LATEST NEWS

21/01/2010

The future of Christian bookshops

Since STL Distribution (the UK and Europe’s biggest Christian wholesaler and owners of Authentic Media publishing and Wesley Owen bookshops) struggled during its parent company Biblica’s globalisation strategy, the whole Christian book trade has been in crisis.

Biblica/IBS-STL UK operated 40 branches of Wesley Owen and just before Christmas 2009 these, the UK's largest chain of Christian bookshops, went into administration.

Australian company Koorong have bought out Authentic Media and 8 of the shops, and CLC a further 6, but 26 are due to close in the future unless they are saved.

However, Nationwide Christian Trust have confirmed that they are in discussions over a possible rescue mission to save at least some of the remaining Wesley Owen stores. Although no official announcement can be made at this stage, important meetings are taking place around the country with concerned parties in bookshops and local churches and the Trust would be grateful for all prayer support as they seek God’s will and the right way forward.

Phil Groom who runs LST’s own bookshop was quoted on Saturday 16 January in The Times talking about the future of Christian bookshops, ‘Shops have got to be much more than just bookshops. They have to be destinations for community.’

Read the article at www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6990136.ece

Phil was also heard interviewed on BBC Radio Sussex on Sunday 24 January.

Find out more about LST's bookshop.

 

 

 

< Back to Latest NewsBookmark and Share

Comments

There are currently no comments on this post

Post a Comment

Your comment will have to be approved by a site administrator before it is shown on the site so please be patient.