The man who brought a Canadian Christian bookstore chain back from the brink is offering business coaching to other Christian retailers.

Mark Hutchinson, President and CEO of British Columbia-based Blessings, has launched Thrive RDS (Retail Development Services) in partnership with wholesaler David C Cook Distribution Canada. The new program will debut Jan. 1, 2012.

For $200 a month per store, participants get access to online training sessions, a library of other resources, email support and 80% off a second year's membership if they don't experience growth based on what they have learned at the end of the first year.

Thrive RDS is “a practical business building tool to help retail stores grow sales, customer traffic and increase average transactions,” said Hutchinson. “I am passionate about our industry and want to do all I can to provide practical hands-on business development training specifically focused to our industry,” he added.

Also an accredited preaching pastor, Hutchinson developed a multimillion dollar carpet cleaning franchise before entering the Christian products industry in 2006. Buying a bankrupt company, he took Blessings from a chain of 27 corporate and franchised stores to three physical outlets and an online store whose sales volume is a third of the larger former group.

In an interview in the November/December issue of Canadian business magazine, Advantage, Hutchinson said: “We have completely re-engineered the whole structure... We're yielding just over $5 million in revenues annually. We are on a strong footing and growing year after year.”

Greg Tombs, Cook's Managing Director of Global Distribution, said that the company was supporting the effort because without a Canadian CBA for Christian retail stores, there was no forum for Christian retailers to discuss retail strategies and initiatives to improve their industry.

“Market conditions have changed dramatically and rapidly in the last few years,” he said. “Without instruction/training on the new opportunities technology offers and without the regular reminders of the fundamentals of excellent customer service, merchandising, marketing initiatives and the like, retailers can get left behind. improve their industry.

“We also feel that the opportunity to come together as a community of like-minded retailers for the purposes of growth and long-term sustainability is very beneficial.”

For more information, go to http://www.blessings.com/thrive

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