Addition to newly formed Christian division helps lift revenue to near pre-recession levels

The acquisition of Thomas Nelson is the main driver of the 15% increase in revenue for HarperCollins in the fiscal year ending June 30. HarperCollins finalized the purchase of Nelson in July 2012.

Revenue and earnings for the publisher were $1.37 billion EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), up from $1.19 billion EBITDA the previous fiscal year. This brings the company’s income nearly to pre-recession levels.

While Nelson and the creation of the HarperCollins Christian umbrella—which also includes Zondervan, part of HarperCollins since 1988—are cited as the primary drivers of increased revenue, the growth of e-books also played a role. The publisher’s e-book sales accounted for 19% of revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013, up from 16% the year before. Lower manufacturing costs from increased digital sales as well as greater synergies in the Christian division were also key components. Gains were offset somewhat due to HarperCollins leaving the third-party U.S. distribution business as well as charges from Canadian and Australian operations.

Announcement made as Munce Group concluded Nashville event

Two new Atlanta shows are being added to Munce Group’s Christian Product Expo (CPE) calendar for 2014. In conjunction with AmericasMart, the country’s largest gift mart located in the heart of Atlanta, Munce will host “CPE at AmericasMart” in January and July. 

The AmericasMart CPE will be different than Munce Expo events in Hershey, Pa., and Murfreesboro, Tenn. Rather than the usual three-day schedule, the Atlanta shows essentially will hold to a one-day schedule, but the night before the January show, a special dinner hosted by Munce and Anchor Distributors will be held for the encouragement of international retailers. The dinner also will feature instruction on how to navigate the sometimes-intimidating three tall buildings that comprise AmericasMart.

“Internationals have been coming to Atlanta, and when CTA [Christian Trade Association International] decided to cease their meeting and just roll it into the summer show, we thought this would be a great opportunity,” Munce Group President Kirk Blank told Christian Retailing.

For all attendees, CPE at AmericasMart will feature a basic tabletop show with book publishers, training sessions and fellowship around meals. Forty vendors have signed up for Atlanta, and so far, 50-75 stores are expected to participate.

 “There are stores that are intentionally going to the Mart because they love the Mart, they want to navigate the Mart, want to buy from the Mart, but don’t come to other shows and miss the opportunity to interact with publishers, so we’re going to bring that missing part,” Blank said.

January’s AmericasMart pulls in more than 55,000 mostly general market retailers, and July sees more than 30,000 retailers. 

 “Today, no one argues the importance of a good gift selection in a Christian retail store,” said Ed Nizynski, vice president of sales for Lighthouse Christian Products Co. “Some Christian stores state they have gone all gifts, creating a destination stop for inspirational gifts for all occasions and milestones in life. Depending on which source you’ve read, Christian stores are now reaching between 30% and 40% of annual sales through gift products. Some even state since creating a destination place for gifts, ‘they’ve seen an increase in book and music sales.”

The AmericasMart announcement was made as Munce wrapped up this year’s CPE Murfreesboro, Sept. 22-24, outside of Nashville. The show drew about 300 retailers with 147 stores represented, taking advantage of Munce’s reimbursement plan.

“The owner is the one that generally comes and they’re making the purchases,” Blank said. “And with our reimbursement incentive plan, it really helps them to be able to come to an event to be encouraged, to be equipped with new training and information and then engage to buy their products for their last-minute Christmas, looking forward to after Christmas and get it all done in two days and really have little out-of-pocket.”

Retailers seemed pleased with the size of the show, as did many vendors.

“We try to keep it from a certain size just from a timing standpoint,” Blank said. “We have limited time on the floor and if we have too many people trying to do too many things all at the same time, it’s just chaos. So we try to keep the same type of numbers, ratio between vendor and store, so we started it open it up to other retailers, and it’s been a blessing. We did that probably two or three years ago, and now the majority obviously are the Munce Group stores that come to this event, but we had stores from Logos and stores from Covenant and stores from Parable and just a lot of affiliations.”

The Episcopal Booksellers Association also brought its retailers for their annual board meeting, membership meeting with elections, worship service and annual dinner to coincide with the Munce event.

Along with training from Tyndale House Publishers on its The Wayfinding Bible and from Bookstore Manager on its software, retailers were treated to live performances from artists including Danny Gokey, Laura Story, Mikeschair, City Harbor and Steven Curtis Chapman; heard from authors Jefferson Bethke, Pete Wilson, Stasi Eldredge, Eric Samuel Timm and Dr. Reggie Anderson along with Christian Authors Network authors; and watched new movies Grace Unplugged and Unstoppable.

CPE events for 2014 are scheduled as follows: Atlanta (Jan. 9), Hershey (Jan. 19-21), Atlanta (July 10) and Murfreesboro (Sept. 21-23). Retailers can learn about Munce’s CPE reimbursement program at www.cpeshow.com.

John Nardini leaves food industry to take the lead at ‘extraordinary Christian company focused on giving hope’

Mardel Christian & Education has named John Nardini the chain’s new president. Having assumed his new post Aug. 19, Nardini brings a breadth of knowledge and expertise from more than 20 years in the Christian and retail industries.

Mart Green, owner and CEO of Mardel, is “delighted” to see Nardini at the helm. 

“He comes with a lot of passion and dedication to the Christian retail industry and is known as a thoughtful leader, recognized for his ability to prioritize opportunities for growth and direct strategic business initiatives,” Green said.

Nardini will be based at Mardel’s headquarters in Oklahoma City. 

“I am honored to work for an extraordinary Christian company focused on giving hope to people every day,” Nardini said. “I look forward to growing the Mardel brand and its products to meet the needs of families and educators across the U.S.”

Nardini comes to Mardel from Denali Flavors, a leading inventor and marketer of premium ice cream flavors, where he served as executive vice president of marketing for more than nine years. Prior to his work at Denali, Nardini held roles of increasing responsibility at Family Christian Stores for seven years, including vice president of marketing and senior vice president of marketing. He joined Family Christian from EMI CMG (now Capital Christian Music Group), where he led the marketing and sales departments as vice president of marketing for four and a half years. Before working with EMI, he was product manager for HJ Heinz and brand assistant for Proctor & Gamble.

Nardini holds a masters in business administration from Purdue University and a bachelor of science in business administration and economics from Culver-Stockton College.

Jason Green served as president at Mardel for eight years before leaving in early 2012 to become president of Baptist Medical & Dental Mission International in Hattiesburg, Miss. His departure led to a more active role for CEO Mart Green, who took on the presidency for an interim period before Nardini was hired. 

Mardel operates 35 stores in seven states with more than 800 employees.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote—who ruled in July that Apple was guilty of conspiring to fix e-book prices with five major publishers—issued her injunction on the company Sept. 6. The injunction was narrower in scope than the original recommendations from the U.S. Justice Department, as Cote had said in her initial comments on those recommendations that she wanted to make the judgment “rest as lightly as possible on how Apple runs its business.”

As expected, Cote’s injunction not only limits its agreements with the publishers, but it also requires an external monitor to review Apple’s antitrust compliance policies and procedures for two years.

Apple’s shares rose 0.6% after the injunction, as the company avoided the more draconian measures that the Justice Department had initially recommended, one that could have affected the tech giant’s supplier agreements with other media, including music, movies and TV shows.

Cote’s judgment will last for five years, but can be extended in one-year increments if deemed necessary.

“Consumers will continue to benefit from lower e-book prices as a result of the department’s enforcement action to restore competition in this important industry,” Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer said in a statement on behalf of the Justice Department.

Apple said it planned to appeal the injunction and denied the accusation.

“Apple did not conspire to fix e-book pricing,” said company spokesman Tom Neumayr. “The iBookstore gave customers more choice and injected much-needed innovation and competition into the market.”

Unstoppable: A Live Event With Kirk Cameron has sold 260,000 tickets and reached a theatrical gross of more than $3.2 million after just two weeknights at the box office (Sept. 24 and Oct. 3). For the most recent showing, the film was the No. 3 film in box office receipts, even with only one screening in most theaters.

Audiences will soon have the ability to own what Cameron calls his “most personal project,” as Provident Films will release Unstoppable to DVD Jan. 28, 2014. Churches may place orders now for a license to show the film, with showings beginning Nov. 15.

Xulon Press founder Tom Freiling to head ‘Christian publisher for the world’ program

Tom Freiling, founder of Xulon Press, ventures back into self-publishing with the launch of Excel, a breakthrough in digital self-publishing that utilizes an exclusive technology to facilitate high-speed publishing.

Launched in September, Excel is a collaborative project owned by Charisma House and directed by Freiling. Excel is the world’s first self-publishing endeavor to offer print-on-demand technology specifically for Christian authors. This state-of-the-art typesetting program mirrors the future of the e-book market with a zero inventory system, enabling print books upon request in just 24 hours or less.

“Excel is the next generation of self-publishing,” Freiling said. “We’re taking digital publishing technology a step farther, to make it faster and easier for Christian authors to get published.”

In three do-it-yourself steps, authors have the ability to submit their manuscript for free via Excel’s website and prepare it for electronic publication to more than 30,000 bookstores in popular e-book formats.

“We don’t consider ourselves a USA publisher, or even a North American publisher—but a Christian publisher for the world,” Freiling said.

Excel also offers an online social gathering for authors to interact with experts. Authors have members-only access to a special Twitter account, Facebook page and LinkedIn profile. There will be a biweekly conference call and monthly newsletter with a book coach.

“In the past five years the self-publishing market has seen a 287% increase, with more than 200,000 titles published last year in the United States alone,” said Tessie DeVore, executive vice president of Charisma House. “Finding the right publisher has become overwhelming for Christian authors. Excel will provide something totally new and fresh, and will allow them to take their message to the world without the additional time, expense and labor of traditional publishing.”

NavPress cedes many publishing roles to new partner in order to focus on acquisition and development

NavPress and Tyndale House Publishers jointly announced Sept. 11 a new publishing alliance to grow the influence and impact of the NavPress brand. Plans are underway to increase the global distribution of the NavPress backlist and expand opportunities for new NavPress books and Bibles.

NavPress will continue to operate as the publishing arm of The Navigators ministry based in Colorado Springs, Colo. , but Tyndale is coming alongside NavPress to bring efficiencies of scale to the publishing process, including manufacturing, warehousing, selling, marketing and fulfillment. Tyndale has had a similar relationship with Focus on the Family for many years.

NavPress planned to eliminate the jobs of at least 22 of its 29 employees, according to The Gazette (Colorado Springs). The company will retain a small acquisition team, while Tyndale will soon assume most of the publisher’s other roles.

“I am excited about the alliance with Tyndale,” said Charlie Dokmo, chief of staff for The Navigators and interim CEO of NavPress. “This new publishing arrangement will allow the NavPress team to focus on what we do best, which is acquiring and developing new content—the heart and the future of every publisher.

“At the same time, this alliance will increase the opportunity for our authors to maximize their impact in the marketplace considering Tyndale’s well-regarded marketing prowess, sales talent and operating platform,” Dokmo added. “Most importantly, The Navigators is delighted to be engaging in God’s work with Tyndale and its rich heritage of ‘ministering to the spiritual needs of people.’ ”

Doug Knox, senior vice president and group publisher for Tyndale, said: “Tyndale and NavPress share a common mission, with product lines that are more complementary than competitive. Working together we can leverage each other’s strengths to accomplish better stewardship of our individual resources.”

NavPress will receive and process orders until further notice. Tyndale will begin pre-selling the NavPress 2014 summer list to the trade this month.