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Iris Barel, CEO of the Steimatzky book store chain, is confidentthat electronic books do not spell the end of printed literature,but she is still taking steps to ensure the retailer's place in arapidly evolving market. "Digital will not destroy traditional literature, but printbooks are likely to fall to just 20% of the market in the comingyears," Barel said in an interview with TheMarker duringHebrew Book Week. "I'm not afraid of change and see it as an opportunity,"she said, "so we have entered the digital arena and aredeepening our presence there." Barel got her start in insurance, not in books, and was in thefield for two decades as an independent professional. Over theyears, she sold three companies she had started - the first inhealth insurance that she sold to Yair Hamburger of Harel Insuranceand a second to Mivtach Shamir. In 2000 she set up a third healthinsurance business with Yonel Cohen, now CEO of Migdal Insurance,as a unit of Mivtach-Simon Insurance Agencies. The business wassold six years later to Migdal. Barel has been CEO of Steimatzky since 2006, a year after theMarkstone Capital Group, a private equity fund, acquired the chainfrom Eri Steimatzky for a sum estimated at $50 million to $60million. She came to Steimatzky via a headhunting firm and washired on the basis of what she said was good chemistry between herand Amir Kess and Ron Lubash, the two principals of Markstone. Today she manages a business of 1,200 employees and 145 branches,only four of which are franchised. The name "TzometSfarim" is never uttered by her; it is simply "thecompetition." But she stresses that whatever bad blood runsbetween the country's two biggest book retailers is at the level ofownership, not management. Barel, 57, is seeking to supplement Steimatzky's retail printoperation with new ventures and incentives to bring people intobook stores. "We have set up a literary incubator that publishesmanuscripts that have been sitting in people's desk drawers. Wehave set up one of the biggest customer clubs in Israel,"Barel said. For the past year-and-a-half, Steimatzky has been promoting apolicy of special offers for books. Tzomet Sfarim has had such apolicy for the past five years, in which it offers four books forNIS 100. "We have honored our promise made a year-and-a-halfago to be the lowest-price chain in Israel," said Barel."We have no choice but to develop." Barel has the competition on her mind even in her off-hours."I have a sickness. Whenever I attend an event I check howmany gift bags are ours and how many are the competition's,"she said. "When the ratio is 90% to 10%, or at least 80% to20% in our favor, I'm relaxed. If it's less, I get restless. Mybible is the book 'Only the Paranoid Survive' by Andy Grove, one ofthe founders of Intel and its first CEO." But Barel said she tries to rise above rigid partisanship inbusiness, noting that among the prizes the chain will award toauthors of best sellers this year - including Eshkol Nevo, ShemiZarhin and Zeruya Shalev - Nevo's book "Neuland" ispublished by Zmora Bitan, which, she notes, "owns ourcompetitor." "I would have been more comfortable if theauthor had a different publisher, but Nevo will get NIS 25,000 fromSteimatzky because we are fair. We have to remember who is thesource of our livelihood." These days Barel is looking to form an investor group from Israeland abroad to buy the chain from Markstone, which will have to sellit by 2015. If she succeeds, Barel said she hopes to becomechairman; if not, she will look for "another challenge.". I am an expert from storage-palletracking.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Automatic Racking System , Mould Storage Racks Manufacturer, Heavy Duty Pallet Racking,and more.
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