Michael "Mike" Shoults has been named chief operating officer of Hachette Book Group U.S. Distribution, a new position. He will oversee both the warehouse operations in Indiana and the fulfilment departments in Boston and Indiana. Third-party distribution represents 50% of Hachette Books Group's business.
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| Mike Shoults | |
After serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army for eight years with multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Shoults joined Amazon, where he led teams in fulfillment, transportation, and cargo aviation operations. In 2021, he joined GameStop to overhaul its transportation and logistics operation. He then became global head of supply chain at Heyday, a private equity startup focused on supply chains.
Shoults commented: "I feel like my life's professional work and personal passion for books has led me to this very point. The opportunity to join Hachette and lead in a big way is more than good fortune; it's an absolute dream for me. It makes sense that I should funnel my zeal for supply chain ops and my love of books into delivering for readers across the country!"
Matt Wright, CEO of Hachette Book Group U.S. Distribution and Hachette U.K. Distribution, said, "I created this role to drive continuous service improvement from the point that we receive a customer's order, to the delivery of that order, continuing right through to after sales care. By joining up the functions, the role of COO will have complete responsibility for the end-to-end service delivery. In addition, this role will be instrumental in building strong relationships with our publisher clients, and their customers, ensuring that our improvement plans align closely with their needs."
Speaking at the Frankfurt Book Fair last October, David Shelley, CEO of Hachette Book Group and Hachette U.K., said that the two companies pick and pack around 120 million books a year, adding that there are "interesting things to be done" that will help both sides of the Atlantic be more efficient and reduce the time it takes for books to get to market. He noted: "If we could shave 24 hours off delivery time in the U.S., which is our aim, that would be revolutionary for us."