Raincoast Books’ pending move to a new warehouse that’s 61% larger is a testament to the staying power of books.
Raincoast’s claim to fame is being the Canadian publisher for J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
But, according to Jamie Broadhurst, the company’s vice-president of marketing, Raincoast’s bread and butter is being a book distributor.
“E-books is definitely part of our plan. But what we, like everyone else in the industry, have to remember is that the vast majority of books sold in Canada on a daily basis are print books. So we would be crazy to not be focusing a lot of energy on shipping print books in Canada faster than anyone else,” Broadhurst told Business in Vancouver September 8.
Raincoast plans to move its 100-employee operation to a 71,000-square-foot warehouse and head office on Viking Way in Richmond. Its previous warehouse, five kilometres away, was 44,000 square feet.
Raincoast handles 11 million books annually, and Broadhurst said its new warehouse, which will be western Canada’s largest book distribution centre, will hold 29,000 separate titles.