Distributor Spring Arbor (SA) is raising its profile at the show to roll out "reinvigorated" services to the Christian retail market.

The company is also to unveil a new logo which Skip Prichard, president and CEO of owners Ingram Content Group (ICG), said "symbolizes our renewal and our recommitment to the Christian market as the relevant and reliable category leader."

Among the changes are an expanded inventory to include more family-friendly films, music, Bible covers and communion ware. Earlier this year, the company introduced Spring Arbor Wire, a free desktop application providing retailers with news updates on releases and products.

The initiatives have been made as part of 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 "reinvigoration" 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.

In addition to detailing its new services to retailers, SA is also hosting a series of author and artist signings at its booth, including one with veteran singer Steve Green, whose latest release, Love Will Find a Way, is being exclusively distributed by the company.

Spring Arbor Director of Sales Chris Smith was among the panelists for yesterday's general session, Digital/Mortar: Store Value in a Digital Age, discussing how physical retail store owners can remain relevant as digital sales increase.

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