FROM BOOK SQUIRM TO BOOK WORM
When Grattan Kirk became CEO of Exclusive Books, he wasn’t a reader. Well, that has certainly changed, as have the fortunes of the company
Grattan Kirk admits to not being the world’s biggest reader, but becoming CEO of Exclusive Books, SA’s much loved book chain, has slowly changed him over the four years he’s been with the company. “Luckily, when I went for the job interview they didn’t ask me for a list of my favourite books or I might not have been offered the job,” he says wryly.
“When I met the store managers — all real book people — and I told them my favourite title is Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr Spencer Johnson, they were a little alarmed. ‘Did our new CEO actually just say that?’ was the whisper that went around the room.”
Then thin slices of cheese started appearing on notice boards in the store managers’ offices and he knew he’d won them over.
“Thankfully, I don’t pick the books that appear on the shelves,” says Kirk, who was previously CEO at JD Group and Incredible Connection. “That would be a complete disaster for the business. They’d all be selfhelp or business books.”
But with his great business acumen, he’s been able to turn Exclusive Books around.
“The business was being badly run. It looked like a Rolls-Royce but if you looked under the bonnet the engine wasn’t running. Everything looked abundant — the shops were full, the restaurants and coffee shops looked beautiful — but we were almost insolvent. We had to re-engineer the whole business and the great thing about not being a total books person is you’re impartial. I thought of it only in business terms.”
Kirk is at pains to point out the support Exclusive Books received from the industry during the Covid lockdown period.
“The help we got from publishers, the industry, our customers, landlords and our staff saved this business,” he says, beaming. “We are foundational stores in a lot of the big shopping centres, and so they wanted us to survive. Customers don’t even have to buy a book. They can browse, relax, have a coffee, read a magazine, do assignments — we have big tables and they’re welcome to stay as long as they want. The ironic thing is that we went into Covid like Humpty Dumpty, quite broken — and we came out stronger. No-one was retrenched and we didn’t close one store.”
What’s also great about Exclusive Books, says Kirk, is that the books it offers aren’t really mainstream.
“The Sunday Times Literary Awards play into that space because they also don’t just focus on the mainstream (and by mainstream I mean Jeffrey Archer and other thrillers, or biographies like Michelle Obama’s).
“We curate for a huge range of tastes. There’s no central buying like many other retailers. Each manager chooses books that suit their area. Every store is its own indie bookshop with its own look and unique stock, its own quirkiness.”
Despite enjoying a revival in fortunes over the past few years, Exclusive Books, like all bookshops in SA, still faces one major problem. “Relatively few people read in this country,” says Kirk. “There are millions of people who don’t read at all and millions who don’t read from one end of the year to the next. But for Christmas, they’ll buy a book for themselves or for a family member. Our sales tend to double over the Christmas period.”
There are always a few books that are trending, like Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us. They seem to catch on and get popular. In Hoover’s case, she was well reviewed on
TikTok. “It’s known in the industry as the ‘Harry Potter effect ’— if you’ve read it, you’re cool,” says Kirk. “I’m happy if there’s anything that gets people reading more, especially young people.
“There are 59-million people who don’t read in South Africa. Our North Star is to keep going so that we try and change that. We donate books to schools, charities and church havens. Some of our books get shoplifted, usually bibles. Apparently the paper is good for rolling joints. Thou shalt not ...”
Kirk goes on: “The Sunday Times Literary Awards have been a great partnership for us. They give our customers a great indication of what they should read. They think to themselves: If the book is good enough to win an award, I want to read it. And reading is about securing yourself some ‘me time’ to read a chapter or two of a book before going to bed, or while taking a break.”
Kirk’s advice to get South Africans reading? “If you’ve got kids, read to them. You can see the difference between the kids who are read to and those who aren’t. Vocabulary improves, writing and debating skills improve .. . reading brings so much to our lives.”
I guess he’s a convert.