Category Archives: Musings…

SPCK/SSG Two Years On: Reflections and Responses

Posted on June 26, 2010 by | 3 Comments

SPCK/SSG Two Years On: Reflections and Responses

Today, Saturday 26th June, 2010, marks the second anniversary of the SPCK/SSG blog. You’ll hear no trumpet fanfare, no roll of drums; and you’ll see no flags flying, no balloons, no fireworks to celebrate. But if you listen, carefully, you may well hear the sound of tears falling… yet listen more carefully still and you might just hear the sound of a baby crying.

Because out of the anguish and distress through which that blog was birthed, new life has emerged, new bookshops — perhaps even new ways of being bookshop — have been born. Those include:

I invited some of those who were involved in the SPCK/SSG crisis from the very beginning to offer us some reflections on where we are now: Melanie Carroll, former manager of SPCK Lincoln and spckonline.com before the Brewers destroyed them, and now owner of Unicorn Tree Books — also recently described by Eddie Olliffe as “one of the most original and inspirational trade bloggers” — and Valiant for Truth, a frequent commenter on the SPCK/SSG Blog who has been keeping a particularly close eye on the still ongoing situation at Durham Cathedral, have both kindly accepted that invitation.

To read their observations, head on over to SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info

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Kingsway, Cross Rhythms and the cost of Christian music: are retailers being priced out of the market?

Posted on May 17, 2010 by | 33 Comments

Revisiting this month’s Christian Marketplace, I was encouraged to see Jonathan Brown, Kingsway’s Business Development Director, responding to Robin Henderson’s questions about Christian CD prices in the Letters section (p.4, April & May issues).

Christian Marketplace, May 2010

Christian Marketplace, May 2010

Whilst I acknowledge what Jonathan says about economy of scale and appreciate the huge investment Kingsway makes in supporting its artists and their products — and applaud Kingsway’s commitment to continued monitoring and reviewing of their prices — Jonathan’s observations seem to raise more questions than they answer:

It really is about economy of scale along with people’s perception to CD retail prices, which is driven by The UK’s Top 40 and more importantly supermarket pricing. Supermarkets continue to use CDs and entertainment product as a loss leader and to drive footfall.

Jonathan is undoubtedly right in his observations about the supermarkets… > Keep reading and join the conversation…

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Alleluia: Christ is Risen!

Posted on April 4, 2010 by | Leave a comment

He is risen indeed: alleluia!

And you and I, gentle reader, are risen with him, if only we’d believe it. Personally, I find it a tough call: I look at our war-torn, quake-shattered world and find myself more in tune with Woodbine Willie, who wrote:

O Grave, where is thy victory?
O Death, where is thy sting?
Thy victory is ev’rywhere,
Thy sting’s in ev’rything.

You can read the full poem here: Missing—Believed Killed: On Reading a Mother’s Letter

I’m with Woodbine Willie and I’m with Thomas: I want to see, to touch, to know, to be sure. I want to believe — I want to be like Paul, who wrote so many years before, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…” (Philippians 3:10, NIV) — I just wish he hadn’t written that bit about sharing the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings…

But without suffering, without death, there can be no resurrection and no resurrection power. If we as Christ’s followers are to share in the power of his resurrection, we must also share in the fellowship of his suffering. Some of us must lay down our lives. Some of us must pick up the world’s pain and carry it. Some of us will collapse under the weight. Some of us will be trampled underfoot by the very people we thought were our brothers and sisters, by our own colleagues and friends. Some of us have been, as we’ve seen balance sheets, business interests and self-preservation instincts take precedence over love.

As you celebrate Easter today, if you find yourself like me wondering where the power of the resurrection is in our world, in this trade of ours and in your own life, you could do worse, I guess, than read Adrian Warnock’s Raised With Christ. I haven’t read it yet myself so I don’t know to what extent he tackles suffering and death as the cost of resurrection in the book or whether it’s all about triumphant living and victory: if you read this post, Adrian, please do tell. But in the meantime, here are some of the reviews and interviews so far, most recent first:

Alleluia: Christ is risen! May you, gentle reader, know the power of that resurrection in your life and ministry today and always.

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Christian Suppliers Update: Alban Books, Kingsway, Norwich Books & Music and Scripture Union

Posted on February 27, 2010 by | 3 Comments

Despite the new STL UK’s best efforts to become a one stop shop for retailers, it seems that not all publishers want to play ball. The latest to jump ship is Scripture Union, who have now signed up Marston Book Services as their trade distributor. Distribution moves from STL to Marston with effect from Monday, 1st March 2010, although STL will continue to stock Scripture Union product as a wholesaler: full announcement below, courtesy of  Michael Welch.

It’s a more sensible move, it must be said, than Kingsway‘s attempt to manage their own distribution: a number of retailers have reported various problems with Kingsway, including delays, shortages and incorrect discounts. Hopefully we’ll begin to see some improvements soon now that they have James Batterbee (former branch manager at Wesley Owen, Croydon) on board as Customer Services Manager.

Kingsway say that trade orders are currently being turned around within 72 hours, carriage-free until the end of March; the aim, I believe, is 24 hour turnaround. Authentic UK product — acquired from the old STL — should be available next week. The company have also taken on UK distribution for Joseph Prince, Moody and Navpress and are reportedly planning — a little prematurely, perhaps, given the recent collapse of STL’s global ambitions? — to expand operations into the USA: UK Christian Music Giant, Kingsway, Establishes North American Presence. You can find Kingsway’s USA owners on twitter @David_C_Cook and on facebook; Kingsway appear on facebook as Mission Worship.

In the meantime, Alban Books — UK distributors (also with Marston) for a number of USA publishers including Abingdon Press, Augsburg-Fortress, Eerdmans and Westminster John Knox, to name but some — have announced that following Kate Dennis’s departure last year, they’ve decided that a full-time Sales Rep is no longer necessary and are switching to a telesales system, expected to launch mid-March this year. Any concerns or comments may be addressed to Nigel Parkinson, Sales Manager: contact details here. You can also find Alban Books on facebook.

Finally for now, Norwich Books & Music (distributors for SCM, Canterbury Press, Church House Publishing, Darton Longman & Todd and HarperCollins Religious, amongst others) have upped their game to match IVP and are now offering 24-hour delivery service as standard to the UK book trade, with same day despatch for orders placed by 12 noon and no small order surcharge. With comprehensive online search and ordering across Norwich’s entire list available via PubEasy.com, this in fact gives Norwich a distinct edge on IVP, whose trade list is only available as pdf downloads.

All we need next is for Marston, Norwich and IVP to get their invoicing systems up to speed with batch.co.uk…

Related Posts (most recent first)

Editor’s note: email addresses in the following announcement have been split as a spam prevention measure.

IMPORTANT TRADE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM SCRIPTURE UNION

Scripture Union is pleased to announce the appointment of Marston Book Services as its distributor.

Distribution provision will move from STL-D to Marston Book Services as of the 1st March 2010

All orders for Scripture Union titles including dated resource should be directed to Marston from the 1st March. Orders can be placed using your existing Marston trading account.

All orders for the April-June dated quarter and/or Submerge March-April should also be placed with Marston after this date – including top-up orders. If you have a SU dated standing order with STL-D we ask that you cancel and transfer it to Marston ASAP thereafter.

All returns for credit including dated should be sent to Marston Book Services. Any other claim – for damage goods, mix see/safe order etc should be returned to STL-D.

All orders and customer enquiries should be sent to:

Marston Book Services Ltd
160 Milton Park
P O Box 269
Abingdon
Oxon OX14 4SD
Tel: 01235 465576
Fax: 01235 465555
Email Orders: trade.orders AT marston.co.uk
Enquiries: trade.enquiry AT marston.co.uk

Any queries regarding this change please contact Scripture Union’s retail support – telephone Tracy on 01908 856182
fax 01908 856030
email retailsupport AT scriptureunion.org.uk

STL-D will continue to offer our wide range of titles as a wholesaler.

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Posted in Announcements, Book Trade Ramblings, Christian Publishers, Christian Suppliers, Musings..., News, STL

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“The short-sightedness of helping an industry cause its own collapse is staggering.”

Posted on January 23, 2010 by | 8 Comments

I spotted this on the Times online, an ad in the header of last Saturday’s article about Christian bookshops, The call goes out to keep Jesus on the High Street:

The short-sightedness of helping an important industry to cause its own collapse is staggering.

"The short-sightedness of helping an industry cause its own collapse is staggering" — Frank Pope

It’s an excerpt from an article about overfishing of bluefin tuna, which begins:

Two weeks ago a single bluefin tuna sold in Japan for a surreal £111,000. The price of this fish, which ends up in the best sushi restaurants, will carry on rocketing so long as the tuna population keeps plummeting.

It struck me as remarkably apposite for the book trade too: not just the Christian trade, but the wider trade. This week we’ve been having a lively debate about the pros and cons of publishers promoting Amazon in their advertising: A Polite Request to Christian (and other) Publishers: Please don’t do this; and I’m delighted to say that the Evangelical Press, whose posters gave rise to the discussion, have acknowledged their gaffe and apologised.

But I still find myself looking at Amazon askance as publishers seem to cave in to their ever more extortionate demands, supplying them at terms that allow them to sell at below trade or wholesale prices. Did someone forget to put up the warning sign: “Do not feed the troll”? Or are most publishers really that short-sighted that all they can see is the immediate sale and not the long term future?

Of course, it’s not just Amazon and the publishers: it’s the buying public. I’ve long since lost track of the number of people who wander into my shop, tell me how much they enjoy being able to look at a book before buying it — then promptly go off to purchase it online. Hello? Wakey wakey, people: how long do you think your local bookshop will survive if you treat it as nothing more than a showroom for Amazon?

There are notable exceptions, customers who call in, tell me that they know they can get a book cheaper online but they appreciate the service I provide; my thanks to them: you know who you are, and I salute you.

Then we have the rise of the ebook. They still occupy a relatively small sector of the marketplace: I’ve yet to see more people on the train with their ebook readers out than with paperbacks; but with Apple’s rumoured iTablet on the horizon, the tide may be about to turn and all those books we’ve buried in the sand may be sucked out to sea, where, with the bluefin tuna, they’ll be fished to extinction.

Or if not to extinction, to the point where they’re so rare that the only bookshops left will be like those top sushi restaurants, selling paperback books for £111,000…

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SAP and IBS-STL UK: A Timeline and Some Reflections

Posted on December 1, 2009 by | 23 Comments

Given that the collapse of IBS-STL UK has largely been attributed to its failed SAP implementation, the following timeline (which undoubtedly has a few gaps) may prove helpful in formulating the questions that should now be asked in order to ensure that a disaster like this doesn’t happen again. The fact that SAP was intended to be a global roll out but stopped here in the UK also raises questions: I reflect briefly upon some of these at the end.

October 2007: Groupsoft announces the start of SAP implementation in the UK, the first phase of a proposed “multi-country” roll out:

Groupsoft starts IBS-STL SAP Retail Project in UK

IBS-STL is one of the largest Bible and Christian literature ministries in the world – they translate the Bible into world languages that have 1 million or more speakes and distribute the Bible—and evangelism and discipleship literature—to people who might never learn about Christ any other way.

Groupsoft is implementing SAP Retail ECC 6.0 – across their multi-country distribution systems – in US, UK, South Africa, India and China.

23 October 2008: STL UK website and order processing suspended for SAP installation.

28 October 2008: SAP goes live.

3 November 2008: STL Blog: Apologies are offered as problems rapidly become evident. Delays in order despatch and tracking are acknowledged:

As planned the system went live last Tuesday and we were able to despatch some orders. Orders continued to be despatched everyday last week, although it wasn’t until Friday that we experienced a relatively trouble free day and were operating at anything near full capacity. We do continue to experience some issues which may cause some inconvenience, e.g. the interface with Fed Ex is not yet operational and we are unable to advise you exactly where your order is once it has left our Warehouse.

5 November 2008: STL Blog: “some technical difficulties with a small number of orders” acknowledged. Problems with carriage charges on backorders noted.

6 November 2008: I report briefly on the situation from a retailer’s perspective: STL: Back Online but not Back Up to Speed

7 November - 11 November - 12th November 2008: STL Blog: “problems in moving stock from bulk to live racking” blamed for delays in order processing.

14 November 2008: Timing isn’t the issue – Mark Hurley: Decision to ‘Go Live’ with SAP in the run up to Christmas 2008 is defended as having been taken “at the highest level”. Trade customers express dismay as orders remain unfulfilled.

19 November 2008: Steve Mitchell presents SAP Go Live to the Booksellers Association Christian Booksellers Group (BACBG). In an open letter to trade customers, Graham Sopp apologises for ongoing problems, although problems are attributed to “business process bottlenecks” rather than to the software itself:

We originally planned to implement the new system in August. However as the date approached, it became apparent that further testing of the new system was necessary before we could commence training people in how to use the system. We were faced with a choice of going live in late October or waiting until January 2009. Unfortunately, we would have faced immense difficulties in standing down our external project team of consultants for three months while we prepared to go live and then to re-assemble that team in January. After extensive testing of the system we were confident we could start with, at most, minor disruption. So we took the decision to go live in October.

Most of the problems we have encountered over recent weeks are related to business process bottlenecks and are not directly related to software and, in fairness to the system team, could not have been anticipated by the extensive testing we carried out.

I report briefly on the BACBG meeting: STL: Light at the End of the Tunnel?

22 December 2008: STL Blog: In the face of continuing difficulties faced by trade customers, a detailed explanation and defence of the SAP implementation is offered: Why SAP and why now??

19 January 2009: Trade customers receive further apologies for delays in despatch along with the following explanation:

The reason for this is our team of consultants are still working on solving a number of bedding down issues in SAP where orders can get stuck in the system.

January/February 2009: Keith Danby takes control of UK operations and apologises for the problems caused by the UK SAP implementation. From Christian Marketplace, February 2009:

Asked about the recent difficulties which the trading arm of the charity had been experiencing in the UK, following the introduction of new systems at its warehousing operations in Carlisle, Danby said, “SAP has been a very big investment for IBS-STL. We made this investment because we believe this will ultimately give us a Global Enterprise System.”

With regards to the timing of the implementation he commented, “When we embarked on this project we wrote into the contract that we would not ‘go live’ during the autumn trading period. Originally, it was to be launched in the spring. Like all major computer projects, there was slippage and the revised date was then end of August which slipped to September and the finally to October. At one time we had over 20 SAP consultants working to keep deadlines.” He also stated, “It is important that you know that Graham [Sopp] was not asked to step down as CEO because of the SAP problems.”

Danby also made the point that had the system not gone live in October then the launch would have had to be held back to March 2009. “Delaying to March would mean the SAP consultants having to leave for 4-5 months … as they are all freelance consultants, getting them to come back as a team was regarded as unlikely.” The SAP software was successfully installed “and it works” said Danby, “but we encountered significant operational procedure problems”. He admitted that more time was needed for testing it with their operating procedures than had been anticipated.

“We have spent 21 years being committed to serving the UK Christian Retail trade”, he said. “We take failures like this very seriously and I say again we are deeply embarrassed and sorry.”

25 February 2009: STL Blog: Update given on returns, receiving and backorders:

Single line backorders are still occuring; however we have seen a substantial reduction in the incidence. Our team along with consultants from SAP are continuing to work on resolving the residual issues.

8 April 2009: STL Blog: Message from Keith Danby acknowledges ongoing unresolved issues “with the new IT system” and announces the appointment of Andrew Clyde as Director of IT with specific responsibility for SAP development work.

1 May 2009: STL Blog: Problems with SAP blamed for Invoices with 0% discount:

If for a new product a product group is selected on a discount matrix where no value is maintained then SAP will apply no trade discount to the order – the result on your invoice is 0% discount. So how could this happen? Well, SAP is not able to automatically check that for say a particular Authentic book the combination of product group and customer group is correct.

14 August 2009: STL Blog: Trade Announcement from Keith Danby states:

A number of factors including the SAP implementation have caused STL Distribution serious Supply Chain difficulties, which have resulted in severe cash flow problems.

16 November 2009: Biblica announces the sale of its UK operations and lays much of the blame for the crisis upon the problems with SAP. This is perhaps best summarised in Tania Mason‘s report for Civil Society, Top-250 Christian charity to close, 18/11/2009:

David Young, the charity’s UK general manager, said the charity had been struggling financially for some time but the failed attempt to install an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in October 2008, that should have integrated all its warehousing, sales and customer services, was the nail in the coffin.

“We installed the accounting software a year earlier and on its own it worked fine, but the implementation of the ERP caused all kinds of problems with inventory and it was just as the recession hit. Those two things together gave us serious problems.”

They resulted in significant cashflow pressures, excess stock, and supply chain and service difficulties in the charity’s distribution and retail units. [...]

[...] SAP is yet to respond to IBS-STL UK’s criticism of its ERP system. A spokeswoman told Civil Society: “They are still talking about and trying to get to grips with the problem.”

18 November 2009: STL Distribution USA issues a statement — cited at Christian Book Shop Talk — to counter rumours that its operations are also under threat, advising customers (amongst other things) that

The US organization has not attempted to install the SAP software, and our systems are not affected by the attempted installation in the UK.

Concluding Reflections

The fact that the USA division (and presumably the other international divisions mentioned in Groupsoft’s October 2007 announcement) has not attempted to install SAP raises at least two questions:

  • At what point was the decision made to discontinue the global roll out?
  • Why, at that point, was the UK implementation not halted?

To an outside observer — judging purely by the extent to which the blame for STL UK’s crisis has been placed on the SAP implementation failure — it appears that IBS-STL UK, its employees and trade partners seem more than anything else to be paying the price for drawing the short straw: for being unfortunate enough to be first in a roll out that was part of a much grander scheme. If the implementation had first been attempted in the USA, South Africa, China or India, would it now be one of those divisions fighting for survival instead of the UK?

Clearly other factors have been at play, not least the state of the economy, but the SAP implementation had to start somewhere and it is a tragedy that Biblica, in the end, did not have the necessary resources to support the division that drew that terrible short straw.

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Saving STL UK: Towards a sustainable business model?

Posted on November 24, 2009 by | 5 Comments

Whether or not the possibility of a group buyout for IBS-STL UK will even be considered by Biblica’s Board and Trustees remains to seen. As of this posting I am still awaiting detailed financial statements from the company, without which it is somewhat difficult to even begin to prepare anything remotely resembling a firm proposal for prospective investors to consider. My understanding, however, is that the level of interest from prospective buyers has exceeded Biblica’s expectations and that discussions with some are well underway: at this stage it appears that a consortium such as I have suggested may not be needed.

Nonetheless, in response to several queries, here is a rough guide to how I would envisage a new business taking shape under a trade/community shared ownership model. This is emphatically not a business plan: it is very much preliminary thinking and all input, for, against or otherwise, is very welcome.

  • Freedom of speech, including the use of blogs and social media, will be actively encouraged at all levels.
  • SAP will be subjected to intense scrutiny and, given the experience to date, most likely scrapped, to be replaced by a tried and tested system licensed from another wholesaler.

Looking at the three divisions…

1. Wesley Owen
The chain itself would cease to exist. The shops would be rebranded and refocused on their local communities, with consortia of local churches and/or other Christian groups each taking responsibility for their own local branch, with an emphasis upon developing the shop as a social/community hub. Branch managers and staff would be responsible for stock selection with each shop aiming to become self-sufficient within a pre-agreed period.

  • Please see Matt Wardman’s post New Ways of Being Bookshop and the appendix of related discussions for some ideas on how this might be taken forward.

2. STL Distribution
The distribution division would be owned and operated by its employees, retailers, publishers and other investors working together. My vision would be for it to be run by a democratic board drawn from amongst the investors and answerable to their fellow investors: a genuine shared ownership company operated by the very people for whom it exists.

  • To help tackle the debts, I invite publishers to consider writing off some or all of the amounts owed to them in exchange for part ownership.
  • Retailers investing in the operation would be offered preferential trade terms.

3. Authentic Media and Paternoster Press
The publishing division would be offered for sale to other Christian publishing houses, possibly splitting into three segments: music, popular books and academic books. I do not expect, however, this to be an issue as I would be surprised if Biblica have not already found a buyer (or buyers) for this division.

Wrapping Up
Thank you to all those who have contributed to the discussions so far: please keep your comments and suggestions coming. As previously stated, this is not a business plan, although I hope that it might form the foundation for one. At present the ball remains in Biblica’s court…

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STL UK Crisis: Reports roundup and further reflections (updated)

Posted on November 22, 2009 by | 21 Comments

Figured a roundup of reports on / responses to the STL UK crisis might be useful. Reports marked * are largely nothing more than re-runs of the official press release with minimal or no additional comment. No doubt there are a few I’ve missed and more will emerge as the tragedy unfolds — but as I’ve said, I truly don’t think it needs to be a tragedy: despite the sceptics’ voices, I still believe that there are more than enough of us to save the day if only we will stand together.

I may be a tad crazy but I’m not crazy enough to think the entire edifice can be saved intact: it will have to be split up into smaller parts, with local Christian groups pooling resources to support specific branches of Wesley Owen, rebranded and refocused to serve their local communities. Kudos to the Bishop of Willesden, Pete Broadbent: he’s written to clergy in his area to see whether they can do something to keep the Harrow branch open. Do we have similar initiatives elsewhere in the country?

It’s also clear that some very hard questions need to be asked about the SAP implementation: why was it allowed to go so badly wrong? Why was it done as an all-or-nothing no-way-back project? We seem to be looking at some very serious high-level incompetence here and one of the first things whoever takes over the business will need to do is take a long, hard at this — then most likely scrap the system and start again.

An intriguing paragraph in the Civil Society report seems to offer a possible ray of hope for any parts of the business for which no buyer is found:

The corporate finance division of Baker Tilly is marketing the operations of the charity to a number of interested parties and hopes to complete negotiations for the sales or potential closures within the next few weeks. Young said that if buyers are not found for all parts of the business, Biblica may step in and buy the rest, but “ultimately IBS-STL UK will be wound up”.

Looking beyond Wesley Owen for a moment, all the shops that signed up to STL’s ‘Crown Books’ scheme now need to urgently rethink their ops.

Finally for now, for those who may have missed yesterday’s brief note: news has emerged of at least one publisher, Kingsway, pulling their stock out of STL’s Carlisle warehouse, returning it to their HQ in Eastbourne. I have requested further information from Kingsway: what happens, for instance, to retailers’ outstanding orders? No doubt an official announcement will be forthcoming.

Update, 24/11/2009: John Paculabo from Kingsway states:

As we approach certain timelines in our agreement, there are decisions that Kingsway will take irrespective of whether STL find a buyer or not, and currently these relate to foreign distribution.

STL remain our trade distributor, however in the today’s climate this poses a number of questions going forward, needless to say we are aware of thecomutations and possible implications.

I can assure you that Kingsway has not removed all of its stock from STL.

Update, 16/12/2009: Kingsway Books & Music back in stock at STL: STL Blog | Email Archive

Reports and Responses
Google News Search: Wesley Owen | IBS-STL UK | Biblica
Carlisle News & Star: STL News Stories

Reports marked * are largely nothing more than re-runs of the official press release. For a roundup of more recent reports, see Wesley Owen: 26 Branches Enter Administration, Others Sold (Updated) (19/12/2009)

Most recent first, list updated 12/12/2009:

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New Ways of Being Bookshop

Posted on November 20, 2009 by | 4 Comments

Matt Wardman writes:

Following recent posts by Phil Groom about the crisis in the STL Distribution company on the SPCK News Site and here at the Christian Bookshops Blog, I thought I’d run a few reflections up the flagpole.

I have no involvement in bookselling, apart from loving and buying books, but, like the Mouse, I have tried to listen throughout the last 2 years of supporting the campaign to scrutinise the rundown of the former-SPCK bookshop chain.

Where are we?
Some parts of Christian Bookselling is now in chaos – obviously. SPCK will not be back as a bookshop chain, and that has taken away a good deal of infrastructure and resources (did I really write that 2 years ago? – it’s the original Radio 4 interview) upon which many other activities and smaller projects used to rely.

Now, events at STL are putting a question mark over the future, or at least the nature, of the trade’s distribution backbone as well. I won’t say more about STL because I’m not in the loop and I’ll get it wrong.

Further, I remember Phil’s comments on the Christian Booksellers’ Convention at this time last year:

Perhaps I am unduly pessimistic in regarding Bible Society’s acquisition of CBC, the Christian Booksellers Convention, as an effective obituary notice for CBC. Perhaps merging CBC with CRE, the Christian Resources Exhibition, is not so much the end of an era as the beginning of a new one. …

This, quite simply, makes it a non-starter for a retailer focused trade event. We are already faced with online competition from our suppliers: are we also expected to smile sweetly and welcome direct, face-to-face competition as those same suppliers offer our customers deals to walk away with that we will never be able to match because those suppliers will not offer us terms that will make such deals possible?

Putting these insights together leads me to think that an important need at this time is to place the retailer back at the heart of the dialogue, and look for ways to survive in a very difficult environment.

The SPCK Experience
The “former-SPCK” position is that we have lost 25 bookshops, but with a variety of successful (or at least “working”) models emerging to fill the gaps in a surprisingly large number of places.

  1. Independent bookshop in (and supported by) a Church in Cardiff.
  2. Bookshop in a former church combined with Cafe in Norwich.
  3. Market-stalls – Birmingham and, I think, Worcester.
  4. Combined Christian/Secular bookshop in an indoor market, including a wide range of other products in Lincoln.
  5. Completely new bookshop, filling a similar space in the market, but with a local focus

And these are simply a few examples off the top of my head.

In addition, there continue to be other places where there may be an opportunity for a new project and an existing customer base / supporting community which would support such projects.

I’m saying “look how well these people are doing”; I’m saying “it can be made to work, even now, in the middle of a recession”.

What is working?
Having watched, written and campaigned about the dismantling of the SPCK network over a 2 year period, I’d note the following factors:

  1. The foundation of a loyal customer base – which can come from local churches, being a unique supplier of “product x”, engaging people via a blog, or on the ground (what about a Craft Table), or from an existing community seeking a new bookshop after the local SPCK vanished.
  2. Wider range of products. This can be Christian non-book products; but it can also be by treating Christian books as a specialist category within a non-specialist shop.
  3. Form of incorporation. As a comparison, the OXFAM Bookshop chain receives an annual subsidy of well in excess of one million pounds simply from the reduction business rates for charity properties.
  4. Online trading. Some places do this successfully, but I don’t have case studies.
  5. Certain churches have even used this as a strategy to support themselves, for example the Bradford-based Harvestime organisation.
  6. Creative cost-sharing/reduction with other organisations.
  7. Putting something “upstairs”; OXFAM tend to do it with other specialist franchises, such as secondhand wedding dresses.
  8. Collaborating with other local independent businesses in the traditional way.

I’d acknowledge that there is nothing fundamentally new here, and that many bookshops already do some or all of these.

They all have these points in common: innovation, flexibility and different tactics in each place.

Reframing the Dialogue around Retailers
These are my key suggestions as to current needs and opportunities:

  1. A lack of focus on the retailer the traditional trade events.
  2. A need for innovation.
  3. Intense economic and other pressures.
  4. Recent accounts of what others are doing successfully (or equally importantly, not successfully), how, and in what context.

I wonder whether some type of event deliberately aimed at helping retailers learn from others’ experience and to share successes and failures would be beneficial at this point.

Wrapping Up
I’ll stop there for now, and may add some more thoughts later.

What do you think?

Appendix: Some Related Discussions (added by Phil Groom; most recent first, updated 08/12/2009)

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A Modest Proposal to Save STL UK

Posted on November 14, 2009 by | 164 Comments

We all know that STL UK (or Biblica or whatever they’re calling themselves these days) are in deep doodah. That’s not rumour, it’s fact as stated by the man himself, Keith Danby, in his miscellaneous missives to the trade with repeated references to financial difficulties and ongoing consultations with bankers and others.

There are some signs of hope, of an improved cash flow: one supplier I spoke to this week told me that their account, six months overdue, had at last been paid. Other sources, however, tell me about supplier accounts being put on hold due to non-payment; and I know, from my own experience of having to source goods elsewhere, that warehouse stocks are not what they ought to be, especially at this time of year.

What we don’t know, of course, because they’re not telling us, is how deep STL UK’s financial crisis runs: hundreds of thousands, or millions? If the former — perhaps even if the latter — then I suggest that, if we’re prepared to act together, between us we have the power to rescue them.

UKCBD alone lists more than 600 Christian retailers, most of them actively trading, most of them STL UK trade account holders. Then there are the many church and other account holders as well as all the suppliers: that’s thousands of us who stand — to put it mildly — to be massively inconvenienced if STL UK goes to the wall.

My proposal, modest though it is, is simply this: we buy them out. Between us, we pay off STL UK’s debts — or enough of those debts to make their bankers do a double-take — and take them over as a shared-ownership company. Careful plans, terms and conditions would need to be drawn up, of course; but amongst us, surely, we have the expertise for that.

If as few as 1,000 of us contributed as little as £100 each, that would be £100,000. I think that, however, is a very conservative estimate of the amount we could raise: there are far more than 1,000 of us whose own businesses and livelihoods stand to suffer immensely if STL UK cease trading; and whilst some of us would struggle to find £100, many of us could contribute significantly more than that to a trade buy-out.

We’ve prayed together. The time has come, I think, for us to act together: to put our money where our mouths are and recognise that we ourselves may be God’s answer to those prayers.

Too little too late, I hear you say. Maybe so: the winds of change are blowing in our industry as more and more business is being conducted online; but let’s not allow the Christian book and retail trade in the UK to go down in history as blown away by an errant trade wind when we could have saved it had we only been blown along by the Spirit of God…

Appendix: Biblica Financial Reports

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