Yodel delivers for World Book Night
Carrier signs up as logistics partner for reading event for a second year
Yodel, the UK's leading parcel carrier, has signed up to be logistics partner for World Book Night for a second year, continuing to help the event to spread the joy of reading.
The carrier, which handles over 135 million parcels every year, will deliver over 250,000 books to more than 2,000 bookshops and library collection points around the country, for World Book Night's volunteers to collect and distribute.
World Book Night is an international annual celebration of books and reading, run by The Reading Agency, which seeks to encourage the 35% of the population who don't regularly read to do so.
Each April 23, World Book Night is celebrated with thousands of volunteers giving away hundreds of thousands of specially chosen and produced books, to people in their communities, to encourage reading. Since it was launched in 2011 an extraordinary army of 46,000 volunteers have given books to more than 2 million people on World Book Night.
This year World Book Night has a special emphasis on men and young people of whom 42% and 46% respectively don't regularly read.
Commenting on the sponsorship, Yodel's executive chairman, Dick Stead, said; "We are delighted to partner with World Book Night for a second year, literally helping The Reading Agency to 'spread the word'.
"We currently handle over 3.5 million book deliveries on behalf of publishers, retail chains and hundreds of independent booksellers each year and we're delighted to once again offer our expertise to support this fantastic cause and encourage more people to discover the simple joy that reading can bring."
CEO of The Reading Agency, Sue Wilkinson, said: "World Book Night is central to the work we do at The Reading Agency; it is an extraordinary event designed to spread the power and love of reading by sharing and gifting books. It is delivered through a strong partnership between bookshops, libraries and communities, connecting great books and stories with the people whose lives might be changed by reading them.
"Our distribution partner, Yodel, is an essential part of this work and the programme would not be possible without the company's ongoing support. We're delighted that this year they'll continue to take the hundreds of thousands of books we produce and distribute them to over 2,000 bookshops and libraries, to be given away by our thousands-strong army of volunteers on the night. Yodel's passion for books, reading and literacy matches our own and it's a joy to work with such a like-minded and generous partner."
The World Book Night sponsorship follows an announcement last month that Yodel has partnered with the Bookseller's Association to offer YodelDirect, its door-to-door service which is aimed at consumers and small businesses, to independent booksellers.