About Us

BRIEF HISTORY

Eurospan was launched in the mid-1960s to provide a marketing and distribution capability for a group of medium-sized US textbook publishers, to include Houghton Mifflin and Scott Foresman and Co., which none could afford to mount individually. By combining their potential, the fledgling company was able to compete successfully on their behalf with European-based subsidiaries of the American publishing giants.

As the years passed, Eurospan successfully adapted to the changing needs and priorities of its marketplace and grew steadily by adding first a range of academic publishers, to include Greenwood Press and Sage Publications, and then a number of university and institutional presses to include New York University Press and Smithsonian Institution Press.

In the mid 1990s, and to accommodate its rapid expansion, three separate and distinct marketing divisions were established - Academic & Trade, University Presses and Medical. With the acquisition of Electronica Books & Media Limited, a sales agency specialising in the distribution of US technical societies and institutes, a fourth division - Scientific & Technical - was created. Finally, 2007 saw the birth of a Reference marketing division.

CUSTOMER PROFILE

Eurospan’s end customer is most usually a teaching or research academic, or a professional practitioner, and in many case the library affiliated to one or other of these two groups. Notwithstanding Eurospan’s emphasis on direct marketing, the vast majority of sales are ultimately affected through bookshops, wholesalers, library suppliers and, more recently through e-tailers such as Amazon.co.uk and The Book Depository. This phenomenon reflects the UK and Europe's traditional practice of routing book orders, howsoever generated, through a recognised bookselling channel, most usually in the purchaser's immediate vicinity.

USP

Eurospan is one of the few agents able to provide the complete range of sales, promotion and distribution services under one umbrella. In joining Eurospan, publishers increase their sales, enhance image and minimise all associated costs of servicing a multifarious marketplace comprising different countries, languages and practices.  More importantly perhaps, agreement with Eurospan provides a European base which - with the continuing expansion of the EC - is a prerequisite in order to benefit fully from the related opportunities.

TERRITORIAL EXPANSION

Eurospan provides comprehensive coverage in the UK, Continental Europe, the Middle East and Africa. From January 2010, and in response to requests from a number of our US-based clients, Eurospan will be expanding its territorial coverage eastwards. This new initiative will focus initially on the Central, South and South East Asia markets and, in time, will embrace the Far East and Australasia.

With invoicing, supply and customer service provided by our Turpin distribution centre and all marketing – to include direct mail, exhibition attendance and college calling - undertaken at a local level, this development will give publishers the opportunity to replace numerous small, difficult-to-manage representation arrangements, with a single account - Eurospan. For more information, to include a list of the countries covered, please email asia @ eurospangroup.com.

SUMMARY

Eurospan is proud of its long-standing relationships with its clients. Many of its associations go back twenty-five years or more. This reflects not only its continuing success, but also an ability to understand and accommodate the changing needs of the publishers it serves.