What Mare Nostrum does

Mare Nostrum Group is an independent UK-based publishing services company founded in 2003 and headquartered in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, with a London office opened in June 2024. The company provides outsourced sales, marketing, distribution, consultancy, and recruitment services to academic, professional, trade, and society publishers, representing over 120 publisher clients across UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific (excluding the Americas and Japan). Its client roster includes major US university presses (Cornell, Fordham, Rutgers, UNC, Northwestern, University of Nebraska, Notre Dame, McGill-Queen's, University of Toronto), learned societies and professional associations (American Mathematical Society, SIAM, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association), and trade publishers (Watkins Publishing from July 2026).

The business operates an asset-light services model layered on top of an exclusive fulfillment partnership with Wiley Distribution (in place since April 2023 for UK/Europe/RoW) and an integrated zero-inventory print-on-demand programme operated with CPI at Wiley's European Distribution Centre. Mare Nostrum manages the publisher-facing commercial relationship — frontlist selling, backlist monitoring, librarian engagement, e-vendor coordination with Gardners, Kortext, and VitalSource, metadata distribution, and tailored marketing campaigns — while Wiley handles pick, pack, credit control, and customer service. In 2025 the company launched MNG Bookshop, a direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform developed in partnership with Supadu, extending the model into consumer-facing sales of scholarly and professional titles with e-book availability planned.

Revenue is generated through five streams: managed distribution services, professional sales and marketing services, recruitment services, strategic consultancy, and transaction-based direct sales through MNG Bookshop. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and is negotiated per client. The go-to-market is sales-led, supported by event-driven engagement at Frankfurt and London Book Fairs and a multilingual account team structured into Academic & Professional, Higher Education, and Trade divisions. In August 2024, the company acquired Eurospan from administration — adding approximately 200 publishers and 20 staff and doubling headcount to over 50 — and already operates Combined Academic Publishers (CAP), a wholly-owned subsidiary acquired in 2013 that focuses on American university presses. The legal entity is Mare Nostrum Group Limited, registered in England (Company No. 04971428), privately held with no disclosed external investors.

Name

Mare Nostrum

Legal name

Mare Nostrum Group Limited

Website

https://marenostrumgroup.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Mare Nostrum Group is a UK-based independent publishing services company providing outsourced sales, marketing, distribution, consultancy, and recruitment to 120+ academic, professional, trade, and society publishers across the UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Publishing Services

NAICS

Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers (42492), Marketing Consulting Services (541613), Advertising Agencies (541810), Other Services Related to Advertising (541890)

SIC

Wholesale-Paper & Paper Products (5110), Services-Advertising Agencies (7311), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

E-book Subscription & Bundling Services (MPAJAMAB)

Keywords

• Publishing sales services
• Academic book distribution
• Publisher marketing services
• Publisher consultancy
• Publishing recruitment

Headquarters

HQ city

Harrogate

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Distribution Services: Provides print and digital distribution services to academic, professional, and society publishers. Fulfilment and distribution handled through partnership with Wiley Distribution. Publishers pay for distribution services which include customer service, distribution, and credit control functions.
2. Sales and Marketing Services: Provides sales, marketing, and distribution services to commercial and academic publishers. Services include print and digital sales, marketing campaigns, e-vendor management, librarian network engagement, and conference attendance.
3. Recruitment Services: Tailored recruitment services for publishing organizations, from entry to board level, drawing on extensive publishing industry knowledge. Includes executive search and placement services.
4. Consultancy Services: Strategic consultancy services for publishers including market research, acquisition target identification, digital platform assessments, eBook strategies and pricing models, and new market opportunity exploration.
5. MNG Bookshop Direct Sales: Direct-to-consumer sales through MNG Bookshop platform, selling publications from client publishers to researchers, educators, and students with academic discounts.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Mare Nostrum Group provides sales, marketing, distribution, recruitment and consultancy services to academic, trade, professional and society publishers across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. It operates a multilingual sales team, manages distribution through Wiley Distribution with integrated print-on-demand via CPI, and runs the MNG Bookshop direct-to-consumer platform for its publishing clients.

Product overview

Mare Nostrum Group is an independent, full-service publishing services company providing a comprehensive suite of solutions to academic, trade, professional, and society publishers. The company operates as a unified platform combining Print Sales, Digital Sales, Marketing Services, Distribution and Data Management, Consultancy, and Recruitment Services. The product portfolio includes MNG Bookshop (a direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform built with Supadu) and Combined Academic Publishers (CAP), a division focused on American university presses. Following the 2024 acquisition of Eurospan, Mare Nostrum Group now serves over 120 prestigious publishers with a team of over 50 employees across offices in Harrogate and London. Distribution is handled through Wiley Distribution with integrated print-on-demand via CPI.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• MNG Bookshop: Direct-to-consumer platform for academic and professional publishing, developed in partnership with Supadu, providing centralized access to scholarly and professional publications from MNG's publisher portfolio

Products and services

• Print Sales Multilingual sales representation for client publishers' print books across key accounts, independent retailers, campus and university libraries, and special/corporate sales channels in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
• Digital Sales

Quantifiable outcome

• Over €12,000 raised for charity partners through Youth Upskill Initiative
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers44 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Leonard CurtisminorOthers · 16 August 2024Leonard Curtis served as Joint Administrators for Eurospan Group (including United Independent Distributors Limited, Marston Book Services Limited, Eurospan Limited, and Orca Book Services Limited) when they entered Administration on 24th July 2024. Dane O'Hara and Alex Cadwallader facilitated the acquisition by Mare Nostrum Group.
• Speakers TrustminorOthers · 1 January 2022Charity partner supporting MNG's Youth Upskill Initiative. A social mobility charity committed to empowering young people with communication skills, working with over 600 state secondary schools in England delivering public speaking workshops.
• Career ReadyminorOthers · 1 January 2022Charity partner supporting MNG's Youth Upskill Initiative. Dedicated to connecting young people with the world of work through internships, mentoring, workplace experiences, and network of support.
• Global Publishers GroupminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 12 October 2020Global Publishers Group, a New York-based sales, marketing, and client services firm, manages the Gallup arrangement with Mare Nostrum Group. They provide customized international sales and marketing, business development, and logistics solutions.
• CPI (Book Publishing International)coreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2020CPI operates a state-of-the-art inkjet print-on-demand system on site at Wiley's facility, offering integrated zero inventory POD option for Mare Nostrum Group clients. This partnership enables publishers to move parts of their list to zero inventory without impacting supply chain.
• World ScientificcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 October 2018Mare Nostrum represents World Scientific in Italy and France for print and digital products, in addition to existing territories of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. World Scientific publishes about 600 new titles a year and 135 journals.
• SupaducoreTechnology or IntegrationSupadu developed MNG Bookshop, a direct-to-consumer platform for Mare Nostrum Group. The platform serves academic and professional communities with centralized access to scholarly publications.
• The Book Trade CharityminorOthersMNG donates books from London Book Fair and Frankfurt Book Fair displays to The Book Trade Charity, which resells them to extend accessibility of titles and supports colleagues across the book trade with grants and housing.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• National Book Network (NBN): US-based book distribution and sales representation company serving independent and academic publishers. Directly comparable as a sales-and-distribution agency model for publishers, though primarily serving the US market MNG does not cover.
• Bertrams: UK book wholesaler providing trade book supply to libraries and retailers. Comparable as a UK-based book distribution services competitor serving similar publisher and library customer bases.
• Consortium Book Sales & Distribution: Sales and distribution services provider for independent academic and literary publishers. Comparable as a boutique publisher services agency offering sales, marketing, and distribution on behalf of publishers.
• Turpin Distribution: Specialist distributor serving academic, scholarly, and professional publishers globally. Directly comparable as a book distribution services provider for the academic and professional publishing segments MNG targets.
• Gardners Books: UK-based book wholesaler and e-book distributor serving retailers, libraries, and publishers. Directly comparable as a UK/EU book distribution partner; Gardners is also one of MNG's e-vendor partners for e-book distribution.
• Bounce Sales & Marketing: UK-based sales and marketing agency specializing in academic, professional, and STM publishing. Direct peer with overlapping service offering (sales representation, marketing) for academic publishers in the UK and Europe.
• Independent Publishers Group (IPG): US-based book distribution and publisher services company offering sales, marketing, and distribution to independent and academic publishers. Comparable in operating model to MNG's distribution, sales, and marketing suite, though US-focused.

Broad incumbents

• Ingram Content Group: Global book distributor and publisher services provider offering wholesale distribution, print-on-demand, and digital services. Comparable to Mare Nostrum as a book distribution and sales services platform serving publishers, but at vastly larger scale and broader geographic reach including the Americas.
• John Wiley & Sons (Distribution arm): Major academic publisher whose Distribution arm is MNG's exclusive fulfillment partner. Comparable as a publisher-distribution hybrid; also a potential competitor for some publisher mandates and a structural dependency for MNG.

Regional players

• Publishers Group Canada (PGN): Canadian book sales and distribution company serving publishers. Comparable in business model (sales and distribution on behalf of publishers) but operates in a different geography (Canada) than MNG's EMEA/APAC focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mare-nostrum
• Xx.com/mare_nostrum_uk

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mare Nostrum