Ex-Waterstone’s senior manager to oversee operations and book acquisitions

EDINBURGH, UK (August 23, 2011) – Socially conscious online book retailer Better World Books announces today is has named Scott Coning its new UK Managing Director. A seasoned retail manager, Mr. Coning is tasked with managing operations and book acquisitions at the company’s Europe headquarters in Dunfermline, Scotland. Better World Books collects and sells books online, matching purchases with donations book for book, and contributing a portion of all revenues to literacy initiatives. It recently surpassed $10 million (£6 million) raised for literacy.
Mr. Coning comes to Better World Books from leading UK book retailer Waterstone’s, where he worked for over 12 years overseeing operations as wide-ranging as customer service, branch management, and business strategy. In 2007 he became a category manager within the company, leading strategy across a 300-store estate and influencing company direction at Board level. In 2010 he accepted an invitation to become Chairman of the Booksellers Association’s Academic, Professional and Specialist Book Committee, and oversaw its successful conference this past spring.
“Scott has a well-deserved reputation in the book and retail industry for turning strategy into action,” said Better World Books CEO Andy Perlmutter. “His understanding of the e-commerce world combined with his ability to build relationships, trust, and rapport with suppliers, colleagues and customers alike has resulted in a career-long record of getting things done. We’re thrilled to have him join our team.”
The arrival of Mr. Coning comes at a time of rapid growth for Better World Books’ UK operation. Last month the company partnered with Monsoon Commerce’s extensive network of booksellers, significantly expanding UK’s consumers’ choices from 800,000 to over 9 million new and used books. This month the company launched its highly anticipated Book for Book initiative, which donates a book for every book purchased through the website.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for me to join a vibrant, innovative team who are keen to embrace new ways of bringing books to people” said Coning. “It’s brilliant that I can use my commercial experience in the U.K market to make a meaningful difference to literacy initiatives, through partnerships new and seasoned. I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone in the coming months to see how we can sell more books together!”

ABOUT BETTER WORLD BOOKS

Better World Books (www.BetterWorldBooks.com and www.BetterWorldBooks.co.uk) is a for-profit, socially-focused enterprise that collects and sells books online with each sale generating funds for literacy initiatives in the UK, the U.S., and around the world. With more than nine million new and used titles in stock, Better World Books is a self-sustaining company that balances the social, economic and environmental values of its stakeholders. Better World Books diverts books from landfills by conducting book drives at over 1,800 universities, and by collecting discards from over 3,000 libraries in the US, UK, and Canada. Since its founding in 2003, the Mishawaka, Ind.-based company has raised over £6M ($10 million) for its non-profit literacy, library and college partners; donated over 5 million books; re-used or recycled more than 57 million books; achieved over 23,000 tons of carbon offsets through carbon-neutral shipping, and created more than 300 full-time jobs with meaningful benefits.