The LPC Group, which moved its back-office functions to Client Distribution Services earlier this fall (News, Sept. 17), will close its Chicago warehouse and office some-time next month. Only one more trailer-load of books remains to be transferred to CDS's warehouse in Tennessee before LPC auctions off its warehouse equipment in late-December.
According to LPC president David Wilk, who moved his office to Milford, Conn., earlier this fall, which is also where LPC's publishing imprints--Olmstead, Papier-Mache Press and Firebrand Books--are located, the staff of 65 in Chicago has already been trimmed to 21. "People are leaving on a regular basis," he said. "We had a great staff, and in this transition they've done terrific work. It's sad to lose them." The Connecticut office has 10 people, not counting the staff for the publishing imprints, which are unaffected by the changes. "Publishing is not shrinking," he noted.
Wilk continues to be bullish about the changes at LPC, although he acknowledged that LPC's shipments for November, the first month that CDS handled shipping, "were not without glitches." Still, he added, "We've really taken the model of being slim and trim. We're outsourcing a lot of things."
LPC is planning to use that same model with its newest client, the small-press distributor Alliance House in White Plains, N.Y., which represents a number of one-book publishers. "It's almost a daisy chain," said Wilk. "We each specialize in the kind of relationships that are appropriate. I think that will be a growth area for us. Through them we can take on more one-book publishers. At any one time, there are thousands of them looking for distribution."
