Matthew Simpson Email & Phone Number

Auckland, New Zealand

The Arotahi Agency provides a boutique sales and marketing service to three Australian multinational book publishers to the NZ book trade. Arotahi operates fully under the mantle of HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand and serves Walker Books, Simon & Schuster, Hardie Grant and Exisle Publishing. Under the respective mantles of these multinational publishers we also have the privilege of selling great books from Gecko Press, Andersen Press, What On Earth Books, Viz Media, Insight Editions, and Templar Publishing, among others.This collaboration of publishers, entailing significant (re)investment from all four publishers in th NZ market, enables increased field coverage for the clients, and greater market penetration and presence through alignment of activity at key account level. By offering experienced, expert representation and oversight of the NZ business, clients are benefiting from increased return on investment, greater agility and speed to market, and broader sales pipelines.

Auckland, New Zealand

HarperCollins Publishers is one of the world's largest consumer publishing houses with authors including JRR Tolkien, George RR Martin, Wilbur Smith, Andre Agassi, Jonathan Franzen, Jimmy Barnes, Mary Holm, CS Lewis, John Green, David Walliams, Donna Hay, and many others.Based in Auckland, HCP NZ publishes and distributes adults and children's books of the highest quality to the NZ book trade.My work involved leading the sales team and directly managing the business relationship with some of NZ's biggest retailers and resellers, and jointly managing the NZ operation. During my years in this role, HarperCollins NZ increased market share, rising from #4 publisher in the NZ market to #2, and was three times recognized as Publisher of the Year by Paper Plus Group (2015, 2016 and 2018).

New Zealand

Channel/country sales management of Belkin's broad accessory & connectivity range within NZ IT/CE space.

New Zealand

Leading the sales team, overall management of the NZ office, negotiation of distribution contracts, pricing strategy and product management, supply chain analysis, competitive analysis, product sales training (development and delivery), revenue and profit forecasting, relationship management.

Leading the customer-facing functions of Penguin's trade publishing business in NZ: constant change but seasonal rhythm. Managing three key account managers, a field sales manager and two internal support staff as well as our customer service centre, product managing the large range from Penguin UK and assisting in market and system development in many areas of Penguin/Pearson's NZ business.

Managed all Penguin's key book retail accounts at some time of my tenure in this role: Paper Plus, Borders, Dymocks, Whitcoulls.