Augsburg Fortress Finally in the Black

by Lynn Garrett, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 5/16/2007

Augsburg Fortress, the publishing arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), reported last week it finished 2006 in the black for the first time "in many years," with $20,000 in operating income. According to CFO John Rahja, the positive fiscal year was mainly attributable to $6.2 million in sales of Evangelical Lutheran Worship, a new series of ELCA worship resources introduced in October 2006. Total net sales in fiscal 2006 for Augsburg Fortress were $44.3 million, well above the publisher's budgeted forecast of $40 million, Rahja said in a report to the publisher's board of trustees, which met in Minneapolis April 20-21.

In recent years the press has battled for its very survival. In an interview with the ELCA News Service, Beth A. Lewis, president and chief executive officer of Augsburg Fortress, said, "We're not in a place where we can just now rest on our laurels. We have to continue to listen and learn and serve and create high-quality resources." Lewis added that finishing 2006 in the black financially "takes some of the pressure off" of the press's employees.

For the first quarter of 2007, Augsburg Fortress posted net income of $2.5 million, ahead of its budgeted forecast of $1 million, Rahja said. Net sales for the quarter were $15.7 million, versus a budgeted amount of $13.5 million, he said. Net sales of Evangelical Lutheran Worship were more than $6.6 million for the first quarter.

Augsburg Fortress has signed an agreement to manage a bookstore at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), one of eight ELCA seminaries. The publisher will close its bookstore at Union Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York City on June 1.

This article originally appeared in the May 16, 2007 issue of Religion BookLine. For more information about Religion BookLine, including a sample and subscription information, click here »

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