UK's second largest book publisher opening Sheffield office

It is one of five new national offices the publisher is opening around the country over the next three months, with the others being in Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

A spokesman said: “The office openings will see nearly 60 London-based staff relocate across the UK, after earlier plans were put on hold as a result of the pandemic.

“The staff relocating will be from a variety of roles and divisions across the publishing group, with the aim of having at least a hundred staff relocating by 2022. Hachette UK has also started recruiting locally as part of its commitment to forging close links with local talent and diversifying its workforce.”

The office will open in September, with seven Hachette UK staff moving into office space within a flexible co-working building at The Workstation. The office is being led by Sarah Castleton, the editorial director at Little, Brown.

The spokesman added: “Hachette UK already publishes many Yorkshire-based authors, including Joanne Harris, Yvonne Battle-Felton, Laura Kay, Catherine Taylor, Mark Bradley and Isy Suttie.”

Ms Castleton commented: “I grew up in Sheffield devouring the contents of the central library. I have been working as an editor in London for over two decades now and if you’d told me even a handful of years ago that our industry would be taking active steps to decentralise, to encourage, embrace and learn from the great wealth of regional talent, voices and experience, I would have been sceptical.

“So, very obviously, I’m proud to be at the start of that journey with Hachette UK. It’s a homecoming for me but far more importantly, I hope it will be a continuous and fruitful awakening for our business.

"Sheffield is a city of storytellers – writers, poets, lyricists, teachers – with a rich, vibrant, diverse and radical cultural arts sector. I can’t wait to meet the folks who make it tick, to share ideas and stories, and to invest in the life of this brilliant city, putting books at the heart of the matter.”

Nick Davies, Managing Director at John Murray Press, who is relocating to Bristol and will be the first member of the Hachette UK Board to be based at a national office, commented: “We’re very excited to be opening our five new offices finally, after the various delays of the last 18 months. This first phase is about staff relocating, embedding the offices in their new communities and getting closer to local readers, writers and booksellers.

“But it’s the second phase, where we look to grow these offices by hiring from more diverse talent pools across the country, that’s the really exciting, game-changing moment. We are already advertising on a national level. Following one recent job ad, 60% of the longlist applied to work from one of our five national offices, so the appetite is clearly there."

Hachette UK also opened its Manchester office in July, with 11 members of Hachette UK staff taking space at Blackfriars House.