Annual Report 2009/10 Excellence in Retailing - Douglas Holding

86 Divisions
Thalia · Books
driver. By contrast, the 232 fixed-location bookstores in
Germany saw sales decline by 1.4 percent to about EUR
619 million, although they extended their position overall
in a generally lackluster market environment. Thanks
particularly to the additional revenues from buch.ch,
turnover outside Germany was up by 13.1 percent to
over EUR 216 million. But the fixed-location bookstores
in Austria (33) and Switzerland (24) also posted a 3.8
percent sales gain for a total topping EUR 198 million.
In Austria Thalia clearly outperformed the market once
again, cementing its status as the country’s most popular
retail brand. In Switzerland Thalia successfully secured
its leading position in a market where prices are
not regulated.
In Germany Thalia opened five new bookstores in
the 2009/10 financial year; eleven unprofitable locations
were closed. In October 2009 Thalia had launched a new
era in shop design by opening its first multi-channel
bookstore in the “Loop5” shopping mall in Weiterstadt.
The venues which opened during 2010 – at Leverkusen’s
“Rathaus-Galerie” (February), in the university town of
Goettingen (March) and on Westenhellweg in Dortmund
(May) – already represent the second generation
of multi-channel bookstores. With every new location
that it opens, Thalia is gathering useful experience on
what customers like most – insights that are systematically
incorporated into plans for the next new venue.
Thalia also set new benchmarks in the fields of sales
training, product displays, and merchandise configuration
and management. In the area of shop design, emphasis
was placed on investing venues with a local flavor.
In Goettingen, for example, pillars recalling birch
Colorful reading for budding bookworms – as here in Dortmund.
Olaf Schwenk
Head of Children’s Books,
Augsburg
The Books of Umber.
Happenstance Found.
(P. W. Catanese)
“This marks the birth of an
exciting new cult trilogy!
Catanese’s great mixture: Hap,
the boy without a past but with
surprising gifts, his mysterious
mentor Lord Umber, whales that
piggy-back submarines, and a
sinister character in pursuit.
A magical world that is fatefully
linked to the end of technological
civilization.”
trees allude to the city university’s science faculties. The
Dortmund bookstore not only echoes the unique character
of Germany’s traditional industrial hub but also features
numerous regional works from the areas of literature,
history and the arts. For Thalia Austria, the August
2010 opening of its first multi-channel bookstore at the
“Varena” shopping center in Vöcklabruck proved a major
highlight. Thalia also launched Austria’s very first interactive
theme world – covering some 6,500 square
feet and dedicated exclusively to the delights of reading.
In the area of marketing, the Group’s advertising during
2010 produced a significant leap in brand awareness
– as affirmed by the “2010 Brand and Advertising
Tracking” study. It found that the Thalia brand’s aided
recall score is 73 percent, while some 80 percent of customers
are satisfied with their local Thalia bookstore.
Other representative surveys among book buyers also
showed that awareness of both the fixed-location stores
and online shops is rising quickly. The sharp increase
in awareness of the online shops was especially noteworthy.
Over 50 percent of respondents who knew the
Thalia brand are also familiar with thalia.de and thalia.at
– a year ago the figure was appreciably lower. This surge
was powered above all by the extreme dedication of the