What We’re Up To At IPS UK
Well deck our halls and call us Santa 🎅🏼- Christmas is already almost upon us, and so it's time for us to release our official guidance for publishers and customers. Below you'll find all the information to ensure that your stock goes out smoothly over the festive season.
If your order is urgent it's really important that you make this clear in the subject line of your email; please call out urgent orders with ***URGENT*** and make sure you specify if the order is time sensitive. If we don't receive it in good time before the last order dates below it's unlikely to make its delivery deadline.
As per the IPS UK delivery specifications stock needs to be with us in good time before the last order dates below; titles should be booked in at least five working days before the last order dates for both ROW and the UK. We can't guarantee dispatches if stock isn't delivered well before it needs to be released.
The last day for submitting international orders by courier for Christmas delivery is Monday 11th December, 2023. Please note that we can’t account for any closures at third party freight forwarders or shippers used by international customers which may impact delivery dates at the end destination.
The last day for submitting UK orders by courier for Christmas delivery is Friday 15th December, 2023
Postal orders, whether international or UK, must be with us as early as possible. As there is no tracking we cannot commit to Christmas delivery.
As always, our last order dates are a guide and not a guarantee. Orders submitted after these dates are very unlikely to make Christmas delivery. Our advice is to ensure that you get your orders to us as quickly as possible.
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
We've heard from UPS that there may be the following delays to their service:
From Monday, 20 November 2023 until Friday, 12 January 2024:
Deliveries sent with UPS Standard may require 1 extra day in transit.
Deliveries sent with UPS Express and UPS Express Saver to be delivered by 10:30 may be delivered by 12:00, and deliveries for 12:00 may be delivered by 14:00.
On Saturdays 25 November, 2 December, 9 December, 16 December, 23 December 2023, deliveries sent with Saturday Express may be delivered by 14:00.
On Saturday 30 December 2023, there will be no UPS delivery or collection services.
For UK Christmas specific information please refer to the UPS Holiday Shipping Schedule here: Holiday Shipping Schedule | UPS - United Kingdom
Both our offices and warehouse are open on every day that is not a UK bank holiday, a list of which you can find here.
Our Goods In team (IPSUK.GoodsIn@ingramcontent.com) is available at the warehouse between 07:30 and 14:30
Our Customer Services team is available by phone between 09:00 and 15:00 (+44(0)1752 202301), or by email (IPSUK.CServs@ingramcontent.com)
Orders can be sent directly to IPSUK.Orders@ingramcontent.com - please remember to flag as ***URGENT*** if applicable
Please note that over Christmas and New Year many UK shippers and courier hubs close across the season, and if packages have not been delivered by December there is a possibility that they may not be delivered until after the New Year. This is outside of our control, and we cannot commit to having orders progressed between December 23rd and January 2nd.
...whether you're celebrating Christmas or not everyone at IPS UK wishes you all the best as 2023 comes to an end. Next year will be an exciting one for us; one filled with all kinds of service improvements and enhancements, and we can't wait to share it all with you as we ring in 2024.
There has literally never been a better time to either join our Virtual Stock programme, or to expand the number of titles you have available via Lightning Source if you're already using it.
That impetus doesn't only come from us: retailers increasingly demand constant availability as they compete to be the first to be able to supply titles in the wake of services like Amazon Prime, and as the global footprint of our POD partnerships grows your titles can reach international accounts far, far, far faster than anyone could place an order with a printer and ship stock half way around the world. Not to mention the fact that the environmental impact is much lower when printing on demand.
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In the age of Virtual Stock, where every title is printable at high quality almost immediately, there really is no need to miss out on sales ever. Titles that are not ordered won't be sold, but titles that cannot be ordered cannot be fulfilled. It's that agility - where publishers can pick what they want for sale, where and when, that makes POD one of the forefront methods of distribution for the future.
As if all those good reasons weren't enough the cost of setting titles POD-ready is also now significantly less. We know first-hand the difference having titles POD-ready can make for our clients - we can see the resulting sales. If you'd like to explore Virtual Stock further, or you'd like to expand your current offering, please contact Gina Walpole directly here: Georgina.Walpole@ingramcontent.com.
IPS UK publisher clients only have until July 31st to take up our free recycling offer.
You can ask us to recycle as much of your excess stock as you like, completely free of charge, any time before then. Earlier in the year all publisher clients will have received an excess stock template, as well as a link to upload it. Even if you've already returned a request to have stock recycled you can use this same template and link to upload a new template containing additional stock. If you're pulping all stock of a title please remember to include "ALL" as the quantity, and if you haven't received a template please reach out and we'll point you in the right direction.
Our analysis shows that many publisher clients have almost a decade of excess units when adjusted for sales. With UK distribution space at a premium, and with the price of storage only likely to rise, we strongly recommend that you minimise your inventory wherever possible. Remember that as of August 1st 2023 our standard recycling rates will kick back in - now is the time to take advantage.
Remember that you can always use our industry leading Virtual Stock offering if removing all stock of a title is a prospect that fills you with dread. We'd love to work with you to be able to continue offering titles for sale through print-on-demand. If that sounds good to you contact your Publisher Coordinator at IPS UK in the first instance.
…but it’s always our priority to ensure that your queries receive the utmost attention.
One of the easiest ways to do that is to make certain your correspondence reaches the right team in the first place, so here we’re outlining precisely who you need to contact, and under what circumstances, to get the quickest and most efficient response.
Please send all orders, regardless of how complex they may be, to:
IPSUK.Orders@ingramcontent.com
Our ultra-efficient Orders Team is super-focussed on making sure your orders are processed as quickly as possible, so they aren’t customer facing.
For any customer related query that requires a response, including follow-ups to orders you’ve already submitted, please contact our friendly Customer Service Team:
IPSUK.Cservs@ingramcontent.com
or call Monday to Friday on 01752 202301
We use the Zendesk ticketing system for all incoming queries, so you’ll receive a ticket number to let you know we’ve got yours. If your enquiry refers to an issue we’ve given you a response to in the past it will help us immensely if you can quote it in your message.
Important: please avoid sending messages to both our Orders and Customer Service email addresses – it will likely delay us responding to you / actioning your order.
If you’re a client of IPS UK you’ll have been assigned a dedicated Client Account Agent at the outset of our relationship – please contact them directly for anything related to our business together. For any shipping quotes, to place an order, or to follow up on an order you’ve already placed, please refer to the Orders and Customer Service details above.
Our warehouse is located at:
Ingram Publisher Service UK
Rooksley
Milton Keynes
MK13 8LD
United Kingdom
You can find it on Google Maps here, or Apple Maps here.
If you need to contact our Goods In team ahead of a delivery you can email them at:
IPSUK.GoodsIn@ingramcontent.com
Whether you’re a client, customer, shipper, printer or anything else, we really look forward to working with you, and wish each and every one of you a great 2023.
After a delay very much not of our own making IPS UK made a welcome return to the Frankfurt Book Fair, along with our excellent colleagues from across Ingram Content Group. This may have been a slightly quieter post-Covid affair than usual, but it was certainly no less lively.The team, including VP and General Manager Sabrina McCarthy, VP International Sales and IPS UK Meredith Greenhouse, Senior Manager IPS UK Matthew Dickie and Marketing and Publisher Services Manager Matt Devereux, met with plenty of publisher clients old, new and forthcoming to discuss improvements at IPS UK, developments in their own businesses, and how we can move forward in tandem to make our service even better. California-based Director of Acquisitions Gonzalo Ferreyra, who is lending a hand to IPS UK for new client sign-ups, also sat in on several meetings to get a feel for the business, and to meet exciting prospects.
The majority of publisher meetings were incredibly positive; in the main, our clients are now accustomed to title and asset maintenance via CoreSource, and almost everybody commented on how much of an improvement iQ reporting is when compared to our legacy system. As ever, we returned from FBF with a robust set of to-do items, all of which our various teams are currently working through. ICG Services Manager Gina Walpole deftly worked through queries and opportunities on our Virtual Stock and CoreSource+ programmes, impressing even those of us who have worked with her for years with her encyclopedic knowledge of all things Ingram.
The fair also offered an opportunity for our UK-based colleagues to meet with the dynamic New York team, who are now responsible for global sales for IPS UK clients signed up to our sales and marketing services. Senior Manager, Sales Edison Garcia and Sales Specialist Leo Moelker had a packed schedule of their own, meeting with publishers and customers alike. If you're interested in what this incredible, experienced team might bring to sales representation for you and your titles you can find an overview by clicking here.
Overall, the whole team came away from FBF 2022 reinvigorated, looking forward to a future rich in potential... THANK YOU so much to everyone who took the time to meet with us. by the time we see you again at the London Book Fair next year much of that potential will have become reality.
Christmas comes but once a year... but blow us down with a feather if it doesn't seem to be coming around quicker and quicker these days. Below you'll find our last order dates for 2022, plus other pertinent information about all things IPS UK for over the festive season...
If your order is urgent it's really important that you make this clear in the subject line of your email; please call out urgent orders with ***URGENT*** and make sure you specify if the order is time sensitive. If we don't receive it in good time before the last order dates below it's unlikely to make its delivery deadline.
As per the IPS UK delivery specifications stock needs to be with us in good time before the last order dates below; titles should be booked in at least five working days before the last order dates for both ROW and the UK. We can't guarantee dispatches if stock isn't delivered well before it needs to be released.
The last day for submitting international orders by courier for Christmas delivery is Friday 9th December, 2022. Please note that we can’t account for any closures at third party freight forwarders or shippers used by international customers which may impact delivery dates at the end destination.
The last day for submitting UK orders by courier for Christmas delivery is Friday 16th December, 2022
Postal orders, whether international or UK, must be with us as early as possible. As there is no tracking we cannot commit to Christmas delivery.
As always, our last order dates are a guide and not a guarantee. Orders submitted after these dates are very unlikely to make Christmas delivery. Our advice is to ensure that you get your orders to us as quickly as possible.
Both our offices and warehouse are open on every day that is not a UK bank holiday, a list of which you can find here.
Our Goods In team (IPSUK.GoodsIn@ingramcontent.com) is available at the warehouse between 07:30 and 14:30
Our Customer Services team is available by phone between 09:00 and 15:00 (+44(0)1752 202301), or by email (IPSUK.CServs@ingramcontent.com)
Orders can be sent directly to IPSUK.Orders@ingramcontent.com - please remember to flag as ***URGENT*** if applicable
Please note that over Christmas and New Year many UK shippers and courier hubs close across the season, and if packages have not been delivered by December there is a possibility that they may not be delivered until after the New Year. This is outside of our control, and we cannot commit to having orders progressed between December 23rd and January 2nd.
...whether you're celebrating Christmas or not we hope you have a fantastic break, and a great end to 2022. We're looking forward to everything 2023 holds, as we continue to move forward with making our service even better for client publishers across the board.
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Pack your bags and grab your most comfortable shoes for walking between exhibition halls; it's time again for the magnificent Frankfurt Book Fair, when our industry descends en masse near the banks of the Main river for the biggest event in publishing. We're incredibly excited to be attending from Wednesday 19th to Friday 21st October, when we'll meeting and greeting dozens of client publishers, and tipping our collective hats to hundreds of others.
We have a really packed diary, but please do stop by the stand to say hello, or to pick up more information about our offering at IPS UK - we'd love to see you. To learn more about Ingram Content Group, about what IPS UK could possibly do for you and your publishing, and about the range of services we're able to offer publishers across the board please do click here.
Again, we're thrilled to be out and about at more events where we can meet our client publishers in person, introduce ourselves to potential new clients, and learn more about trends and happenings across the industry. Check back here regularly for news on other events we'll be attending, as well as general news, views and operational updates.
