Lonely Planet moves US & LATAM Warehousing, Distribution & Sales functions to Hachette Book Group

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Aug 14, 2019, 20:00 ET

FRANKLIN, Tenn., Aug. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Lonely Planet, the world's largest travel guidebook publisher, is announcing a new partnership with Hachette Book Group (HBG) to outsource its US & LATAM warehousing, distribution, sales and customer service beginning March 2020.

This agreement reflects Lonely Planet's ambition to elevate its operational efficiencies, remain competitive, and adopt industry best practices. "Leveraging the infrastructure of HBG, the largest US distributor of third-party trade book publishers, will provide us with significant scale and new capabilities to better service the US and LATAM markets,'' said Theo Sathananthan, Lonely Planet's Chief Operating Officer.

The current Oakland warehouse operations will be moved to HBG's facility in Lebanon, Indiana; about 350 miles north of Lonely Planet's Headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. HBG will handle the entirety of the publisher's imprints: Lonely Planet, Lonely Planet Kids and Lonely Planet Food.

This partnership also means that HBG will be distributing nearly half of all US travel guides, with the inclusion of the Lonely Planet Guides to its own stable of imprints. Todd McGarity, HBG's Vice President, Business Development, commented: "We have long admired the Lonely Planet brand and publishing program, and are thrilled they have chosen Hachette Book Group to help bring their products to the US and Latin American markets. HBG sales team's knowledge of the travel category will ensure Lonely Planet continues to get their unique travel guides, children's titles and gift books into the hands of travelers of all ages."

The move to HBG creates flexibility for Lonely Planet as it plans for future growth. "The move mirrors the same successful third-party distribution approach we have in the UK, Australia and NZ, and will allow us to focus on our core business. We feel that HBG will best serve not only our current but also our future business requirements," added Sathananthan.

About Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveler since 1973. Over the past four decades, Lonely Planet has printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travelers. Lonely Planet can be found on lonelyplanet.com, mobile, video and in 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks and more. Visit us at lonelyplanet.com and join our 14 million followers on Facebook (facebook.com/lonelyplanet), Twitter (@lonelyplanet), Instagram (instagram.com/lonelyplanet) and Snapchat (@lonely.planet).

About Hachette Book Group

Hachette Book Group is a leading trade publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre (a Lagardère company), the third-largest trade and educational publisher in the world. HBG is made up of seven publishing groups: Little, Brown and Company; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Grand Central Publishing; Perseus Books; Orbit; Hachette Nashville; and Hachette Audio. HBG also provides a wide range of custom distribution, fulfillment, digital, and sales services to third party publishers, including ABRAMS, Chronicle Books, Disney Book Group, Hachette UK, Kids Can Press, Marvel, Moleskine, Nicholas Brealey, Octopus Books, Phaidon Press, Phoenix International Publications (pikids), Quarto Publishing Group, Quercus, and Yen Press.

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SOURCE Lonely Planet