast sets inventory targets for each client publisher and the coordinator must work within these targets, while ensuring that inventory is available to fill customer orders.

Members of the inventory team work closely with one another, providing backup as necessary during absences or periods of heavy workload.

Inventory coordinators work with other departments, most often the warehouse, finance and sales, and directly with client publishers, carriers and customs brokers, so excellent people skills are imperative. They must also be skilled planners who are able to communicate clearly while demonstrating an understanding of overall priorities.

The position requires strong analytical skills and a great deal of computer work. Raincoast will provide training on its own systems, but the successful applicant will be very comfortable with Excel and Word.

Regular Duties

• Place initial seasonal orders with publishers based on forecasts provided by the field sales director
• Review title sales history and ordering as necessary
• Quarterly downsizes: identify overstocks and communicate with client publishers regarding their disposal, working with warehouse to carry our returns and destroys
• Receive stock into the system
• Track shipments and investigate mis-ships
• Work with and coordinate new titles loads with the marketing department
• Work with the sales department on co-op and/or event titles
• Sign off on customs, freight, and labour charges related to inventory shipments
• Provide vacation backup ordering for our wholesale division, BookExpress

This is a part time position, currently expected to be a minimum of 25 hours per week, spread evenly over 5 days.

We regret that we can only acknowledge applications from candidates selected for interviews. No phones calls or agencies, please.

To apply, please email your resume to Paddy Laidley
paddy [at] raincoast.com 

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Moving the Future

by Jamie
News + Vancouver / September 08, 2010

Yesterday we announced that we are moving to a new location in January next year. We’ve been at our Shaughnessy Street home ten years and it was time for a change. We process over 11 million books a year and even though we already have the largest book distribution facility in western Canada, we need more space. 

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Raincoast Books to Move to a Larger Location in January 2011

by Dan
News + Vancouver / September 07, 2010

Raincoast Books will be moving to a larger warehouse and new head office at 2440 Viking Way in Richmond, B.C. The current facility will close on December 22, 2010 and the new facility will begin shipping books by January 3, 2011. Customer service—including EDI, our B2B site, and our client publisher extranet—will be on stream as quickly as possible after December 22. The new location is 5km from the current warehouse and will hold 40% more books.

“Our volume continues to grow and so a bigger and even more efficient warehouse has become an operational necessity,” said John Sawyer, CEO of Raincoast Books. “But customer service is a key priority for Raincoast so we have planned our expansion in such a way to minimize any disruption to our publishing and retail partners.”

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The Raincoast warehouse facility processes over 11 million books a year and is the largest book distribution facility in western Canada. Raincoast has been named Distributor of the Year four times in the last decade by the Canadian Booksellers Association.

Raincoast’s warehouse is currently located at:

9050 Shaughnessy Street
Vancouver V6P 6E5
(tel) 604-323-7100
(fax) 604-323-2600

All orders and shipments should continue to be directed to this location until further notice.

For press enquires please contact:

Jamie Broadhurst
VP Marketing
Raincoast Books
604-323-7124
Email

About Raincoast:

Founded in 1979, Raincoast Book Distribution is made up of two full-service sales and marketing distribution divisions; Raincoast Books in Vancouver and Publishers Group Canada in Toronto, along with Book Express, a wholesale division that drives our customer service standard. Our benchmark is same day shipping for all orders received by 11:00AM. Rain or shine.

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Raincoast Wins Bookseller Award for Service

by Jamie
News / May 31, 2010

The Canadian Booksellers Association held their annual Libris Awards this weekend in Toronto and Raincoast came away a winner! We were picked as the best distributor in Canada as voted by booksellers across the country.

Distribution is the selling, promoting, shipping and customer service aspect of bookselling; skills that really matter in a country as big and diverse as Canada. We have been shortlisted or won this award every year for the last decade, so we must be doing something right!

In accepting the award, our CEO John Sawyer, made the case for why we feel the future of traditional books will be very bright. You will be reading more about this theme on our blog in the weeks to come.

Rorie Bruce, our sales representative for the Prairies won the Libris for Rep of the Year which gave us a double reason to celebrate. Rorie has many years of experience in the book industry and his passion and breadth of book knowledge is one of the reasons that the book culture is thriving in western Canada. Congratulations Rorie.

A full list of the winners can be seen here. Congratulations all.

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