Boasting more than 12 lists including children’s books, music and Methuen drama, it publishes around 450 new titles annually.

Mel Rogerson joined in 2004 as production man­ager. She has been in the publishing industry for nine years, starting as an assistant at Dorling Kindersley before moving to Scholastic.

“Formats vary so much it’s very difficult to standardise; we use everything from web to sheetfed, big runs to short runs. We’ve started using printing on-demand now, which means we can have print runs ranging from five books to more than 50,000.”

With a production team of six, each buying for their own lists, the company uses a variety of suppliers and sometimes tenders contracts.

Around 40% of its print is produced in the UK, using three main printers, while 40% is printed in the Far East and 20% in Europe.

“The Far East is generally very good and very fast at communication. The UK could do more to pick up the pace on service,” says Rogerson.

“But we like to keep work in the UK and that’s something we will continue to do,” she adds.

Ethical standards are top of the firm’s agenda. It is a member of Prelims, an umbrella group that works to promote safe working standards.

“We also look into environmental credentials – the sourcing of the paper, the credentials of the factory. We’ve noticed a lot of printers are getting involved in achieving FSC status, which is good”, says Rogerson.

And the future for the company’s print looks greener. “Our use of FSC paper is going to grow, and with more books being printed, we will see shorter runs and service becoming even more important,” Rogerson predicts.

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A&C BLACK IN NUMBERS
Annual print spend £3m
Paper spend £200,000 last year
Bloomsbury turnover £75m
Printers in Europe Roto Lito, Graficas Cems
UK printers MPG, Caligraving, Martins the Printers, Clowes
Annual launches 450 new titles
Source: A&C Black