Stackpole enters the field

Abstract

Stackpole Books entered the distribution area with the opening of a new company, Stackpole Distribution, which has signed on with five publishers with which it had a previous fulfillment relationship.

Stackpole Books, a family-owned publisher based in Harrisburg, Pa., with estimated annual sales of $6.5 million, officially moved into distribution in April with the opening of a new company, Stackpole Distribution. Aside from distributing its own nonfiction line for almost 30 years, Stackpole has gradually moved into fulfillment for outside publishers, beginning with Green Hill Press in 1993, according to sales manager Todd Frick. "There was a tremendous need for full service beyond what we were doing," he said.

Stackpole Distribution has signed on the five publishers with which it had a previous fulfillment relationship; these are Green Hills,Osprey, Savas Woodbury, Southern Heritage and Rank and File. The company is seeking out other independent presses with more than 150 titles. Although publishers already signed mesh with Stackpole Books' own Outdoors, Hobbies and Crafts, Military Reference and History niches, Frick stressed that the company would consider publishers outside of these specialties. In addition, Frick said he has several letters of intent from other publishers.

Stackpole's 20,000-sq.-ft. warehouse is located in Mechanicsburg, Pa., fortuitously close to Borders' warehouse in the Harrisburg area. Frick said the company offers one-day service to "half the population," primarily on the East Coast. Currently it distributes 750 titles.

With a sales force of one, Frick said the new distribution company will focus its initial sales efforts on national accounts and on building alternative markets within its niche areas. "Our target is a million dollars in revenue for the next couple of years, as we try to figure out what the market will bear," he told PW. For more information, call Stackpole Distribution at [phone]; fax [phone]; email stackpoledist@ paonline.com.