• Current Vacancies
• Retail Sales & Marketing
• Finance
• Direct Marketing
• Information Technology
• Editorial
• Production
• Fulfilment Operation
• Work Experience opportunities
• To send us your CV
• Equal Opportunities Policy

Current Vacancies

If you would like to apply for a position listed on this site please contact our Human Resources Department, via email, fax or mail.

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Retail Sales & Marketing

Harlequin (UK) Ltd  employs the same type of disciplines for marketing books as other producers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) products. The department is divided into Marketing, Export, Sales and Operations.

Marketing:

The marketing department normally recruits at Assistant Product Manager or Product Manager level. Both these positions require previous marketing experience. It is imperative that new recruits understand at least basic marketing principles, new product development and multi department management to add immediate value. We look for people with marketing experience ideally within the fmcg sector, a retail environment or some exposure to brand marketing.

Export:

Opportunities are limited due to the size of the department but would need to have previous experience of managing sales and ideally would have export experience.

Sales:

The business strategy requires emphasis on national / key account management. Applicants to the sales department need to have experience of selling to senior and middle buying levels in major accounts and be focused on account management and development, as well as have skills in forecasting, profit building development and some trade marketing experience.

Operations:

This department is responsible for ensuring that forecasts are translated into product supply through our manufacturing teams and goods ordered by our customers are supplied correctly by our third party distributor in a timely and profitable manner. They also provide analysis to support other departments within Retail Sales and Marketing to help them plan their activities and focus this effort correctly. The operations area also includes the Customer Relations area, which deals with Customer queries and also helps to provide the interface between marketing, salesforce and customers and the third party distributor, as well as merchandising teams.

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FINANCE

The finance department is responsible for the preparation and maintenance of various management information such as: Budgets, Strategic Plans, Profit and Loss statements.

Balance Sheets, Royalty reporting, Fixed Assets, Tax Computations, Purchase ledger, Cash Books.

Applicants who have CIMA or ACCA or are working towards it are preferred.

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DIRECT MARKETING

The Direct Marketing Division is responsible for the promotion and fulfilment of direct subscription sales to customers in the UK, Southern Ireland and Selected Export markets. It consists of four teams: Marketing, Analysis, Customer Relations and Marketing Services.

Marketing:
There are two main strands of activity within the marketing area - Acquisition and Retention. As the names suggest, Acquisition is all about enrolling new subscribers and Retention is about keeping them for as long as possible. On both sides, numerous campaigns are run each year using a wide variety of direct marketing techniques including direct mail, inserts and space advertising. Entry level is usually at Marketing Co-ordinator or Assistant Product Manager level. Applicants must have some experience within a direct marketing environment.

Analysis:
The Analysis team is responsible for the detailed analysis of all the direct marketing campaigns and for feeding this information back to Marketing. Analysis also helps prepare the yearly operating and strategic plans and provide regular re-forecasts based on actual results to date. Applicants must have some analysis or finance experience, preferably within a direct marketing environment.

Customer Relations:
The Customer Relations department is responsible for providing a friendly, efficient service to our subscribers both over the phone and in correspondence. Applicants to this area must have customer care experience preferably involving telephone contact with customers.

Marketing Services:
Marketing services is responsible for ensuring that all data is entered onto the subscriber database in the correct format in order to facilitate the smooth fulfilment of all direct marketing campaigns and to allow for detailed post campaign analysis and accurate selections for future campaigns. Applicants require previous database experience preferably within a direct marketing environment.

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The IT department has three sections: PC Support, AS/400 Operations and AS/400 Development. PC Network Support maintain the company networks and assist PC users in solving problems. AS/400 Operations control three iSeries servers used for our European direct marketing. AS/400 Development program new functions and enhancements to these databases systems in the COBOL language.

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EDITORIAL

One of our larger departments. It includes Senior Editors, Editors and Assistant Editors, who acquire, evaluate and develop manuscripts for acquisition and publication to varying degrees. Editorial Assistants provide administrative, clerical and editorial support to the department. Copy Editors deal with the author's manuscript - correcting details of grammar, checking facts, dates, languages and locations and marking up the text for the printer. To do this, the manuscripts may have to be read twice or even three times.

Entry level opportunities are usually at the Editorial Assistant level. Applicants tend to be English graduate students who have a interest in romance/women's publishing, good administration skills and a flair for writing original and appealing copy.

Contracts Administration is a vital part of the Editorial Department. This requires constant liaison with the other two acquisition sites in Toronto and New York as well Switzerland. A solid knowledge of contract and publishing law, data protection, copyright and royalties is required in the senior position here.

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PRODUCTION

The production department is split into Book Production and Direct Marketing Print and Premia Production. The Book Production team has to order paper, obtain estimates from and place orders with printers, binders and paper merchants and check the book through each stage of its progress to finished copy, all of which demands great attention to detail and a tight control of scheduling. Ability to multi-task, to be detail orientated, flexible and numerate are essential in production work.

Proof-reading also takes place in the Production Department, with the checking of book covers, preliminary text pages, advertising pages and printers final ozalid proofs.

We have a small DTP function, responsible for the typesetting, design and assembly of preliminary pages, advertising pages and miscellaneous letters and forms. All of these tasks are performed using Macintosh equipment and related DTP software packages.

The Print and Premia section deals with all the production requirements for the Direct Marketing department, for examples direct mail packs, leaflets, flyers, letters, envelopes, scratch cards, invoice stationery etc. Meticulous attention to detail and being highly organised are essential qualities for this type of work. Knowledge of prepares, print production and print finishing processes are essential.

Design and production are aspects of publishing for which formal preliminary training is available and desirable. Courses in book design, graphics, typography and printing techniques are provided by many polytechnics, colleges of art and printing schools.

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FULFILMENT OPERATION

Direct Marketing's Fulfilment Operation is based in Croydon and is split into two departments:-

Processing

The Mail Room team machine and hand sort incoming customer payments and letters for the Information Processing team to enter them onto the customer accounts either by manual keying or an OCR machine. Payments are then banked and the more complex queries forwarded to the Customer Relations department. The Marketing Intake team process responses to Direct Marketing campaigns. Speed, accuracy and flexibility are essential and experience of a similar operation desirable.

Warehouse

The Lettershop prepare invoices, reminders and Customer Relations letters for despatch. The invoices are forwarded to the Packing area for hand or machine packing and then despatched via parcel carriers. The Warehouse Services team manages goods in and out of the Warehouse using a computerised control system, fork lift trucks and a lorry. Parcels which are returned are opened and sorted and invoices passed to the Processing department. Speed, accuracy and ability to multi-task again are essential and experience of a similar operation would be desirable.

Please note that in the majority of circumstances we would require you to have current and valid permission to work in the UK.

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WORK EXPERIENCE

Harlequin Mills & Boon Ltd run a Work Experience Placement Scheme. We offer placements within the UK Editorial, Editorial Acquistion, Editorial Managing Editors and Retail Marketing departments.

The scheme is open to anyone who has a genuine interest in publishing, especially women’s fiction. For students, undergraduates and graduates – we can tailor your placement to work around your course. And we will pay towards lunch and travel expenses.

This would be a real opportunity to gain a good working knowledge of many aspects of the publishing process.

For more information, please contact Andrea Grice at andrea.grice@hqnuk.co.uk . Please also attach your CV with covering letter.

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To send us your CV:

If you send your CV via e-mail — please be sure to include the word 'CV' in the subject line and paste a text copy of your CV into the body of the email.

Contact: Human Resources Department

Mailing Address:

18/24 Paradise Road
Richmond Surrey TW9 1SR
UNITED KINGDOM
Fax: 020 8288 2898/9
Email: careers@hqnuk.co.uk
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EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY

Harlequin Mills & Boon Ltd is an equal opportunity employer and follows the recommendations of the various race, sex and disability discrimination Acts. The Company will not tolerate racial, sexual or disability discrimination and aims to ensure that the job applicant, employee or trainee is neither directly or indirectly discriminated against because of their race, colour, ethnic origin, sex or age.

The Company's management at all levels has responsibility for providing equal opportunities, however, all employees have responsibility for the successful application of the policy. In particular, Harlequin Mills & Boon Ltd intends to ensure that:

• Information regarding vacancies has an equal chance of reaching applicants of any race, sex or disability and does not indicate a preference for one group of candidates.
• Care will be taken that job requirements are justifiable and are not directly or indirectly discriminatory.
• Interviews will be conducted objectively taking all of the foregoing into account.
• Access to training and promotion opportunities are provided equally to all employees irrespective of race, sex or disability.
• Terms and conditions of employment and access to facilities must be applied equally to all staff with no intention to discriminate.

The Company will not induce or attempt to induce others to practice unlawful discrimination. Any alleged acts of discrimination will be thoroughly investigated through the Company's grievance procedure and disciplinary action will be taken where there is evidence of racial discrimination or harassment.

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