- BLOG BEAG –

TV presenter Colette Fitzpatrick and author John Boyne today (14 March 2010) launched the Eason Book Club, an interactive online forum for book lovers and book clubs created by Eason, Ireland’s largest book retailer. The Eason Book Club will host discussions and reviews, top tips for setting up book clubs, recommended reads, regular competitions and interactive polls. John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas topped the first Eason Book Club poll of best book club reads of the noughties. The poll revealed the popularity of “cross-over” books – popular with both children and adults – for book clubs.

The Eason Book Club, which is powered by Facebook, has already almost 1,400 registered fans who are availing of book advice from Eason’s team of experts, including suggested reads, information on book events and group discussions on many bookish topics from favourite re-reads to judging books by their covers! There will be a monthly discussion on a selected title which has been kick-started with a lively debate on the poll winner The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The Eason Book Club will feature regular author participation and this month’s discussion includes an introductory synopsis of the book from the author, John Boyne.

Maria Dickenson, Head of Purchasing at Easons said “Book clubs have become a huge phenomenon in the last 10 years with thousands of book-clubs getting together on a monthly or weekly basis around the country. There is an incredible word of mouth network when it comes to book club books, and titles can have a long shelf life as they are passed from reader to reader over the years. Our online forum is designed to offer support to existing book-clubs and also to allow individuals who are perhaps not in a book-club to take part in discussions in their own time.

It was incredibly interesting to see in the results of our first book-club poll, that “cross-over” children-adult titles are making very popular book club reads with John Boyne’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas topping the poll. Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog, Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief and Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Bind Up all also feature in the top twenty. Children’s literature has produced some real gems during the noughties and it is great to see that adults are happy to explore the genre.”

The first Eason Book Club poll registered 1700 votes and respondents were asked to choose their top reads of the noughties from a selection of 125 books. The books selected were drawn from national sales data over the last ten years. There was also a strong qualititative element with the Eason team selecting books that they have read and loved in their own book clubs, as well as books that customers have recommended or responded well to. (The full list of the top 50 selected titles can be found below).

The Eason Book Club is also providing a new way for Eason to interact with its customers.  “This online forum is facilitating direct dialogue with our customers which we greatly welcome.  The feedback we receive from our online members can have a direct influence on our in-store promotions, for example, following our first poll of top books of the noughties, we are now running a 3 for 2 offer on the book-club top 50 of the noughties. The Eason Book Club will allow us to actively listen to our customers views which is essentially changing the way we do business”, Maria Dickenson concluded.

Visit the Eason Book Club on http://www.facebook.com/EasonBookClub

EASON BOOK CLUB – Top 50 Books of the Noughties

One hundred and twenty former Hughes & Hughes jobs saved as Eason expands into Irish airports

Eason & Son today (4/3/2010) announced that the company has secured the bookshop license to operate in Terminal 1 at Dublin Airport and at Cork Airport.  The company will take over the operation of the five units at Dublin Airport and the two units at Cork Airport.  Eason’s new license to operate the stores takes effect tomorrow, 5^th March 2010.  These had been previously operated by Hughes & Hughes which went into receivership last week.  Today’s announcement will mean that in the region of 120 jobs which had been under threat following Hughes & Hughes going into receivership will be saved.

Mr Conor Whelan, Managing Director of Eason said ‘The retail environment in Ireland remains extremely challenging and we have a great deal of sympathy for the management and staff at Hughes & Hughes which has been a longstanding and respected competitor.  Nevertheless, we are pleased that Eason is in a position to ensure that another strong Irish book brand will operate in Dublin and Cork Airports.  These are prestigious retail locations and we decided to take up this opportunity, despite the challenging marketplace at present.  The prime locations will ensure that Irish and foreign travellers alike are greeted with a strong, well-established, inherently Irish brand when arriving or departing from Ireland through these airports.’

The licenses to operate at Dublin and Cork Airports are recognised as being the most attractive part of the former Hughes & Hughes business.  Over 20 million passengers passed through Dublin Airport in 2009 with 2.8 million passing through Cork Airport.

Eason & Son is one of Ireland’s most recognised brands and is operating in Ireland for 125 years.  Eason Advertising is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eason & Son.

End

PRESS RELEASE

Love is in the Air this Valentine’s Day at Eason!

Win a romantic hot air balloon ride for two!

Love is truly in the air in the card department in Eason stores this Valentines Day where there is a chance to win a fabulous romantic hot air balloon trip for two as part of the “Love is in the Air at Easons” promotion! As if this wasn’t enough, customers buying a Valentine card from the huge selection at any Eason store nationwide can also purchase a luxurious box of Lindt chocolates at the special price of €3.99.

A recent Eason survey showed a trend of last minute shopping for Valentines Day with 70% of people buying their cards the day before, or the day of, Valentines. However, you can enter the “Love is in the Air” competition online at www.easons.com from 1^st February right up until Valentines Day.

A recent survey into Valentine card purchasing behaviour commissioned by Easons showed that the majority of Irish people choose romance and humour ahead of raunchy cards for their loved ones on Valentines Day. When choosing a way to show their love on Valentines Day, funny cards emerged as the favourite at 40%; with romantic cards at 36% and raunchy cards trailing at 24%. Romantic cards were the favourite among females (43%) with males preferring funny (39%); closely followed by raunchy (34%).

The Love is in the Air competition at Easons is open to all and can be entered online at www.easons.com from 1^st February until 14^th February.

Ends

For further information contact:

G Gilligan, FD, 01- 6633612

R Clarke, EASL, 01- 873 0477

PRESS RELEASE

See ‘African Elephants’ and ‘Love Hearts Falling From The Sky’

Sightsavers Ireland Open Junior Painter of the Year Exhibition

Sightsavers Ireland will open the first ever Junior Painter of the Year Exhibition in Airfield, Dundrum on Wednesday 10^th February. Nearly 2500 school children around the country entered the competition with a painting of ‘The Sight I Would Most Like To See’. Winners painted a variety of colourful and inspired images from ‘An African Elephant’ and ‘Sunset on the Giant’s Causeway’ to ‘My Dad’s Mammy’ and even ‘Love Hearts Falling from the Sky’ as some of the sights they would most like to see. Twelve regional winners and 3 commendation winners were chosen from the entries and their paintings will be displayed in the exhibition.

The competition, which ran from October to November 2009 and was open to all primary school children in Ireland, aimed to help children understand the difficulties of blindness for children around the world through the medium of art. The entries were judged by a panel including top Irish illustrator and author Niamh Sharkey and Irish Times Art Critic Aidan Dunne.

“The exhibition shows a great range of talent and imagination amongst Irish children. A visit to the exhibition makes a fun family or school outing where you can see the great paintings, explore Airfield and learn a little more about some of the challenges facing blind people in the developing world,” explained John Fleming, CEO of Sightsavers Ireland.

The initiative is supported by Eason.

Alan Johnston, Group Marketing Manager Eason said “This campaign is a fantastic way to engage children and educate them about the challenges young people are facing in the developing world. The paintings from the Sightsavers Junior Painter of the Year make for a wonderfully colourful, creative and educational display and this exhibition should not be missed.”

The Junior Painter of the Year Awards are supported by Eason and The Irish Times. The exhibition will be open from Wednesday 10^th February to Sunday 20^th February between 10am and 5pm.

Sightsavers Ireland works through local partners in 21 countries in the developing world to prevent and cure blindness and to support those who are permanently blind and visually impaired. Sightsavers also supports inclusive education programmes for children who are blind or visually impaired.

-ENDS-

PRESS RELEASE

Need inspiration, encouragement or advice to face the New Year?

Eason offers 20% off 80 self help books in “Life Choices” promotion

December 2009: In a world of continuous change, the global desire for individuals to attempt to take control of their lives and bring about positive changes every New Year is reliably consistent. And 2010 will be no different. Embracing the New Year surge for self-help, Easons, Ireland’s favourite book store, is offering customers 20% off a range of 80 inspirational books starting on January 4^th 2010.

Maria Dickenson, Head of Purchasing at Eason said: “We sell almost four times as many self help books in the first week of January compared to any other week of the year. Given the current economic climate, I’d imagine that lots of people will be looking at ways to help themselves – be it emotionally, financially, or spiritually – during these challenging times.  Books are a great value way to gain fresh perspectives and motivation and every year we see a range of new titles offering guidance and the continuing popularity of a number of classic titles”.

Some of the new titles set to sell strongly in 2010 include Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert, the sequel to the very successful and much-loved Eat Pray Love; 10 Secrets of 100% Healthy People the new title by Patrick Holford; The Yin Yang Complex a brand-new title from Irish publisher Mercier Press written by Dublin-based author Brendan Foley.

It’s not all about the new books though with classic self-help titles continuing to top the sales year after year. As a result, many popular self-help books have launched new editions this year such as 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, I Can Make You Thin by Paul McKenna, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale and The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.

These titles sold very strongly last year alongside other classics by Allen Carr, M. Scott Peck, John Gray and Spencer Johnson. The biggest-selling titles in Eason’s 2009 promotion were Angels In My Hair by Lorna Byrne and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, both of which are expected to the top the bestseller charts again this year.

Maria Dickenson added “Two additional categories of self help books that have seen a surge in recent times are spirituality and angel books and personal finance titles. Despite predictions for a huge increase in traditional religious titles this year, the trends are showing a move to Mind Body Spirit-based books featuring angels and spirituality.  On the other hand, the economy is obviously at the forefront of everyone’s mind and in the wake of the budget we expect to see a surge in interest in personal finance titles”.

The Life Choices promotion will run in Eason stores nationwide from Monday January 4^th – Sunday February 14^th and offers 20% off a range of 80 titles. Please see full list of titles below.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Ends

For further information contact:

G Gilligan, FD, 01-6633612

R Clarke, EASL, 01 873 0477