Publishers are navigating an increasingly complex landscape marked by supply chain disruptions, rising material costs, and a growing demand for sustainable practices. At the same time, technological advancements are reshaping how books are produced and distributed, offering new opportunities for efficiency and creativity. During this period of transformation, companies that adapt quickly and invest in innovation are setting the pace for the future of publishing.
Lakeside Book Company, North America’s largest book manufacturer, exemplifies this forward-looking approach. Operating for more than 160 years, Lakeside Book partners with publishers of all sizes across diverse sectors such as trade, religion, education, healthcare, government, and business. The company provides solutions throughout the entire book supply chain, including paper sourcing, offset and digital book printing, industry-leading decorated components, kitting, warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution.
“Books are our passion,” says Lakeside Book Company Chief Executive Officer, Dave McCree. “To us, every book matters. Every word. Every page. And every hand that helped create it. Customers trust our deep expertise in book manufacturing to efficiently handle every aspect of the production process.”
With the largest digital and offset printing capacity in North America, Lakeside Book produces more than 500 million books per year. This enables the company to deliver books closer to their destination, resulting in shorter turnaround times, lower costs, optimized shipping routes, and reduced carbon emissions.
The company continues to adapt to the ever-changing dynamics in the printing industry by investing in leading-edge technology solutions such as edge-printing machines, high-capacity offset presses, state of the art component sheetfed presses, and short run digital equipment. Complementing these manufacturing assets, Lakeside Book has, and will continue to invest in goods-to-operator technology, robotics, and other automation to manage customers’ changing work mix and create best in class work environments for our employees.
To mitigate supply-chain disruptions and cost pressures, Lakeside Book offers a diversified supplier network and a sophisticated sales and operations planning (S&OP) foundation to help publishers better forecast demand and manage inventory. Our understanding of the complete supply chain process helps to inform our strategy to offer a broad portfolio of services from printing, binding, and highly decorated components—covers, jackets, slipcases, and more—to warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution services.
For example, our team has seen how social media and popular reader communities like BookTok have played a pivotal role in the growth of the book industry. That understanding resulted in significant capital investment during 2024 to enable increased capacity for special features like edge printing, foil stamping, and custom packaging. McCree said, “These Special Editions will continue to provide publishers with welcome revenue boosts, as well as the opportunity to build upon their authors’ followings. We are committed to serving that demand.”
In addition to offering scale and cuttingedge technological resources, Lakeside Book Company also takes pride in delivering personalized customer service. “From concept to completion, we work closely with publishers as a trusted advisor every step of the way,” McCree said.
Lakeside Book Company’s people, many of whose careers with the company have spanned 25 years or more, are ultimately the company’s best asset, he says. “We love books. It sounds simple, but the key to our success is our employees’ shared passion for books.
