CBA convention's smaller footprint seen as an 'advantage' for retailers, distributors and suppliers

An upbeat mood and positive sales reports were common feedback from retailers, distributors, marketing groups and suppliers regarding CBA's 61st convention.

Lorraine Valk, co-owner of Banner Books Parable Christian Store of St. Joseph in St. Joseph, Mich., said she was "encouraged and blessed."

"In talking with many people, I got the overall feeling that they were extremely pleased with the event and that they viewed the smaller show footprint as an advantage," said Valk, whose store won CBA's top honor for retailing excellence and was recognized for its marketing efforts. "There was more emphasis on content and value than on trying to build the fanciest booth with the biggest wow factor.

"Overall, there was a camaraderie and compassion for one another, including an open dialogue of sharing ideas and visions for the future," she added.

STL Distribution North America President Glenn Bailey liked the venue at the America's Center because "it was the right size for the show."

"An awful lot of venues are just too big for us," he said. "This was very appropriately sized. More stores could drive in because of the location. The traffic in our booth Monday was incredible. … The other two (days) were more at the level of what we had anticipated."

Bailey said that the company had signed up some new accounts. STL clients who had taken space in the outer booths in St. Louis were already booking their spaces for next year, he said.

Whitaker House-Anchor Distributors Sales and Marketing Manager Karen Keisler said its booth was "very busy."

"I didn't think we had a good location," said Keisler, noting that more than 300 rolling tote bags were given away to retailers with qualifying orders. "It's turned out well. We've been busy from the start."

Among publishers absent this year were WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group and NavPress, who joined Thomas Nelson—having also skipped the show in Denver and Orlando, Fla., the past two years.

"It did feel like there were fewer people in attendance than in past years, but we enjoyed great meetings with our customers and valued partners, and always appreciate the face time that ICRS offers," said Verne Kenney, Zondervan's executive vice president of sales. "It's always good to come together as an industry and learn from one another.

"In general, it feels that, as an industry, we've weathered the tough times," he added. "While there are fewer retailers, those who remain are fully committed and excited about their business, as are we. We always evaluate the show at the end of the year and make a decision about the upcoming year, and continue to be strong supporters of (CBA)."

Howard Books Vice President and Publisher Jonathan Merkh said the Simon & Schuster imprint had "a token booth," but did most of the company's business in a hospitality suite.

"We are trying to evaluate our strategy with erasers to the show," he said. "We obviously want to support CBA, but we also want to be wise with our resources, so we are trying to determine what is the value of advertising versus booth space.

"It's challenging," Merkh added. "We don't want to be invisible like some publishers are."

Munce Group President Kirk Blank said ICRS was "always beneficial" because of the appointments he could make with suppliers.

"We were disappointed in the amount of retailers who attended," he said. "The vendors we spoke with noted that sales/orders were down from last year's event in Denver. Many exhibitors mentioned to us that booth traffic was also down—even with the shortened schedule of ending a day earlier and at 3 p.m."

Blank noted that most vendors, including the CBA booth, began to break down their exhibits at lunchtime on the show's last day.

"While there were simply not enough retailers at the show to justify the costs of exhibiting, we do benefit from the interaction with the small amount of retailers who attended and also the supplier partners we were able to meet with," he said.

Jason Anzalone, Kerusso's marketing director, said the convention was "still the premier event for pulling together the entire Christian product industry."

ICRS "is still one of our best venues for connecting face to face with our customers," he said. "It's crucial as part of our customer relations, sales and marketing."

Brenda Harrison, co-owner of Lighthouse Christian Bookstore in Bedford, Ind., said she and her husband, Keith, "loved going to the big show with lots of vendors to see."

"We spent all most all of our time on the exhibit floor," he said. "The retailers I talked to really enjoyed ICRS this year."

Attendance flat, mood up for resized CBA summer convention

The first CBA trade show under new leadership ended with a sense of satisfaction from organizers and many attendees.

Occupying the smallest floor space in recent years, the resized International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) at the America's Center in St. Louis, June 27-30, saw total attendance of 4,647, 2% down on the 4,744 in Denver.

But professional attendance—representing active buyers—was 1,593, almost level with last year's 1,605, while international visitors numbered 371, a rise of 4.5% on Denver's 354. Exhibitors for 2010 totaled 322, compared to 299 a year ago. Details of how many stores were represented at the show were not available at press time.

The audited numbers released last month were slightly down on initial end-of-show figures that had reported a small upswing, but CBA Executive Director Curtis Riskey was still pleased.

The results were particularly good when considered in the light of the average 16% drop in attendance reported across other retail trade shows, he said.

"Even though total numbers are down compared to a few years ago, it is apparent that the people attending are serious about their show investment and work hard to create a return," he said.

Riskey's positive view was shared by many in St. Louis for the four-day event, which saw a significant focus on digital publishing, social media and visual entertainment in the program.

For veteran retailer Steve Potratz, whose Parable marketing and franchise organization marked its 25th anniversary in St. Louis, it was "the most mission-driven show I have been at." He said: "This show is going very much back to what CBA is all about."

Harvest House President Bob Hawkins Jr., said that he was pleased with the event, where the company had forgone its usual hospitality suite to bring all its business onto the show floor.

"This is where there's a lot of synergy that takes place," he said. "Even though it's sometimes distracting, it's better to meet people at the booth."

While many exhibitors trimmed back their display space and promotional efforts at ICRS—with one leading publisher choosing not to host an A-list author for a St. Louis new-release signing in case he was disappointed by the turnout—FaithWords went the opposite direction, hosting a top-name authors' reception featuring Charles Swindoll, David Jeremiah, Ted Dekker and others.

Other big draws at ICRS included former Hamas member Mosab Hassan Yousef, author of Son of Hamas (Tyndale House Publishers), whose appearance at the opening Pacesetter event—where he got a standing ovation—and at a subsequent book signing had not been advertised in advance due to security concerns.

ICRS attendees also rose to their feet to applaud Bill Anderson, when he arrived to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the trade association he served for more than 30 years.

The president and CEO of CBA for 24 years, Anderson was presented with the honor at the event's opening Pacesetter event by Chairman-elect George Thomsen who said that Anderson had been "a true champion for Christian retail and Christian retailers."

Thomsen and Riskey read tributes from several industry leaders, including Ed Leonard, president of Daywind Records and chairman of the Gospel Music Association board, who described Anderson as "a statesman for Christian retail."

Receiving the award, Anderson said that it had been an honor to serve, and he reminded those present that "we have a high and holy calling, and we have been given a sacred trust."

Now consulting CEOs and associations, Anderson said that as an industry of one book, the Bible, everything that was published and all products should align fully with Scripture "or we have no business handling it. Because we are here to do the King's business, we have no business altering His message."

Looking ahead, Riskey said that CBA was looking at ways to continue to reshape ICRS, including being open to further talks with other industry groups about some sort of collaborative program and also to considering the idea of adding a consumer aspect to the show.

"We are committed to making this show as valuable as possible," he said. "We are open to any new ideas and new ways. I see ICRS as a large tent, under which others can come together and we can build more synergy."

ICRS 2011 is set for Atlanta, July 10-13.

Some cash-conscious stores turn more to wholesalers as retailers reduce their inventory

An anniversary and a rebirth put the focus on Anchor Distributors and Spring Arbor, the oldest and largest wholesalers, respectively.

Anchor's booth signage highlighted that the company founded the same year as sister-publisher Whitaker House was marking its 40th anniversary, but more attention went a few aisles away where Spring Arbor was turning over a new leaf.

The Christian market division of Ingram unveiled a new logo as it rolled out "reinvigorated" services to the Christian retail market.

The new look features a single green leaf alongside the name, replacing the former triangular tree that formed part of the initials SA.

Skip Prichard, president and CEO of Ingram Content Group (ICG), said that the revised logo "symbolizes our renewal and our recommitment to the Christian market as the relevant and reliable category leader."

Among the changes introduced to stores were an expanded inventory to include more family-friendly films, music, Bible covers and communion ware.

The initiatives have followed a broader restructuring of ICG that also aims to make Christian products more easily available to other channels, too. Prichard said that the move reflected shifts in the market in recent years and meant that product from the general market also could, where appropriate, be offered more readily to Christian retailers, to whom SA remained as committed as it had always been.

With its "re-invigoration" of its Christian channel services, SA was not following the line that the market was shrinking, he said. "When you say the market has shifted but it is still there, it allows you to bring resources to the market that otherwise might not have been warranted," he told Christian Retailing.

Though the reorganized company would look to provide Christian content to other channels that wanted it, Christian retailers remained "the primary place in the community where Christians can gather to find their content," he said.

"They are the purveyors and selectors of great content, and you are never going to have a large secular bookstore that can match their passion and expertise in Christian content, but that does not mean you should think therefore they shouldn't carry any Bibles in that store," added Prichard, who said that he shared a personal passion for the Christian products world.

"For Christian retailers, to have the ability to remain relevant is their biggest challenge, and any way we can help participate in making them more relevant, we are delighted to enter into those discussions," he said.

Anchor Vice President Bob Whitaker Jr. said that his company was "very excited" to have agreed on a distribution deal with gift supplier P. Graham Dunn, expanding its range of non-book items that also includes Messianic products and church supplies.

Whitaker said that sales had "stayed level" for the past several years in part because of the broader inventory and also as a result of stores reducing their inventory and replenishing more from distributors rather than ordering direct from suppliers. In addition, he said, the company was handling fulfillment for 40 publishers who had outsourced warehousing and shipping to cut costs.

Without a birthday to mark, STL Distribution President Glenn Bailey jokingly claimed the allegiance of host city's sporting teams—who bear the initials STL—as his company's promotion for the week.

More seriously, he observed the gradual move of stores from "the 'stack them high and let them fly' mentality" to tighter control of inventory. Retailers were realizing that they have to pay attention to cash flow, he said. In addition, "tough economic times should mean that they care more about freight and the number of orders they are placing. ... All these things work in our favor."

That trend, along with an expanded inventory made possible by STL Distribution's move last fall into a larger warehouse, meant that the company had remained "roughly flat" despite the tough economy. Growing areas of business were serving stores' online sales needs and the church bookstore market, where STL Distribution had reached nearly 1,000 accounts.

"We are the company most committed to having what Christian retailers sell," he said. Meanwhile, overseas business was up from 1% to 7%, Bailey added, in part because of the opportunity to provide services in the wake of the collapse of longtime national distributors in Canada and the U.K.

Anniversaries and events help promote new lines from veterans and newcomers

The importance of good price points in the category during a down economy were highlighted by two suppliers marking anniversaries at the show.

For Swanson Christian Products, celebrating 75 years with an inflatable cake, logo-bearing candy bars handed out to conventioneers and a ribbon-cutting, the buzz was on its pocket-change-priced novelty Faithbands.

Around 30 million of the shaped elastic wristbands featuring religious symbols have been sold since they were introduced in March. Now the business plans to introduce a line of rings similar to the bands, featuring some of the most popular wristband designs that include the Christmas and Noah's Ark sets.

"They are one of those products that come along just once every 10 or 15 years," said Vice President of Operations John McKinney, who noted that all other Swanson lines had seen a spike in sales as a result of people contacting the company looking for the Faithbands.

Recording 40 years in the industry, Bob Siemon Designs (BSD) introduced new lines at low price points to help retailers attract cost-conscious shoppers.

The "Songs of Worship" series of pendants and bracelets featuring words from favorite hymns and praise songs, licensed from EMI, retail for $7.99-$13.99, while a leather cross with beaded chain that the company has been giving away to attendees retails for $7.99. New Catholic saint medals in pewter on adjustable chains are priced at $9.99.

"We wanted to bring prices down in this economy," said President Bob Siemon. "Everybody is seeking things that are cost-effective." As part of that effort, stores are also being presented with new, mini countertop-display cases for BSD lines that cost a fraction of the company's flagship standing display case.

In addition, BSD debuted a range of bracelets and necklaces to tie in with the DVD release this month of the teen drama To Save a Life.

The challenges of the market also prompted collaboration, with candle supplier Bec and Chelle displaying alongside Show Off Arts (SOA), with whom it has entered a first licensing agreement that sees 14 of SOA's youthful designs on 3.75-ounce travel tin candles, retailing for $6.99 each.

"The economy is difficult right now, so if, as ventures, we can find ways to promote one another, that is key. The cooperative element is the key," said Bec & Chelle owner Bob Mueller.

Youth-oriented Slingshot Publishing, unveiled its first line of T-shirts, something President Mike Clark called "a natural progression" that responded to consumer demand. The first 20 designs are a mix of new creations and others taken from Slingshot's poster series.

"We know it's tough competition, but we think can take a serious chunk (of the market) with our expertise," Clark said.

Apparel leader Kerusso's booth featured new designs including the red Blood Donor 2 tee and new gifts such as the "Righteous Racers" toy cars for boys. The company also drew one of the biggest show floor crowds of the week for its Tuesday, 3.16 p.m. giveaways—a time chosen to remind people of the verse in the Gospel of John and to highlight Kerusso's commitment to spreading the gospel—that featured products and an iPad.

Those who gathered heard that through its Live for Him campaign, making donations from the sale of wristbands and other accessories, Kerusso has now given more than $360,000 to Compassion International.

Meanwhile, gift supplier Peter Dunn took more than new lines to the show—he also carried his accordion to St. Louis.

The founder and president of P. Graham Dunn picked up the instrument several times a day at his booth to play for conventioneers, accompanied by daughter Anna on violin.

"The accordion is making a comeback," he said, "and if you can't have fun at the show, why go? We used to sing quartets at the booth, but I have no one to sing with now—but I do have a daughter to play with."

In between performances, Dunn was on hand to introduce a new collection of 176 canvas prints, new impulse gifts and an affiliate marketing program that allows dealers to order personalized products through an interactive Web site.

Among several debut gift exhibitors was The Nativity Stones Collection, whose jewelry features authenticated chips from stones from the manger room in the Cave of Nativity in Bethlehem, widely held to mark the birthplace of Jesus.

Sold on television during the 1990s, the crosses, brooches, pendants and rosaries are being made available to Christian retail stores for the first time. "There has been a lot of interest," said Diane Keith, whose father, Stanley Slotkin, brought the stones to the U.S. in 1964.