Mondadori Retail

On Friday 5 December, Mondadori Store, Italy’s largest bookstore network, will open a new Mondadori Bookstore | MA inside the Jambo1 Shopping Centre in Trentola Ducenta, in the province of Caserta.

With this new opening, Mondadori Store further strengthens its network of directly managed bookstores. The expansion follows the completion, effective from 1 December, of Mondadori Retail’s acquisition of 51% of MA Retail, which owns ten Mondadori Bookstore | MA-branded stores – now joined by this new location in Campania.

“By integrating the Mondadori Bookstore | MA stores into the Mondadori Store network, we are strengthening and diversifying our presence, combining a format that enriches our market positioning with an innovative and complementary offering. The opening of the bookstore in the JAMBO1 Shopping Centre marks the first milestone in this new phase, in which the MA concept becomes part of our network while maintaining its distinctive identity. It is a contemporary, sustainable model, highly appreciated by readers, and now an integral part of our growth strategy, making our presence across the country even more widespread, diverse and substantial,” said Mauro Magrì, Sales and Development Director for Directly Managed Bookstores at Mondadori Retail.

“The acquisition of the MA bookstores by Mondadori Retail within the new MA Retail structure marks the beginning of a new phase of development for the MA concept, which can now rely on the strength and vision of a major group. Seeing an MA bookstore open in the JAMBO1 Shopping Centre as part of this new corporate framework is a source of great pride: it means carrying forward the MA DNA – sustainability, contemporaneity and reader focus – within a broader network that enhances its full potential. We are delighted to contribute to this shared journey, which allows this innovative format to grow while preserving its uniqueness,” said Antonio Serpe, CEO of MA Retail.

The Mondadori Bookstore | MA stores draw inspiration from the philosophical Japanese concept of MA: an undefined space between sky and earth where one can clear the mind and nourish the soul. In keeping with these principles, the bookstore becomes a space devoted to personal wellbeing, a place to step away from the frenzy of daily life and focus on mental balance – offering a new way of creating and sharing culture.

The format is characterised by a green, eco-friendly approach: from the materials used – marine poplar, recycled iron and sustainable water-based paints – to the design itself, with tall curved furnishings that recall tree trunks, bonsai and sansevierias, shaping the 240-square-metre space. Readers will also find a reading hub and a forum designed to host events, presentations and book signings, as well as an area set up as a photographic gallery for exhibitions.

The new Mondadori Bookstore | MA in the Jambo1 Shopping Centre in Trentola Ducenta, Caserta, offers a selection of around 16,000 titles, from timeless classics to bestsellers, spanning fiction, non-fiction, crime and more. Dedicated areas for young readers include interactive books, educational games and illustrated stories; a new corner for romance lovers; spaces focused on manga and comics, appealing especially to Generation Z; and a wide range of stationery products.

Mondadori Store is the largest network of bookstores in Italy, with over 500 locations spread across major cities and smaller towns. They serve as cultural hubs throughout the country, operating under the Mondadori Bookstore brand through both directly managed stores and franchises, as well as through the company-owned bookstores Mondadori Bookstore | MA, Mondadori Duomo, and Rizzoli Milano.

Mondadori Store is also active online through the e-commerce website Mondadoristore.it and its bookclub program.

MONDADORI BOOKSTORE | MA
Jambo1 Shopping Centre

Address: Provincial Road Trentola Parete, 81038 Trentola Ducenta (CE)
Opening hours: Mon – Sun 9.00 – 21.00
Phone: 081 17563589
Email: jambo@mabooks.it
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https://www.mondadoristore.it/negozi

On Saturday 6 December the Taranto’s Mondadori Bookstore will reopen its doors in the heart of the city, offering the public a completely refurbished space dedicated to books and entertainment.

The store covers an area of 350 square metres and features a modern, refreshed layout. Customers will be welcomed by a team of expert booksellers and a catalogue of 25,000 titles, from timeless classics to bestsellers across fiction and general non-fiction.

“Thanks to the restyling it has undergone, the bookshop reaffirms its role as a key cultural hub for the city,” says Carmine Fucci, a Mondadori Store affiliate who has turned his passion for books into his profession for more than twenty years. “Our aim is to offer an immersive, participatory experience: not just a place to buy books, but a space for connection, listening and vision – a place where opportunities for interaction, discovery and encounter can take shape,” Fucci concludes.

The bookshop is spread over two floors and hosts all the latest releases and main thematic areas designed to meet everyone’s tastes. These include We are Junior, the space for younger readers, featuring educational games and illustrated books to spark their imagination through fun and curious stories; Just Comics, the area dedicated to the world of manga and comics; My New Romance, the new corner for lovers of the romance universe, one of today’s most popular literary genres; and a section devoted to books in their original language. There is also a wide selection of stationery, toys, gadgets and gift cards. The bookstore also includes an events area designed as a meeting place for readers, hosting events, book presentations and photography exhibitions.

The Mondadori Bookstore in Taranto also serves its customers online: readers can stay up to date via the store’sInstagram and Facebook pages. They can also connect with the bookshop using Mondadoristore.it digital services to check the availability of a book, order it, collect it in store or have it delivered to their home.

Mondadori Store represents the largest network of bookstores in Italy, with over 500 locations across both major cities and smaller towns. It acts as an active cultural hub nationwide, both in-store and online via Mondadoristore.it and the Bookclub formula, offering not only books at the centre of its offering but also entertainment experiences, events, and multichannel services, reaching over 20 million customers every year.

MONDADORI BOOKSTORE

Address: Via Giuseppe de Cesare 35, 74123, Taranto, TA
Opening hours: Mon – Sun 9.00 – 00.00

Telephone: 099.4591661 / 393.8685158 (for booking service via Whatsapp)
E-mail: info@mondadoristoretaranto.com

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Mondadori Retail has signed a preliminary agreement with MA S.r.l., a company operating in the retail sector, for the acquisition of a 51% stake in the soon-to-be-established MA Retail S.r.l., owner of 10 bookstores.

The transaction will take effect from 1 December and will enable Mondadori Retail – which manages the largest network of bookstores in Italy, with over 500 stores – to further strengthen its directly managed retail network.
The acquisition forms part of the company’s broader growth strategy which – following four consecutive years of positive and steadily improving results – now complements organic growth with an external development initiative.

Mondadori Retail’s expansion plan – a strategic business for promoting reading and ensuring widespread distribution of books – will continue throughout 2026 with the opening of approximately 30 additional bookstores, both directly managed and franchised. These social and cultural hubs, dedicated to books and entertainment, will further enrich the offering in various Italian regions and high-potential urban centres.

The 10 bookstores acquired, already affiliated with the Mondadori Retail franchising network, are located across Italy under the brand name Mondadori Bookstore | MA, in Milan, Turin, Udine, Taggia (IM), Grosseto, Rome, Naples, Salerno, Sestu (CA), and Sassari. These stores embody a new contemporary and environmentally conscious bookstore concept, designed to combine culture with environment: eco-friendly, multimedia spaces inspired by the Japanese philosophy of MA, from which they take their name. 

The agreement also includes a call option in favour of the Mondadori Group company, which would allow it to increase its stake in MA Retail to 100% from 2030.

Mondadori Retail, the company managing the most extensive network of bookshops in Italy, kicks off its awareness campaign ‘Women and Rights, Let’s Shine a Light Together’. This series of initiatives and activities aims to raise awareness of equality and gender violence, while focusing on books as a tool for in-depth analysis and comparison. The events will take place from 5 to 18 March 2024.

Kicking off the project is Gino Cecchettin at the Verdi Theatre in Padua, an exceptional location in the bookshop network. This moment of public meeting and interaction will focus on the weighty topics emerging from the pages of his book Cara Giulia. Quello che ho imparato da mia figlia ‘ (Rizzoli), written in collaboration with the author Marco Franzoso.

Starting on Saturday 9 March and followed by about 20 other dates, first-time author Roberta Recchia will appear at various Mondadori Bookstores around Italy to present and sign copies of her debut novel ‘Tutta la vita che resta’ (Rizzoli). This extraordinary and international success (rights already sold in 13 countries) tells the story of a family finding its way through the strength of affection. Click here to discover the stops on the tour.

Many authors have joined the awareness campaign. To celebrate International Women’s Day, the bookstore network is holding meetings and readings throughout the month of March with female writers from the Mondadori Group’s publishing houses, as well as some of the most prominent female voices in contemporary Italian literature. Participants include: Anna Toscano, Azzurra Rinaldi, Beatrice Salvioni, Carlotta Cossutta, Chiara Alessi, Dalila Bagnuli, Emanuela Canepa, Giulia Paganelli, Ilaria Dondi, Jennifer Guerra, Roberta Recchia, Sara Benatti and Tea Ranno. They will post a reading of a particularly heartfelt passage from one of their books on Mondadori Store’s official social accounts, inviting the public to reflect on the urgent issue of equality and gender violence through reading and, more generally, through culture. The social media profiles will also include a reading of Frida Kahlo’s poem ‘You deserve a lover’, in which booksellers from participating shops will take turns reading a few stanzas.

Finally, to further enhance the initiative, bookshops will decorate their windows and shelves to reflect the theme, adopting the specially created icon and giving visibility and prominence to some carefully selected titles, including: carefully selected titles, including: ‘Stai zitta e altre nove frasi che non vogliamo sentire’ (Einaudi) by Michela Murgia, ‘They Didn’t See Us Coming’ (Mondadori) by Lisa Levenstein, ‘Io sono Marie Curie’ (Sperling) by Sara Rattaro, ‘A Summer in the Red Scarf’ (Mondadori) by Elena Malisova and Katerina Silvanova and ‘Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls. 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women’ (Mondadori) by Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli.

The campaign is active both in stores and on digital channels: bookshops, e-commerce site, social profiles, newsletters and meetings with authors. Click here to discover all the initiatives.

Mondadori Bookstore | MA, the green, young and smart bookstore concept reaches the capital with its public opening on Saturday 17 February at 12 noon at the Maximo Shopping Center in the Laurentina district.

A new cultural centre dedicated to promoting reading and entertainment, highlighting the importance of eco-sustainability in an extraordinary area of Rome marked by the presence of numerous historical buildings and tourist attractions.

The tenth opening in Italy: this is a real achievement. The format is inspired by the Japanese philosophical concept of MA (間): “an indefinite space between heaven and earth where people can empty their minds and nourish their souls”, a place where one can stop amid the frenzy of everyday life and cultivate one’s passions, an innovative way of understanding and creating culture. The 300 m² of the bookshop show a green, eco-friendly mark, from the materials used for its construction — marine poplar, recycled iron and sustainable water-based paints — to the design itself — tall, curved furniture reminiscent of tree trunks, bonsai trees and sansevieria.

The new Mondadori Bookstore | MA houses a wide range of 22,000 titles, from the great classics to best sellers, including fiction, non-fiction and miscellaneous genres, with areas reserved for younger readers: We are Junior, the space with children’s books, educational games and illustrated fairy tales to stimulate little ones’ imagination; and the innovative Just Comics department dedicated to manga and comics with a nod to Generation Z. There is also a space dedicated to music, with a wide selection of CDs and vinyls, and a photo gallery for exhibitions and displays. For the opening, it will host “Camera 260” by the artist Matteo Melis, followed by “Napoli by light” by the Neapolitan artist Luca Del Prete, one of the most appreciated young emerging landscape painters. There is also a free co-working hub, guaranteeing comfort thanks to a special book buvette, a dedicated events forum ready to host presentations and signings and a free reading zone.

In addition to green and young, the bookstore is also smart. Multimedia aspects are within everyone’s reach in the bookstore, with the presence of multimedia and interactive totems to encourage social interaction and gain information on the hottest titles. Also present are self-checkouts, the click&collect service and the Trovalibro function, which allows customers to locate their desired title among those available in the store. For the less tech-savvy, a team of nine experienced and passionate booksellers are always present, ready to accept customers’ requests and satisfy their curiosity.

Mondadori Retail, the company that manages the largest network of bookstores in Italy, presents exclusive initiatives aimed at the school world for the 2023/24 school year. These projects stem from the desire to strengthen the relationship between schools and bookstores, to promote socio-cultural growth and to raise awareness among young people on issues such as sustainability and multiculturalism.

Alunni in libreria (Pupils in bookstores)

Mondadori Retail ‘s exclusive initiatives include Alunni in libreria which, for more than twenty years, has put preschool, primary and secondary school teachers in contact with local Mondadori Bookstores, consolidating the social role of bookstores as points of reference and promoters of cultural habits for local communities. Bookstores can become familiar places of discovery and sharing, bringing younger people closer to the world of culture and reading.

Through the platform alunniinlibreria.it, teachers will be able to get in touch with booksellers – choosing from more than 300 registered Mondadori Store bookstores – and organise visits and interactive workshops, meetings with children’s fiction authors, as well as many other fun-educational activities from the catalogue available on the site. In addition, membership allows all participating classes to receive books as gifts to enrich the school library.

From this year Alunni in libreria also presents a new initiative: Idee in circolo (Ideas in circulation), a cycle of events entirely dedicated to sustainability and green issues, designed precisely to put new ideas into circulation and create new perspectives for the future. Among the planned initiatives, for a circle of selected bookstores, there is a special new workshop format in cooperation with the cultural association Leo Scienza. An interactive experience that involves imagination with animated readings, science workshops and theatrical experiences, during which the young participants, accompanied by a couple of animators, head off to discover the main environmental and planet protection issues. An adventure in which books are brought to the stage, becoming not only a tool for learning about the wonders and difficulties of the world we live in, but also a source of solutions to the challenges of the present, incentives for action, true values and good practices.

Mondadori bookstores are also taking part in the “Scrittori in classe (Writers in classroom)”,a Mondadori Group project thanks to which bookstores are in communication with local schools offering them meetings with various authors, both online and in person. The project is aimed at primary and secondary schools with the objective of emphasising the importance of reading, the critical analysis of the text and deepening the subject matter of the book. “Scrittori in classe” represents an educational pathway that offers girls and boys the opportunity, through meetings with authors, to participate in an important moment of confrontation and cultural enrichment.

Collectors’ Tote Bag

The new edition of the iconic fabric shopper – free exclusively to Mondadori Store customers – is back! This year honours the 150th anniversary of the death of Alessandro Manzoni, one of the fathers of Italian literature and still central to the school curriculum.
The new Tote Bag, now in its eighth edition, depicts the well-known landscape scenery of a branch of Lake Como where the literary masterpiece I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed) is set.

The elegant illustration, signed by Carlotta Gasparini, makes it an unmissable accessory for all history lovers and characters of one of literature’s greatest classics.

Following the success of the previous collectors’ Tote Bags, Mondadori Store confirms its collaboration with MiMaster – Italy’s leading training school forillustration andpublishing – which draws on the creativity of young student illustrators for the graphic customisation of the bags.

The bag – collectible and made of 100% recyclable cotton – is completely in line with Mondadori Retail’s sustainable goals.

It is free to all those who buy, from 1 to 23 September 2023, from participating Mondadori Stores or from mondadoristore.it at least 2 books from the catalogue of Mondadori Group publishing houses:  Einaudi, Fabbri Editore, Frassinelli, Mondadori, Mondadori Electa, Piemme, Rizzoli, Sperling&Kupfer, De Agostini and Star Comics.

School books

The school book reservation service that Mondadori Retail offers to families of students also continues. The service is available at mondadoristore.it and in participating local bookstores.

Through the pre-loaded lists of the various educational institutions, you can select the relevant class and texts and have your order sent directly to your home. In addition to school textbooks, the service is completed by a wide assortment of stationery products for children who need materials required by teachers.

Bookstores also offer teachers a wide selection of new publications on the world of children and young people to support school planning.

Mondadori Store is the largest network of bookstores in Italy: a cultural organisation active nationwide through more than 500 stores in large cities and small towns alike, and online through the e-commerce website Mondadoristore.it and the bookclub formula. In addition to books, its core offer, it organises entertainment experiences, events and multi-channel services, reaching more than 20 million customers every year.

Mondadori Retail, the company that runs the largest network of bookstores in Italy, continues to develop with an expansion plan for the opening of new Mondadori Stores, an enhanced offer and an increasingly distinctive positioning embracing physical stores, e-commerce and social media.

“The ongoing work to renew and enhance the network and to focus on the book core business has enabled our network to consolidate its leadership still further,” said Mondadori Retail CEO Carmine Perna. “We are moving ahead with the opening of 13 new stores planned by the end of 2022, for an overall total of 25 openings during the whole year. Our bookstores are designed to inspire future readers and as meeting places where local communities can make new discoveries: so we are paying ever greater attention to the new generations, with dedicated formats in the stores and on the social channels, and the organisation of initiatives involving the local area,” Perna added.

FORTHCOMING OPENINGS

On the bookstore front, three new Mondadori Bookstores under direct management will be opened in the second half of the year, in the regions of Lazio, Lombardy and Umbria. They follow the two openings in Genoa and Montenero di Bisaccia (Campobasso) in April and May.

The expansion of the franchising network is also moving ahead, with 10 new bookstores due to open by the end of the year in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Sicily and Marche, after the start-up of 10 affiliated outlets in the first half of 2022. A nationwide presence across Italy, from North to South, with medium-size locations where books are the real protagonists.

The Mondadori Store development plan is also supported by the continuous renewal of directly managed stores: by the end of September, the Mondadori Bookstore in Padua will open in its new location in Piazza Garibaldi, and in Vimercate the outlet in the Torri Bianche shopping mall will undergo a restyling; during the winter, the new Mondadori flagship will open in Milan, on the corner between Piazza Duomo and Via Mazzini.

THE NEW FORMATS

The Mondadori bookstore offer for children and adolescents is enhanced with the new “We are junior” section, an area designed to welcome even the smallest children, with books and educational games to stimulate the imagination for the 0-13 age group. With its yellow and green colour scheme and origami decorations inspired by nature and the world of animals, which have great appeal for children, the section has an immediately recognisable visual identity.

The process of continuous innovation has also led to the development of the “Just Comics” format, for manga, graphic novels, superheroes and the great Italian authors. Planned as a comic store in the bookstore, “Just Comics is a flexible space that adapts easily to the specific dimensions of the individual outlet. The project began in Milan with an entire floor in the Rizzoli bookstore in the Vittorio Emanuele Gallery and the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo, and has since been extended to all the bookstores under direct management and to a growing number of stores managed on a franchising basis, establishing itself in just under a year as a point of reference for lovers of the genre.

EVENTS

The events calendar has been enhanced with meetings with writers and figures from the world of entertainment and initiatives with schools and libraries. Bookstores play a vital role in promoting reading, thanks in part to the passion of local booksellers, who are able to build productive ties of cooperation with local institutions. Events include the literary festivals “Ad alta voce” in Mestre, “Come un libro all’aperto” in Fano, “Velletri Libris” in Velletri. For information about all the events: https://eventi.mondadoristore.it/it/news/2022/07/19/estate-in-festival-tutti-gli-eventi-letterari-delle-nostre-librerie/115/

DEBUT ON TIKTOK

From the physical to the digital, relations with readers are also consolidated on social media, with initiatives and content to support purchasing on all channels: from today Mondadori Store will also be on TikTok , as well as Instagram and Facebook, to talk about books, local events and meetings.

A journey to explore the Mondadori bookstores in Italy, through the testimonials of people with close connections to bookstores: from booksellers, who organise content on the TikTok profiles of local Mondadori bookstores, attracting numerous followers, to booktokers, young men and women who love reading and have built up huge followings. A communication format that valorises books and bookstores, making them a point of reference for people who want to follow the latest literary trends on social media.

Mondadori Retail continues the plan to develop its network of bookstores across Italy from north to south, and kicks off a new training project for the network’s booksellers.

After the 10 bookstores inaugurated in the first half of the year, another 10 stores will open to the public by end 2021. The plan brings the offering of the most extensive network of bookstores in Italy even closer to readers, with the directly-managed medium-size stores located in the larger cities, and the franchised ones in the smaller populated areas.

Two new directly-managed Mondadori Bookstores will open over the next few months: the first in Lombardy, inside the Fiordaliso mall in Rozzano (Milan), which will be inaugurated on 11 November 2021, followed by a second opening in Emilia Romagna.

Eight new franchised Mondadori Bookstores and Mondadori Points are expected to open in the final part of the year in Emilia Romagna, Latium, Campania, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily.

Mondadori Retail also enhances the services dedicated to franchisees with the new training program called Percorsi. The new courses are meant to provide the over 500 affiliated booksellers with additional tools and guidance to enhance and increase their daily bookstore activities, through insights into the evolving landscape of the publishing world in recent years and the relationship between booksellers and readers in the digital age.

“We have built a training path to be alongside our affiliates in an even closer way, providing them with an opportunity for in-depth analysis and discussion that will help them nurture their relationship with readers even more. Bookstores are outposts of culture that can add value to the local area and its communities; today, they are turning more and more into vital gathering spots where people converge for the pleasure of discovering new stories. Our new openings bear further proof of their importance for the buoyancy of the sector, which is also driven by the dedication and hard work of booksellers throughout Italy, key figures in the promotion of reading in our Country”, says Carmine Perna, Managing Director of Mondadori Retail.

Percorsi is divided into four sessions covering several topics, from market scenarios to the enhancement of books and their assortment inside the store, from customer relations to exploring the synergies between the physical and digital world, with industry professionals taking the floor.

“The present and future of Bookstores” is the focal theme of the opening session, graced by the address from Prof. Paola Dubini from the Bocconi University. The publishing market in Italy is constantly evolving; the last 18 months, in particular, have marked a true watershed, with a few major aspects coming to the fore. The session will explore the dynamics of the sector, how to promote peculiarity in the local area, the bookseller role and the next steps to be taken.

The Percorsi cycle continues in November with the second session dedicated to “Assortment, catalogue, local area: building value for the customer“. Building an assortment is crucial to meet the needs of readers and to cover the local area: what are the pillars for building the right offer? How to enhance readers and the local area? What role do categories hold and how can choices be guided?

In 2022, Percorsi will continue with two training events that will address how to manage customers and their satisfaction and the new opportunities offered by cross-channel marketing, which will be followed by new training workshops next year.

Mondadori Retail, the company that manages Italy’s most extensive chain of bookstores, continues its development strategy with the opening of con 10 new sales outlets across the country.

The new Mondadori Bookstores – both directly managed and franchised – that will open in the coming months will be supported by a plan to strengthen the offer, digitization and the launch of a training programme for booksellers.

“In a year that has been characterised by great dynamism in the book sector, we think that it is a real priority to invest in both the development of physical stores and the enhancement of services,” declared Carmine Perna, chief executive of Mondadori Retail. “Preference will be given to medium-sized shops, managed directly in the larger towns and cities and as franchises in smaller centres, with the aim of responding to the cultural needs of the local communities with an offer the corresponds to the customer. We will also offer specific training to our booksellers and new digital tools to encourage and expand the relationship with readers across the country,” Perna concluded.

A new Mondadori Bookstore has opened in Milan, within Bicocca Village. This directly-managed shop will be a point of reference for book lovers with over 10,000 titles available, from fiction to non-fiction, classics and comics, a sector dedicated to kids and young adults, with films and toys, and s selection of quality stationery, gift boxes and gift cards.

Another new opening took place at the end of May in Pontecagnano (Salerno): where the nee Mondadori Bookstore will enhance the offer of the Centro Maximall with the best of Mondadori’s offer of culture and entertainment.

By the end of July other new Mondadori Bookstores will be opened in Portogruaro (Venice), in the Adriatico2shopping mall and in San Martino Buon Albergo (Verona), inside Le Corti Venete, to be followed in the autumn by another three directly-managed stores in central-north regions.

Also franchised openings will continue: following those in March and April in Cava de Tirreni, L’Aquila, Avella, Naples and Frascati, new affiliated booksellers will open another three Mondadori Bookstores in the centre and south of Italy before the end of the summer.

As well as reinforcing the shops, the Mondadori Retail strategy is focused on enhancing specific market segments, expanding the in-store assortment with the introduction of the Just Comics format: an in-store comics factory, to give more visibility to a publishing area that is meeting with increasing public interest.

Just Comics is already present in Milan with an entire floor dedicated to the segment in the Rizzoli Galleria book shop and the Mondadori Megastore in Piazza Duomo, in the Mondadori Bookstores in Arese, Padua, Bologna, and  both the Via Appia and Fiumicino stores in Rome, and with an extensive section in the main shops of the chain, as well as on www.mondadoristore.it. With a selection of over 10,000 comic and illustrated titles, that go from manga to graphic novels and superheroes, it will be a new point of reference of all comics fans and everyone who wants to discover a world full of stories.

Mondadori Retail has also launched an extensive training programme for booksellers, which aims to reinforce the skills of the teams in the directly-managed stores, by enhancing important aspects of the relationship with readers, from when they arrive in the shop until they make a purchase. For the franchise chain, a series of meetings will begin in the autumn aimed at providing booksellers and the entrepreneurs who have decided to affiliate with the chain with the tools and knowledge necessary to develop their skills.

Particular attention is also being given to digital services, which are increasingly central in the relationship with readers and the buying process, which have been designed around the needs of new consumers. The entire Mondadoristore.it catalogue – with over 1 million titles, including books in Italian and in original languages, school textbooks, eBooks, eReaders, films in DVD and Blu-ray, music of every kind, toys, gift ideas and stationery products – is accessible also through free multichannel services, selecting between the Pick Up Point, Prenota e Ritira (Order & Collect) and Invia a casa (Delivery) options.

There is also an expansion of the range of new cashless services, such as Scalapay, available from June, which enables customers of the online channel to pay by instalments, and a  pay by mail solution, which will be up and running by the end of the year, to pay remotely for purchases made in store.

The logistics area – essential to ensure an increasingly efficient service for both customers and booksellers – is also being upgraded, with the optimisation of the entire process – from orders to delivery– with the autumn introduction of dropshipping, an innovative distribution model that makes it possible to reduce delivery times.

The Mondadori Group announces that, effective today, Carmine Perna is the new managing director of Mondadori Retail S.p.A.

In his functions, Perna will work towards launching a new phase of development and transformation in a multi-channel perspective of the company that operates in the retail segment of the Mondadori Group, led by CEO Ernesto Mauri.

Mondadori Retail, chaired by Mario Resca, generated revenue of € 191.8 million in 2018 and manages the largest network of bookshops in Italy. The company operates across the Country through approximately 600 directly-managed or franchised points of sale and online with mondadoristore.it.

Carmine Perna – 49, born in Serino (AV) and a graduate in business administration at the Bocconi University of Milan – joined the Mondadori Group in 2006 working in the Administration, Finance and Control Department, before holding positions of increasing responsibility. In 2007, he was appointed CFO of Mondadori France and, in 2010, Executive Director of Finance & Operations of the French subsidiary, before becoming General Managing Director in March 2013, a position he kept until completion of the sale.

Under his leadership, Mondadori France has strengthened its position as one of the top French magazine publishers: in recent years, Perna implemented a major transformation that led to the review and re-launch of all magazines and to a strong plan for brand diversification, including in the digital segment.

Prior to that, Perna worked with the SISAL Group, in H3G S.p.A. and for the Ventaglio Group, holding various roles in the finance area.

The Mondadori Group wishes to thank Pierluigi Bernasconi – who has decided to leave Mondadori Retail for personal reasons and in agreement with the company – for the valuable contribution and professionalism he has shown during his tenure.