Allow me to offer some facts and figures:

The UKCBD database currently holds 801 records. Of those, 209 are flagged ‘Omit’, for various reasons: some are incomplete and have never made it to the live site, others are archived as businesses have relocated; only 79 (just under 10%) are specifically flagged ‘Ceased Trading’ — and only 26 have been flagged ‘Ceased Trading’ within the last 12 months. That’s not the full picture: I’m aware of a number of shops that have ceased trading (Chelmsford Christian Bookshop and Quench, St Albans are two examples) but I haven’t updated their entries yet, simply due to the constraints of time and other commitments.

On the opposite side of the coin, however, during that same period 23 new records have been added. Looking back over the last quarter alone, these include:

• Midlands Christian Books, Walsall (2/2/2012)
• SACREdplace Bookshop, St Austell (30/1/2012)
• Windflower Books, Flax Bourton (25/1/2012)
• Liverpool Cathedral Shop, Liverpool (6/1/2012)
• Cathedral Centre Books (Catholic Truth Society), Salford (2/1/2012)
• Refreshing, Rotherham (24/12/2011)
• Cornerstone Books & Gifts, Ulverston (12/12/2011)
• St Albans Diocesan Resource Centre, St Albans (10/12/2011)
• Angeli Christian Books and Gifts, Cambridge (8/11/2011)
• KA Christian Jewellery (Online/Mail Order Only) (5/11/2011)

Some of these are brand new, launched within the last few months; some are relocated or ‘resurrected’ businesses, taking over existing premises from collapsed ventures; others are well established but had somehow slipped under the radar and never made their way into my listings; and some, quite clearly, are not ‘Christian bookshops’ as we’ve come to know them: they are all, however, part of the current Christian retailing reality, the reality that is now being refined and redefined.

Again, this isn’t the full picture: it’s rare for more than a couple of weeks to go by without someone contacting me to provide details of a shop or business that isn’t in the directory. As I prepare this post, I have records pending for several shops that I’ve only recently found out about:

• Burning Bush, Dungannon
• Carmel Bookshop, Bristol
• Children of Christ, Welling
• Jireh Books and Gifts, Poulton-le-Fylde

On average, then, for every shop that has disappeared over the last year, another has popped up: some towns, such as Nottingham, are now without a Christian bookshop; others, such as Rotherham, have gained one; and elsewhere, more flexible ventures such as Richard Greatrex’s Windflower Books and Jenny Hickman’s Midlands Christian Books have emerged. The UKCBD database is growing, not shrinking.

Some of the chains — SPCK, Wesley Owen, Living Oasis — are broken beyond repair; others — CLC and FM Bookshops — are still in business, some branches struggling, some thriving, the strong supporting the weak. The collapse of Living Oasis and the failure of Koorong to make a go of Wesley Owen here in the UK perhaps tells us more about the shortcomings of their particular business models than it does about the trade in general.

Steve Mitchell is right in what he affirms when he says:

… it is a brave man to bet against the online business which is so rapidly growing… the charity or independent model is now the best option to maintain physical Christian stores.

But he is wrong in what he denies: because there are plenty of brave men — and women! — out there: not “betting against the online business” but integrating the online with their business models.

The future of Christian bookselling in the UK depends not upon pitting the online against the physical but upon bringing the two together. It’s a secret that lives at the very heart of our faith: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female” — and to that I add, there is no longer physical or virtual — “for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

We who are Christ’s disciples should know these things better than anyone else. Throwing people overboard in the storm is not the way of Christ. Lopping off limbs when the head says to the foot, “I don’t need you anymore,” is not the way of Christ. The only time we see Christ breaking things up is when the temple of mammon attempts to supplant the temple of God — and, coming full circle now, the remnant of Israel that God promises Elijah he will save consists of “all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

The way of Christ is the Cross: is to face impossible odds, to take the pain, to bleed and die, and then — only then — rise to new life. There are no short cuts to resurrection.

To those now feeling like limbs lopped off; to those pursuing the vision of that “well-run and nimble independent sector” that Eddie Olliffe speaks of; to those following the way of Christ regardless of personal cost: I salute you.

The Bookseller, 31/1/2012: Bulk of Wesley Owen bookshops to close

ACCORDING TO A BOOKSELLER REPORT published this morning, all but one of the Wesley Owen bookshops now look set to close as the company focuses on its online trading rather than the bricks & mortar stores:

Bulk of Wesley Owen bookshops to close
31.01.12 | Lisa Campbell

Wesley Owen has announced it may close all but one of its chain of Christian bookshops, saying the bricks and mortar business has been overtaken by digital and online growth.

The chain closed its Bath and Bristol branches at the weekend, resulting in 18 job losses, and has told staff and suppliers it intends to “significantly reduce its high street presence.”

Currently 15 employees are in consultations about the future of their jobs and the company’s retail director, Steve Mitchell, told The Bookseller: “We think there will be one – but maybe two or three stores left.”

The report goes on to quote Steve as saying,

Making the decision to do this has been as hard as decisions get. It is partly to do with the economic position, but even if we had waited until the economy got better it is a brave man to bet against the online business which is so rapidly growing. We have seen our online business growing significantly – 3-400% in the last two years – and we recently started selling e-books and that has taken off rapidly too.

and concludes with the observation that “it is our view that the charity or independent model is now the best option to maintain physical Christian stores.”

• Read the full report

It has felt like a tsunami of bad news of late with so many Bookshop closures. The UK has lost 26% of its Bookshops since 2006 (over 400 outlets according to the Booksellers Association) and many of these are Christian Bookshops. This decline seems to be quickening with various shop closures announced almost weekly. Even the once-invincible Christian chains have succumbed, weighed down by high central costs and slow decision making: Scripture Union, The Church of Scotland, SPCK, Living Oasis and now Wesley Owen. I’ve written elsewhere that I believe the future belongs to a well-run and nimble independent sector. Have we simply gone full-circle?

The whole sorry saga of these closures came home to me as a bitter blow when I heard of the closure of Wesley Owen on Park Street in Bristol. This was originally the venerable ECL shop where I had cut my bookselling teeth in 1980 under the watchful eye of dear Alan Maynard, God bless him. The ECL Bookshop was originally opened in 1852 by Bristol’s famous George Muller and the building is still owned by the George Muller Charitable Trust…

• Comments are closed on this excerpt: please join the conversation on Eddie’s original post, Book Trade – A Tsunami of Bookshop Closures

UK Christian Bookshops Directory

THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in bookshop updates over the last few weeks: this post is simply to confirm that those updates are in progress. As with any voluntary project, however, these things take time: depending upon other commitments (such as church, family and earning a crust to keep the wolves from the door), you’ll sometimes see updates appearing almost instantly whilst on other occasions it may take anything from a few days to several weeks.

Please remember that you can keep track of the latest updates either via the UKCBD homepage or here, via the Latest Updates page; and please also remember that you can leave comments or update requests directly on any standalone entry or on any other page of the Directory.

Bookshop closures are usually reported in the News posts (and tagged Bookshop Closure), on facebook or via twitter (either via my personal stream or the official UKCBD stream) as they are brought to my attention, but Directory updates will often lag behind somewhat, as much as anything because I find making those changes thoroughly disheartening.

Last but not least, please do keep those updates coming in: thank you.

NEWS EMERGED YESTERDAY of further redundancies at Wesley Owen as the Bath and Bristol stores closed their doors for the last time; and whilst in certain respects that news — coming so soon after the weekend’s news of more job losses at TMD — might seem beyond worse, all is not yet lost: Richard Greatrex, former manager of the Bath store, has branched out independently with his own venture, Windflower Books.

Describing the project in a welcome message on the company’s newly launched website and blog, Richard writes:

Windflower Books has been in existence since 2007 as a small scale concern selling secondhand and remaindered theological books on the internet, supplying bookstalls for communities and events and publishing small runs of specialist material.

2012 sees a change in the Windflower venture as we seek to supply the needs of individuals, churches and communities in the South West who have lost their own local Christian Bookshops.

From a small start we hope to develop a system of bespoke bookselling tailored to the specific needs of each community we are working with. We are in the process of negotiating our first sites for enhanced bookstalls in local churches. Keep checking our blog, our Facebook page (Windflower Books) or our Twitter feed (windflowerbooks) for further details…

• Read more »

If you live in the South West and would like Richard to provide bookstall services for your church, do give him a shout: full contact details are available on the facebook page; and if you live further away, just hit that facebook Like button anyway to cheer him on.

Richard, I salute you: may the Lord bless you richly in this venture, and may your bookstalls be many and more popular than you can even begin to imagine.

• Follow @windflowerbooks
• Shop now via the Windflower Books Amazon Storefront

News & Star, Carlisle, 21/1/2012: Jobs Under Threat at Carlisle Book Firm after Takeover

JOBS UNDER THREAT AT CARLISLE BOOK FIRM AFTER TAKEOVER
Exclusive by Matthew Legg Business editor

Last updated at 10:21, Saturday, 21 January 2012

Seventy workers at a Carlisle bookseller have been told their jobs are under threat after the firm was taken over.

The new owners of Christian book distributor Trust Media – formerly Send the Light (STL) – have begun redundancy consultations with staff as they look to streamline the business.

The firm has not revealed how many jobs will eventually go, but the figure will not exceed 20 because the company has not entered the formal 90-day consultation period required to lay off more than 20 workers at once.

Bosses say the cuts are essential to secure the future of the Kingstown business and that they hope the bulk of the job losses will come through voluntary redundancies and retirements.

Staff are said to be shocked at the news. They are expected to discover their fates next week.

The report goes on to cite Paul Davies, a member of TMD’s senior management team, who describes the situation as “an unfortunate necessity” to ensure that the company continues trading in Carlisle “securing a substantial number of jobs in the process.”

In a further report by Lisa Campbell in the Bookseller yesterday, Pete Barnsley states:

Since January there has been a big injection of capital so for the business this has been a really positive move. But it has also brought with it a review of the whole business which includes consultations with staff. There will be a degree of staff reduction but we don’t know how many yet. It will be fewer then 20 positions.

Both reports refer to the company’s change of focus as it seeks to work with a wider customer base beyond its traditional role as primarily a supplier to the Christian retail trade, mentioning WH Smith and Amazon in particular. Inevitably, however, the current situation begs the question of whether or not a “streamlined” company with fewer staff will, in fact, be capable of serving that wider — and more demanding — marketplace as well as continue to efficiently serve its existing customers?

It’s a book that fills a gap many church leaders have longed to see filled, not only giving an overview of the biblical story but designed to show how that story continues into and through our own lives today, ideal for church members who want to dig a little deeper into that epic narrative and experience more of it for themselves and their neighbours.

Antony writes:

Whole Life, Whole Bible

‘Tell me a story’ and ‘Once upon a time’ – a four-word request and a four-word opening. Both phrases capture something of the universal human desire for stories. Indeed, our own lives are submerged in several interconnecting ‘stories’ – of living through or in the aftermath of the Second World War, of being married with grown-up children, of working in finance, of having a passion for collecting stamps, of serving on the PCC, of holidaying in Cornwall – and all these ‘stories’ shape our lives in different ways.

For Christians, of course, the most crucial story for shaping the way we think and live is the biblical story. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible can be seen as an epic narrative: a story which begins with God as Creator, which focuses on Israel as the people who will bring God’s blessing to the nations, which the New Testament declares has come to its promised fulfilment in the redemption brought about through Christ, in whom God’s purposes for the universe will be consummated.

Whole Life, Whole Bible is designed to walk through the unfolding story of the Bible in 50 readings and reflections. More than a Bible overview, however, the book has been written with the conviction that God’s word sets the agenda for our lives as followers of Jesus today. And it does so for the whole of life – on Monday to Saturday as well as Sunday, in public and in private, in culture as well as in church, in work as much as in worship. Moreover, this ‘whole-life’ perspective is not limited to a few biblical passages here and there, but is woven through the story as a whole – from creation to new creation.

Those who enjoy daily reading notes will benefit from an opportunity to see how the big story of the Bible provides a way of understanding how individual passages relate to each other in the larger picture. Beyond that is the reminder that we are a part of this ongoing drama which embraces the entirety of our lives – individually and together – for the sake of the world in which we are called to live.

Whole Life, Whole Bible aims to show how the big story of the Bible forms our minds, fuels our imaginations, and fashions our daily existence – as we live in God’s world in the light of God’s word, taking the Lord of life into the whole of life.

• Personal orders may be placed via your nearest Christian bookshop or direct with BRF
• Trade orders may be placed via TMD

Whole Life, Whole Bible
50 readings on living in the light of Scripture
Antony Billington, Margaret Killingray and Helen Parry
BRF, January 2012
9780857460172
£6.99

Live in or near London? Attend the official launch celebration – tickets £8, including refreshments and a copy of the book:
Where: LICC, St Peter’s, Vere Street, London W1G 0DQ
When: Monday 23rd January 2012, 6.45-8.30pm

• Follow @ant_billington
• Follow @brfonline
• Follow @liccltd

All comments and feedback welcome here, as always, but don’t miss the discussion emerging over on Roger’s original post…

TMD New Website: Annotated Screenshot

MOST TMD TRADE CUSTOMERS should have received notification by now of the imminent changes to their website, tmdistribution.co.uk: this is simply a reminder that the switchover happens this evening, at 6pm, at which point we can say a happy farewell to the old and overstretched STL Distribution site that TMD inherited. If you’ve missed the announcements, however, you can read all about it here:

• Reminder: new Trust Media website launching today!

The new site promises to bring a number of significant changes, perhaps the most important of which is a long overdue reconfigured search engine, alongside improved navigation and product availability information.

Two critical things that won’t be changing are the URL (website address) and your login details: there’s no danger of losing access to the site itself; but whilst your account will be carried over, your order history won’t be, and nor will any orders in the shopping basket. If you wish to keep a record of your order history, you’ll need to login today, before 6pm, and either print it all out or save it in some other format; and if you have an incomplete order in the shopping basket, you’ll need to either finalise it before 6pm (in real terms, think earlier to save overloading the servers at that point) or make a note of the items and re-enter them on the new site later.

It’s too early to say congratulations on a job well done to TMD’s IT wizards: time will tell on that point; but certainly congratulations are due on a job long overdue. I look forward to hearing how it all works out…

Business as usual at TMD

MY THANKS to Pete Barnsley, TMD’s Supply Chain & Marketing Team Leader, for his prompt response to yesterday’s report on the sale of Trust Media Distribution to the company’s CEO, Ken Munro, Another twist in the post-STL tale as TMD enters private ownership. Emphasising the security and stability that this transition brings to the organisation and its workforce as well as the company’s continued commitment to Christian wholesaling, albeit reduced in scope, Pete writes:

TRUST MEDIA, IT’S BUSINESS AS USUAL!

We are pleased to share this exciting news with you and are delighted that the change of ownership enables strong financial strength and ongoing investment for the future. It will also underpin our commitment to continued distribution and wholesale of Christian Books, Bibles and Resources to you. Our focus (and most significant part of our business) remains on developing our services to the Christian Trade with a comprehensive supply of a wide range of US publishers, a focused selection of UK publishers and industry leading Christian card & gift. Also to clarify, we will continue to be the exclusive wholesale partner for John Ritchie Ltd distributing all of their published content to the UK trade.

We are confident that you will see a high level of service as we move into and through 2012 and we are pleased to be making such a wide range of Christian Resources available to you.

Letters about the situation have been issued to retailers, who can expect to receive them within the next few days.

Paul Owen appointed as Director Of Sales at Kingsway Distribution

CONGRATULATIONS to Paul Owen on his appointment as Director of Sales at Kingsway Distribution. In a letter to the trade issued yesterday evening, Greg Tombs, Kingsway’s Managing Director, writes:

I am very pleased to announce that Paul Owen has accepted and been appointed to the position of Director of Sales-Kingsway Distribution.  Paul’s hard work, experience and dedication over the past 8 years has won him the respect and recognition of the Christian book trade and general market customers in the UK, as well as his peers and colleagues at Kingsway. Having twice been recognized with the Sales Representative-of-the-Year award by UK Christian Retailers which makes him an excellent fit for this role.

Paul will report directly to Greg, whilst the Area Managers (David Borg and Oli Proctor) and telesales reps (James Batterbee and Christine Wrench) will report to Paul, whose portfolio of responsibilities includes overseeing all direct sales activities and working with other members of the management team in formulating an overall strategic plan for the organisation here in the UK.

SU Bookshop Dublin reopened under new ownership

New business ownership: Shop Opening Jan 3 2012 as Footprints Bookshop

LAST BUT FAR FROM LEAST, wholehearted congratulations to Valmai Gee, who has taken the brave step of reopening the former Scripture Union bookshop in Dublin as an independent store following a decision by SU at the end of last year to close down its retail operations. Writing on the shop’s facebook page on Christmas Eve, Valmai explains:

Dear Friends,

I am writing to you to inform you that Scripture Union will no longer be operating the Footprints Bookshop at 43 Talbot Street, Dublin 1.

The recession has taken its toll on Christian bookshops and they feel it is no longer viable for them to be in the retail trade.

As of January 2012, Footprints Bookshop will be operated by me as a sole trader: Valmai Gee T/A Footprints Talbot Street.

Please continue to support us as we continue to promote Scripture Union “Authentic Youth”, Bible Reading Notes and Sunday School material.

Valmai continues,

This follows the way of Footprints Cork and Footprints Dun Laoghaire.

Though essentially we are independent bookshops trading under the “Footprints Bookshop” name, each of us believe Ireland needs Christian bookshops on the street. We have… each taken on the task to keep the bookshops running, to serve the churches who work hard in outreach and discipleship, and to serve individual believers in their own spiritual growth and desire to reach others for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many blessings, Valmai Gee.

At a time when so many bookshops are closing, it’s wonderfully encouraging to discover someone bucking the trend: Valmai, I salute you — may the Lord bless you richly and may many customers pass through your doorway to make your venture worthwhile and viable!

• Find Footprints Bookshop, Talbot Street on facebook