BIOZONE tailors export strategies to suit the market

BIOZONE is a niche publisher of high quality and up-to-date resources for senior secondary school biology students and their teachers. Its suite of products includes workbooks covering senior biology courses, stand-alone modular workbooks on selected topics and Presentation Media CD Roms.

BIOZONE founder and CEO Richard Allan is a former secondary school biology teacher who, 21 years ago, identified a need for more engaging classroom material and started developing his own. Today, BIOZONE is among the top three publishers of biology resources in Australia, has growing markets in the United Kingdom and North America and is also exporting to Asia and Europe.

Rights for royalties

Selling overseas rights in return for royalties is proving a successful initiative for the company in markets like China, where the People’s Education Press has adapted and translated BIOZONE’s resources for Chinese students. BIOZONE has also sold the rights to its material for translation and use in Poland, Slovenia and Japan.

Richard Allan shakes hands after signing contract with Liu Yizhu (deputy editor-in-chief) of People's Education Press, PR China at the Beijing International Book Fair

“Selling our intellectual property, rather than exporting directly, allows us to tackle complex and relatively closed education markets. It’s all about the most efficient use of resources – we get extra value out of our IP without having to boost our capability to deal with things such as distribution and translation.”

However, Allan says BIOZONE is not simply looking for a revenue stream from royalties.

“Forming an ongoing relationship with publishers licensed to produce our material is just as important. There is a lot of passion in BIOZONE about what we do and a drive to share that in a way that helps better educate students around the world.”

BIOZONE has about 13 staff in its Hamilton, Australian and UK offices. Content is developed in New Zealand by qualified science teachers the company has recruited and graphics specialists who produce material using state of the art publishing equipment.

“A key to our success is that the resources are immensely popular wherever students and teachers come across them,” says Allan.

“As well as putting a strong emphasis on exciting visual delivery of information, we produce new editions every year and are constantly researching and adding new topics to ensure the material is at the cutting edge of biological research and thinking.”

Customised content

BIOZONE has been selling generic resources in the UK for more than a decade but a streamlining of examination content and the emergence of authorised publishing houses producing officially endorsed text books has brought challenges.