In Depth
Destination known
06.07.07 Graeme Neill
Talking travel with Craig Hillier is a slightly exhausting experience. Not because the conversation is peppered full of dull "what I did on my holidays" tales—but rather because of the overwhelming number of places the head of books for W H Smith Travel Retail has visited.
During this interview he touches on the differences between trekking in Peru and Arizona ("In Peru you have porters who help you with your stuff, but in the Grand Canyon all your stuff is on your back in 45˚C heat. It's a bit harder"), climbing in the Andes, and his plans to go volcano trekking, kayaking and snorkelling in Hawaii. His last trip was through the Sahara. "I say through, but it was more of a long trek into the desert. I did ask the guide how long it would take to walk across the Sahara between its two nearest points. I was told it would take four months, so that put me off."
He adds, with casual understatement: "I'm quite active." Indeed, plans for travelling nearly brought an end to his W H Smith career before it had even started. Hillier had been working as a temp in the chain's Swindon head office during his gap year to fund a trip to New Zealand, where he lived until he was 12 (his mother is a Kiwi). But WHS offered him a job as a data analyst looking at mystery-shopper results and customer feedback; he shelved his plans to go to New Zealand and then university. "It was quite interesting; numbers were my background through my computer science course," he says. "But I wanted to get into buying. It was a more challenging job but looked a lot more enjoyable."
His break in buying came when he was appointed assistant buyer for popular fiction in 2000, including responsibility for the science fiction and fantasy section. Within a year he was made popular fiction buyer, before stints as both non-fiction and fiction buyer.
When asked what he enjoyed the most during his first spell at WHS, his reply is instant. "Fiction, definitely," he says. "I just really enjoyed being involved with publishers and maximising sales on key titles. You also got a lot of satisfaction from developing début authors and growing midlist writers. You were working with publishers to build authors year on year. With non-fiction, it's a one-book blast."
A brief stint at Borders came to an end in 2006 when the role of head of books at WHS' fast-growing travel division came up. It was a job that Hillier had coveted for some time and is an area that appears to be the jewel in WHS' business (according to one City analyst, it outsells the high street stores at a rate of five to one, and should be valued at £500m).
Hillier explains that, along with commuters who pass through railway shops daily, the travel wing has two main types of customer. One is the person who impulse-buys their holiday books (likely to be the only ones they read that year). The other is the heavy reader, excited about picking a pile of books at the airport to get through on their holiday. Because the purchases are made just before a trip, the business is largely insulated from the pressures of the internet and supermarkets.
"The selection of books is completely different to the high street," he says. "Something like saga novels or romance work very well in our high street stores but not so well in our travel stores."
Among the novels that have performed for the travel market are Panic by Jeff Abbott ("Your typical holiday thriller is really important to us. It had a simple, clear cover and we did really well with it") and Marina Lewycka's A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. But the book that Hillier is most effusive about is Freakonomics, Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner's off-kilter look at modern life. "Freakonomics is a great example of what publishers can do," he says. "It was a great package and had a great marketing campaign behind it. It ticked every box and we did incredibly well with it, not just in the airport stores but also with commuters."
Hillier is effusive about the support WHS Travel receives from publishers, and the general quality of their output. But he feels that they aren't completely aware of the potential the travel market can offer, and don't tend to target it directly. "It's a difficult market to fully understand unless you work in it," he says. "[Often certain books] aren't published with us in mind but we do do well with them."
A fan of Jonathan Coe and Tom Wolfe's novels ("pure indulgence"), Hillier describes himself as very much the heavy holiday reader that WHS targets. "I never buy books prior to going to the airport," he says. "I've tried it a few times before but it has never worked. I would pick about 10 books but wouldn't be in the mood for reading them when I got there." Between the kayaking, snorkelling and trekking, it's surprising he has time to read at all.
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