IPG Celebrates Anniversaries for Eurospan & Marston Book Services

March 11, 2024

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 11, 2024
Contact: Julia Dillman | Corporate Communications
312.337.0747 | [email protected]

LONDON – Independent Publishers Group (IPG) is excited to celebrate the anniversaries of both Eurospan and Marston Book Services in 2024. Eurospan, the UK’s leading sales and marketing agency for international academic and professional publishers, is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Marston, a leading UK book distributor, is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Launched in 1964, Eurospan began by working exclusively with US textbook publishers. Over the years, that clientele grew to include not only educational publishers, but those in the medical, university press, reference, and intergovernmental sectors based around the world. Eurospan has also expanded its sales reach significantly, from selling books in just eighteen countries in 1970 to hundreds of countries today. In its sixty years of trading, Eurospan has successfully adapted to the changing needs and priorities of both its market and client publishers. 2024 marks a new venture for Eurospan as the company expands into the UK and European trade channels.

From Marston’s inception in 1974, the company has operated on an ethos of flexibility, reliability, and proactivity in relationships with publishing clients. Starting as a subsidiary of Blackwell Publishers Limited, Marston began distributing books from a cellar in Oxford before moving to a warehouse and providing a more complete distribution service. For fifty years, Marston has provided a high-quality range of fulfillment and print services over a wide cross-section of books, journals, and electronic products for the trade, academic, arts, religious, educational, and professional sectors.

In 2019, Marston became part of United Independent Distributors (UID), and in May 2020, Eurospan joined UID as well. Then, in October 2021, IPG acquired UID, forming a combined entity that offers a comprehensive platform of global services, providing seamless integration of sales, marketing, print, and distribution to an ever-expanding list of publishers.

“These anniversaries are not just about the passage of time; they are milestones that show the resilience and growth of these two companies,” said Joe Matthews, IPG CEO. “IPG is proud to carry on Eurospan’s and Marston’s traditions of top-tier marketing and quality distribution.”

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About Independent Publishers Group:

Founded in 1971, IPG was the first organization specifically created for the purpose of marketing titles from independent presses to the book trade. Today, IPG’s wide reach into the book market includes distribution of both print and e-books from a wide array of publishers, digital printing and traditional publishing. With consistent growth year over year, IPG’s success has come from supporting and encouraging the growth of its publishing partners in the United States and worldwide. IPG was acquired by Chicago Review Press in 1987, and this acquisition formed the parent company Chicago Review Press, Inc., which now owns Chicago-based indie publishers Chicago Review Press and Triumph Books. In October 2021, IPG acquired UK-based United Independent Distributors (UID) and its subsidiary companies Eurospan, Marston Book Services and Orca Book Services, extending IPG’s menu of services and global reach.