St. Paul, Minn.—based Consortium Book Sales & Distribution Inc. reported a record year in fiscal 2004, which ended June 30. According to chairman and CEO Don Linn, sales were up about 40%, while earnings posted a solid increase. The privately held company had sales of roughly $12 million when Linn purchased it in January 2002, and sales have nearly doubled in the two and a half years since.
At the time of the purchase, Linn, an investment banker-turned-agribusiness entrepreneur, said Consortium did not need a major overhaul. "There was nothing broken here. What I noticed was that this wasn't a company that knew how good it was. It needed a few tools," said Linn, who oversaw an information systems conversion during the past fiscal year.
Also during the year, Consortium improved its financial base by attracting new investors and adding new credit facilities.
Linn has upped the number of clients represented by Consortium from 70 at the time of the purchase to 80 at the end of fiscal 2004. Consortium, which represents a number of small literary presses, took on two larger clients in 2003: Soho Press and Seven Stories Press, now among its top four client lines. Alyson Publications is still Consortium's largest publisher, while
Theatre Communications Group, publisher of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Consortium's all-time bestseller, rounds out the list of biggest publishers. Linn attributed two-thirds of this year's increased sales to new publishers. Still, long-time Consortium clients like Coffeehouse and Curbstone continue to grow; both had double-digit sales increases last year.
Unlike larger distributors such as Publishers Group West and National Book Network, which added publishing operations to fuel growth, Consortium will continue to emphasize distribution. "We've made a strategic decision that we're not going to publish or invest in publishing," Linn told PW. "We don't want to figure out who our favorite child is. This company grew up a little bit differently, by offering services to publishers. We think we will do best keeping our eye on the ball."
Going forward, Linn regards the company's biggest challenge as moving beyond traditional booksellers into the gift and specialty market and mass merchandisers. "Until the last couple years," said Linn, "we haven't had product for these markets."
