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Press Release – January 3,2005

10 YEARS OF COOKBOOKS :

THE GLOBAL MARKET

In 10 years, the quantity, and even more, the quality of cookbooks have greatly increased in every country. As cookbooks are becoming a more profitable business, publishers are slowly learning to find new opportunities in the global market.

I .- The Keys to the Boom

Sales of cookbooks in the world increase at a steady 5% a year since 1994. Production of new titles is 24.000 a year, the double of 10 years ago. The reasons for this boom are:

Food television success, led by BBC (UK) and PBS (US). There is now at least one food cable netweork in each country, such as the TV Food Network (US), Canal Cocina (Spain), Gourmet TV or Cuisine TV in France, et.

Nutrition and food health awareness have risen everywhere. Asia always made it very important, it is now a key factor in most northern countries.

Food has a strong comforting role in a world increasingly perceived as dangerous.

New book production technology make cookbooks photography, colour and good paper increasingly easier, quicker and cheaper.

II .- The Cookbook Global Market

Food, music, tourism and cars are the most important global markets in the world, with consumers sharing a global experience. For instance, French, Italian or Latin foods are increasingly generic international products rather than controlled brands by their nationals. An excellent French cuisine chef may be Japanese, German or Australian.

The same food television shows are now seen in the US, the UK, Scandinavia, Germany, China, Latin America, South Africa, etc. The food cable networks in Argentina or Venezuela are at least as successful as the Spanish Canal Cocina.

Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein sell well in France, for instance:

Cookbook translations are increasing everywhere. El Bulli books or Ducasse in English at the top end of the market, over 150 Euros, are selling by the thousands: this was thought to be impossible five years ago when the top price was 50 Dollars. There are more quality French pastry books published in Japanese than in French. Half of the 400 cookbooks published annually in Sweden are translations.

III.- The Production of Cookbooks

It is difficult to realize how the cookbook market is really very wide and strong all over the world. The important consequence is that the export potential is huge for those who try : while cookbooks appeal widely to a big global market, they are usually offered to a very small fraction of that market if they are only marketed in one language.

The winners of the past 10 years of The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards give an indication for quality cookbooks. There were winners from 67 different countries, in separate yearly national or regional competitions.

Table I .- Cookbooks by Languages – 10 Years

   Books  Publishers

English  389 25%  151 21,3%

Spanish  258 16,5%  130 18,4%

French  198 12,7%  100 14,4%

Scandinavia  182 11,6%   63  8,9%

German  148  9,5%   67  9,4%

Japanese   81    5,2%   30  4,2%

Italian    74  4,7 %  38  5,4%

Others   231 14,8%  128 18,0%

Cookbooks in Spanish benefit from the strong new interest in Catalan or Basque cuisine, the big Latin American market and the Hispano market in the US are growing, Scandinavia is the best market in the world for cookbooks even though its population is small. The relative weight of the six main languages is going down, while others are increasing quickly their production of quality cookbooks.

Many cookbooks from all over the world are already printed in Asia, from Dubai to China. In the long term, there will be more and more quality cookbooks produced in Asian countries, with a quick increase of Chinese cookbooks already obvious. In general terms one should remember that China has more bookstores than the United States, and produces more titles every year.

IV.- Cookbook Publishers

Celebrating in 2005 the Hans Christian Andersen 200^th Anniversary, it can be said that cookbooks have been the ugly duckling of publishing. Ten years ago, cookbooks were one of the least respected sectors by publishers, very rarely mentioned at all. The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards were created in 1994 to give status, glamour and recognition to the sector. Today, with the cookbook boom, publishers take cookbooks very seriously. From their business point of view, here are some trends:

As Steve Bateman from Hachette says : the fomula for success stays the same: a good subject, an excellent and known author, a low retail price, with at least two of these ingredients.

Distribution and promotion have become the main issue. As well as other books, cookbooks have a shorter and shorter shelf life of two to four months. The printed media are diminishing the space for reviews, including cookbooks. Television sells cookbooks extremely efficiently in large quantities, but very few make it to the programs. Authors for cookbooks are increasingly selected on their media promotion potential.

Most big publishers now have special teams to package sponsored cookbooks for brands and corporations. Cookbooks are sponsored through advanced sales, product placement, and distribution through special non-book channels. Chef cookbooks, and guides are starting to be better sold in restaurants. A large number of cookbooks is produced by public institutions or non-publishers, sometimes with no ISBN. These books can be excellent, and for the public there is no difference for a sponsored or non sponsored book. For the media, there is a difference, but media are increasingly less important than word of mouth, the key to selling cookbooks, as with many other products.

Food and wine corporations as well as other cookbook sponsors now need to access international markets, and publish at the same time in at least 2 languages, always including English : successful publishers have to have access to several markets.

Table II – The Best Cookbook Publishers – 10 Years

1.- Prisma – Sweden   17 Awards

2.- Hachette Pratique – France  16

3.- Zabert Sandman – Germany  14

   Time Marshall Cavendish – Singapore 14

5.- BBC Books – UK   13

   John Wiley – US   13

7.- Bibliotheca Culinaria – Italy  12

   Everest – Spain   12

   Shibata – Japan   12

   Ten Speed – US   12

11.- At Verlag – Switzerland  11

   Cossetania – Spain  11

   Otava – Finland   11

14.- Gräfe und Unzer – Germany  10

   NHK – Japan   10

   Penguin – Viking – Australia  10

   Senac – Brasil   10

18.- Pages – Spain   9

   ICA – Sweden   9

20.- Albin Michel – France  8

   Kyle Cathie – UK  8

   Lannoo – Belgium  8

   Publicaçoes – Europa-America-Portugal 8

   Quadrille – UK   8

    Rai – Eri – Italia  8

    Universidad San Martin de Porres 8

27.- Dumont – Germany  7

    Flammarion – France  7

    Le Chêne – France  7

    Marabout – France  7

    Solar - France   7

    Wahlstrom – Widstrand  7 

The top 31 quality publishers for cookbooks come from 15 different countries. Only imprints are considered, not groups. If corporate groups were considered, Hachette would be the world leader with over 50 awards in different countries, followed by Random House, Harper Collins and La Martinière.

But no corporate group really seems yet to take full advantage of the potential of their cookbook and wine books assets in different countries.

V .- The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards started 10 years ago at the Frankfurt Book Fair. They are the best of the global market for cookbooks. They are helping cookbooks authors and publishers in many ways.

Every year, the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards receive thousands of cookbooks, from over 60 countries, in over 40 languages. Entry is free, to maximize the number of competitors, big or small. Anyone can send books, authors, publishers or even readers. As a result 25% to 60% of the winners in national or regional competitions may be small publishers, who produce less than 10 books a year.

The impact of the awards has 3 aspects:

It is an honour and a reward for years of work

It increases retail sales and often relaunches the cookbooks. Winners usually initiate a strong media push with press releases and interviews. They put winners stickers on the books, which often go into reprints and a new edition.

It multiplies the opportunities for international rights deals for translations and distribution. At the last Gourmand event in Barcelona, over 100 deals were started.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards could not have started without the support of Le Cordon Bleu Cooking Schools, from the beginning. It also has had the continuing sponsorships over 10 years of Cognac Frapin and Champagne Gosset. The various events have different sponsors and associates, among them Hediard in Paris, the Miguel Torres Wines in Barcelona, Gerard Depardieu Wines at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In Sweden sponsors include Arctic Paper, specialized in high quality paper for cookbooks, they even offered a special unique paper for Alain Ducasse publishing. There is also the Falth Hassler Swedish printing company, who printed a record one hundred and seventy cookbooks (170) last year. The major sponsors are usually the town or regional institutions where the events take place. The events also have strong media support, with international televisions interviewing the winners.

The next event is on February 11, 2005 in Sweden, now the best market in the world for cookbooks. The New York Times considers there is a food revolution in Sweden, which is probably the most interesting country now in Europe, after Spain. There will be on February 12 an International Rights Center focusing only on cookbooks.

For information:

Edouard Cointreau, President

Gourmand World Cookbook Awards

Pintor Rosales, 36

28008 Madrid – Spain

Tel: +34 91 541 67 68

Fax: +34 91 541 68 21

E-mail: icr@virtualsw.es

www.cookbookfair.com

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