£100K INVESTMENT FOR LIVERPOOL PUBLISHER
A Liverpool-based publishing company has received a £100k investment from NPIF – FW Capital Finance, part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) following support from Liverpool Vision’s Invest Liverpool team.
deCoubertin Books, which works with some of the biggest names in sport and sports writing, was set up in 2009 by sports journalist James Corbett, who has since relocated the company from London back to his home city of Liverpool.
L-R Jacqueline Gilroy (Liverpool Vision) James Corbett (deCoubertin) Andy Grant (author of recent publication “You’ll Never Walk), Simon Berry (FW Capital)
The publisher initially only published record and history books until 2011 when former Everton and Wales goalkeeper, Neville Southall, approached the company to publish his autobiography.
The book went on to be one of the best-selling sports books of 2012 and was named by TalkSport as one of the ‘ten must-read sports books of all time’.
deCoubertin then went on to publish the autobiographies of Howard Kendall, Bob Latchford and Andrei Kanchelskis. Last month it published a book about the iconic World Cup Italia 90, World in Motion, which has already sold out of its initial print run.
“It was a pleasure working with deCoubertin books through our Business Growth Programme – their commitment and ambition was clear from the outset
Founder James Corbett said: “My initial ambition was to take creative and editorial control over my own book project. I’d had two books published previously but found the publishing process frustrating.
“Our principles were simple: to have meticulous editorial standards, pursue excellence in design and to bridge the worlds of physical and digital. Furthermore, we felt it important to only take on projects we passionately believed in. That mantra has served us well – we now have four full-time staff, a pool of 12 freelancers and authors, sell around 50,000 books per year and turnover £400k.”
Jacqueline Gilroy, Liverpool Vision’s Invest Liverpool project engagement manager said: “It was a pleasure working with deCoubertin books through our Business Growth Programme – their commitment and ambition was clear from the outset. We’re thrilled that our introduction to FW Capital has resulted in this investment and we look forward to supporting their continued growth.”
For more information about FW Capital Finance visit fwcapital.co.uk