Bookselling

BookWorld Warehouse Heads North
John Mutter -- 12/13/99

Early in the new year, BookWorld Services, the Sarasota, Fla., distributor with some 100 publisher-clients, is moving its warehouse and fulfillment center to LaVergne, Tenn. Corporate headquarters will remain in Sarasota.

"Nashville makes so much more sense, and we are a service business," Ron Ted Smith, BookWorld's head, told PW. BookWorld will take over some 50,000 square feet of space in one of Ingram's buildings in LaVergne, which is near Nashville. Christian Distribution Services, the new Christian book distributor that is being supported by BookWorld Services, will have its headquarters in the same building.

By being in the center of the country, the company will be, Smith estimated, "two days closer to almost everybody."

A convoy of some 50 trucks will take all stock to LaVergne from Sarasota the first week in January, a slow time of the year for many shippers. BookWorld stocks some 1,800 titles, amounting to several million copies altogether.

Earlier this year, the company, which at one point had some 200 publisher-clients, cut back on its smaller publishers, including 43 in one blow. A study showed that BookWorld loses money on publishers that have only one or two titles, no publishing plan and sales under $5,000 a year. Although the company has fewer publishers now, they are stronger and bigger than the larger stable BookWorld had several years ago.

The area is a center of book distribution: Ingram's headquarters are there, and Borders and Waldenbooks have warehouses.

As of January 15, all shipments to BookWorld should go to LaVergne. BookWorld is located at 1933 Whitfield Park Loop, Sarasota, Fla. 34243; (941) 758-8094; fax (941) 753-9396; e-mail: sales@bookworld.com; Web site: www.bookworld.com.