VVA Group: Biggest Organic Growth Since Founding
For Vereinigte Verlagsauslieferung (VVA), which is part of Arvato, 2024 will be the year of the greatest organic growth since the company was founded more than 60 years ago: VVA has recruited a number of renowned publishers as customers starting next year. VVA Managing Director Stephan Schierke sees this as confirmation of the company’s longstanding strategy of focusing primarily on its core business.
The VVA Group, part of Arvato, remains on course for success. With the upcoming addition of the Beltz publishing group, Campus Verlag, Diogenes Verlag, Klett-Cotta Verlag, and Junfermann Verlag to the client roster, 2024 will see the publishing delivery services company’s biggest organic growth since it was founded over sixty years ago.
According to VVA, the Beltz publishing group, Campus-Verlag, Klett-Cotta-Verlag and Junfermann-Verlag will switch to VVA subsidiary Verlegerdienst München, based in Gilching, in the middle of next year. Delivery for Diogenes-Verlag will also be handled from VVA’s headquarters in Gütersloh from mid-2024. VVA Managing Director Stephan Schierke is delighted with the new additions and sees them as confirmation of the company’s long-standing strategy of focusing primarily on the core business and leaving other sectors to its Arvato sister companies. “Our focus on books and toys is now bearing ample fruit,” says Schierke, who also sees the new clients as recognition of the high quality of his team’s work over the years.
Speed and precision
Andreas Falkinger, Commercial Director at Klett-Cotta, agrees: “Both VVA and Verlegerdienst were recommended to us by several parties. We are delighted to be able to make use of the publishing service’s acclaimed high quality in Gilching in the future.” Diogenes publisher Philipp Keel also looks forward to working with the team in Gütersloh, saying: “Reliable delivery is essential for us, as is personal customer service and continuity.”
For Beltz and Campus, the focus was not only on quality and bundling, but also on the range of services. “By choosing Verlegerdienst, we’ve opted for a distribution service that covers children’s and young adult books, nonfiction and guidebooks as well as specialist media with their various requirements equally well. We also hear a lot of praise from the trade about the speed and precision of the delivery service,” says partner and publisher Marianne Rübelmann.
Apart from adequate growth reserves for its existing business, the VVA Group’s capacities are almost exhausted due to the new additions at all locations. In view of the continued high demand, options for expanding capacity are being examined, but according to Stephan Schierke, these are more long-term considerations. The focus is initially on integrating the new clients and then on further digitizing processes and making greater use of artificial intelligence.
