The Federation of Independent Retailers (NFRN) - the organisation that help the small shops of the United Kingdom "compete more effectively in today’s highly competitive market" - declared their ire with Egmont Magazines, the British arm of the Danish publishers of the same name.
The publisher, whose titles include
the monthly LEGO Star Wars Magazine, has been accused of treating independent retailer's as second-class citizens when they recently trialled a new distribution method that saw selected newsagents receiving second-hand copies up to four weeks after the publication date.
Head of the Federation of Independent Retailers' news division Brian Murphy said “Egmont is actually discriminating against independent retailers and that is totally unacceptable.” reports
Brick Fanatics.
The plan, trialled in the North East of England, saw Egmont supplying wholesaler Seymour, Menzies and Smiths with copies of their comics and magazines for distribution to the area's national supermarket chains first, with a recall of unsold copies after a four week wait. Recalled copies were then distributed to the independent news agencies and bookshops.
Recognising that this affected the flagship LEGO
Star Wars Magazine, NFRN's president Mike Mitchelson wrote to The LEGO Group's executive chairman Jorgen Vig Knudstorp to warn him that the distribution rights that he had granted publisher Egmont to distribute the comic were being violated.
With LEGO stepping into the fray the distribution scheme being trialled was adjusted so that supplies of LEGO
Star Wars Magazine would arrive at independents at the same time as the chain stores.
Andrea Ryder, senior senior director of licensing and publishing at LEGO, stated “We have been assured that the praxis in handling the distribution of Lego Star Wars magazine will be changed to allow all retailers to have the ability to order and also to receive the Lego Star Wars magazine without a differentiation in delivery timing.”
