Our culture

As the distribution business of Hachette UK, a global business and one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, it’s our mission to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity. We’re leading the way when it comes to book distribution, and we’d love you to join us on this journey. We look for different voices, experiences, skills and ideas to help us get our books into the hands of millions of readers around the world. Want to find out where you could fit in?

Our mission

Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity.

How we work

At Hachette UK Distribution, we’re innovative, ambitious and collaborative. We pride ourselves on creating an environment where everyone knows their contribution is appreciated. From Operations to Customer Services, Credit Services to Finance and IT, we’re all here to make our business a success. It takes a huge collective effort to deliver the exceptional service to publishers and customers that we do, and we’re incredibly proud of everything our teams achieve.

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Reward and recognition

We offer our employees a fantastic range of benefits, rewards and recognition for the hard work they do. Our Hachette Heroes: At Hachette we recognise and celebrate success. We launched our Hachette Heroes award in 2021 to showcase outstanding examples of colleagues demonstrating our four pillars. Since launching the award, we have rewarded our monthly and annual winners, and recognised all our nominees.

Development

Your career story doesn’t end when you join us. In fact, we like to see it as only just beginning. That’s why we have plenty of opportunities for you to develop and grow within your role. From our Learning Library to on-the-job shadowing, technical skills training, mentoring and regular one-to-one in-person meetings with your manager, everyone at Hachette UK Distribution has the chance to continue their learning.

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Vocational learning opportunities

We are also proud to offer our people the opportunity to undertake practical work-based training and study for a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ).

Our people

No matter what your job, everyone here at Hachette UK Distribution plays a role in telling our story, and we all make a recognised contribution.

Here’s a quick guide to just some of our departments:

Operations

You could join our Operations team as a Warehouse Operative, VNA Driver, Team Leader, Supervisor or Operations Administrator. Our people in this team work on Goods in, Automation, Despatch and Operations Support to pick, pack and despatch millions of books every year.

Owen Norton

Goods in Supervisor

I’ve been given many opportunities in the business to help my development. I started as an operator in despatch to then having an opportunity to become a team leader in the same department. My favourite thing about my role is the people – they’re all very supportive and it’s a great environment to work in. I’m constantly learning new ways to expand the business and passing the knowledge to others.

Patrycja Prismall

Operations Support

I’m always looking for ways to expand my knowledge, so I regularly use the Learning Library which is available to all employees.

Customer services

In our Customer Services team, you might find your place as a Customer Service Advisor or a Team Leader, working closely with our publishers and our trade, education and academic customers to make sure their needs are met. As the first point of contact, this team manages publisher and customer requests, orders, queries and claims.

Ben Huxley

Systems & Process Improvement Manager

What I love most about my job is the people I get to work with, all of whom are geared towards changing the story. Every day for me is different: new people, new challenges, new ways of thinking. I feel like I’m a part of something bigger.

Shikha Sharma

Customer Services Team Leader

HUKD provides excellent personal and professional support to its employees and offers a range of benefits to appreciate their efforts. This includes generous staff discounts, social events and also training and development programmes and lots of opportunities for us to progress.

Fran Jones

Head of Publisher Services

The opportunity to lead a team through significant change in the last 18 months has been a rewarding challenge and one that has also enabled me to learn and grow personally. I am also always learning from my colleagues, who are a team of experts and so supportive. I also really value the wealth of learning material (in our Learning Library) Hachette has on offer, to support my ongoing personal development.

Credit services

Or perhaps you could take on a role in our Credit Services team as a Credit Service Advisor, who set up and manage a portfolio of accounts, customer and publisher queries, and payment terms.

Sue Spindler

Credit Controller

When I left school, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do as a career. However, I was offered the opportunity to work in credit control on a temporary basis with Bookpoint 38 years ago! I like the challenge of problem-solving and the satisfaction of knowing that I have helped the customer by resolving the query and then finally receiving the payment to clear the account. This gives me a real sense of achievement which I think is important in anyone’s job role.

Changing the Story

Changing the Story started in 2016 and has since evolved into the driving force behind everything we do, as we remain committed to not only achieving, but surpassing our original goals.

We recognise that we’re at the relative start of our journey, but we’re committed to Changing the Story – which consists of our strategic policies and programmes, cultural initiatives and progressive partnerships – and to delivering real and lasting change, both across our business and the wider industry.

At Hachette UK Distribution we work with a number of local partners, and below are a few examples of the organisations we’re proud to work with and support.

SOFEA

SOFEA provide education, employability and wellbeing programmes for vulnerable young people from the local area. We have been working closely with SOFEA since 2020, running tours for young people on site, visiting their base in Didcot and offering support with skills-based workshops. Quote from SOFEA: “Here at SOFEA, we believe that it is vital for our learners and participants to engage with a range of employers as part of their learning and employability programmes to learn important work skills and see for themselves, first hand, the opportunities and careers available, particularly in the local area. Hachette have gone above and beyond with their employer engagement with us, offering talks and workshops, tours of their facilities and real-world insight into the world of work for our learners and participants. We are excited to continue to grow our relationship with Hachette to help give our young learners the opportunity to overcome barriers to gain meaningful employment in the local area.”

Discover SOFEA

Didcot Powerhouse Fund

The Didcot Powerhouse Fund is a Donor Advised Fund, set up in 2021 to tackle inequality and deprivation within Didcot and the surrounding villages. Perceived by many as affluent, Didcot and the surrounding villages have pockets of poverty that fall below the Oxfordshire average and, in some cases, place it in the lowest rankings in the UK. Additional financial and practical help is needed, and Didcot Powerhouse makes grants to those local charities and community organisations working hard to improve local lives. Didcot Powerhouse is funded by donations from companies committed to local CSR, and by community fundraising. The Fund is hosted by Didcot First, administered by Oxfordshire Community Foundation, and managed entirely by local volunteers.

Discover the Didcot Powerhouse Fund

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