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Sprout to Put POD Systems in Texas STM Bookstore Group
Bob Summer -- 1/3/00

In a move that will place print-on-demand technology directly in a retail bookstore facility, fast-growing Print-on-Demand wholesaler Sprout Inc. of Atlanta and Dallas-based Majors Scientific Books Inc. jointly announced a strategic alliance that will place Sprout's POD production system in Majors's 10,000-sq.-ft. Houston retail book store in February 2000. Customers will be able to special order a title in the store and get the book in about 15 minutes. Eventually, Majors plans to install Sprout's production system in its other retail sites in Dallas, Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Majors will use the Houston store to fulfill local orders and to process orders from its other retail sites. Carolyn Lewis, the retail/wholesale company's customer and publisher relations director, told PW customers will also be able to order titles online at www.majors.com and at other retail Web sites that use the Majors title database.

Majors president J.A. Majors III said that Sprout's POD technology has "created a new affordable opportunity for bookstores to provide additional books for their customers."

Sprout CEO Pat Brannan called Majors "an excellent partner," pointing to its "customer service, publisher relationships and nationwide distribution network."

Sprout's director of publisher services, Ashley Gordon, explained that "short runs, specialized titles, midlist titles and titles that show a sudden spike in popularity" are all candidates for POD. "We try to help publishers figure out which titles work best, but they make the final decision." Gordon also noted that POD titles are integrated into the title databases without any special indication: "These titles are listed and available like any other titles."

Gordon also updated PW on a similar POD alliance with Borders Books signed in June. Sprout has installed a production system at Borders's headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich., and plans to install another system in Borders's distribution center in LaVerge, Tenn. Rollout to a limited number of Borders stores is about a year away. Sprout has also received commitments for more than 8,000 titles from publishers such as Random House, Time Warner, Simon & Schuster and Pelican. Gordon said Sprout expects to announce two more new system installations soon.
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