History

In the beginning...

Frontline was formed in June 1986 by the magazine publisher Emap (now Bauer Media) in order to handle the demands of their expanding circulation department.

Two years on it became clear that for greater market share and negotiating influence it was necessary to look for an additional partner. In 1988 a joint venture sales, marketing and distribution company was formed with Haymarket Publishing (now Haymarket Media Group).

The joint venture, unique in this sector of the newstrade industry, went some way to achieving the objective of increased market share but was still short of the number one position.

One possible route to increase market share was to take on business from independent publishers (third party.) However, it was felt that Frontline’s operational expertise, the source of real competitive advantage, should not be shared outside the partnership.

The dilemma remained – how to gain market share rapidly without taking the third party route? The answer was found when in 1990, two years after the arrival of Haymarket, BBC Enterprises (later renamed BBC Worldwide and now known as Immediate Media Company) joined the Frontline partnership.

In 1994 an agreement was made with Hachette Distribution Services to form a joint venture third party company called Seymour, as a complementary service to the core business. This was followed in 1997 by the further expansion of Seymour through an additional joint venture with Dennis Publishing.

H Bauer Publishing then became Frontline’s fourth partner in January 2005 and in December 2007 Emap plc was broken up with the Emap Consumer Media division being sold to Bauer Publishing.

So what does Frontline do now..?

Frontline sells and distributes over 160 of our Shareholder Publishers’ magazine titles, including 58 of the top 200 best selling titles in the UK (source: ABC). We supplied 480m copies of our magazines to over 55,000 retail outlets in 2010 ranging from the biggest hypermarket to the smallest corner store. We are the biggest magazine distributor in the UK.

Frontline’s purpose is to give each and every copy the maximum opportunity of being sold for the lowest practical cost. In practical terms we manage a multitude of crucial relationships – with publishers, with retailers, with wholesalers, finishers and carriers - to ensure our magazines are delivered to stores and displayed instore so as to maximise the benefits to both retailer and publisher. We connect our publishers’ knowledge of their readers with the retailers’ understanding of their shoppers in order to develop effective strategies for driving magazine sales. We have invested in sophisticated software solutions to ensure that we are getting the right magazines, in the right numbers, into the right shops, at the right time.

Frontline employs about 120 people and has its offices in central Peterborough. Our small size belies the significant influence we exert over a huge industry, which turns over nearly £2bn per annum and employs thousands of people. The talented people at Frontline make us the successful business we are, at the forefront of industry thinking and driving sustainable innovation at a time of significant change.