In an effort to address retailer concerns over Baker & Taylor’s withdrawal from the retail wholesale business, Ingram Content Group is exploring adding more direct distribution services to stores in the western U.S.
The additional Ingram services would allow publishers to use the Ingram infrastructure and warehouse network to quickly resupply booksellers on the west coast in the absence of B&T, which is due to stop shipping from its Reno warehouse in July.
Ingram Content Group CEO and president Shawn Morin, said the company is still in the process of “thinking through the details” of adding the new service.
“Recent changes in wholesale and other book industry distribution services has encouraged us to think of new ways in which we might offer fulfillment services to publishers for the benefit of retailers,” Morin said, adding that Ingram “encourages publishers who may be considering how to reach the west coast, and other markets, faster and more creatively to talk with us to find solutions that will help the industry at large.”
