Oct. 16, 2006 issue
Bookstore chain sold to pay publishing debt
By Paul Schrag Mennonite Weekly ReviewPage:
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Mennonite Publishing Network is selling the last four bookstores in its Provident chain, enabling it to pay a $3.1 million debt and end a financial crisis that surfaced five years ago.
The buyer is Berean Christian Stores, a nondenominational chain based in Cincinnati.
Being sold are three stores in Pennsylvania — Lancaster, New Holland and Souderton — and one in Wooster, Ohio.
MPN, the publishing ministry of Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada, announced the sale Oct. 4.
Selling the stores enables MPN to focus on its core mission of publishing books and resources with an Anabaptist perspective, MPN officials said.
The sale completes two years of shrinking and then ending the Provident chain, which entered 2005 with nine stores. Before the sale to Berean, MPN sold three stores and closed two.
Most recently, in September, it closed the Ephrata, Pa., store and sold the Newton, Kan., store.
Terms of the sale to Berean were not announced.
The $3.1 million debt payoff will close a difficult chapter in the history of Mennonite publishing. In 2001, longstanding financial problems came to light at what was then Mennonite Publishing House, based in Scottdale, Pa.
As a result, MC USA and MC Canada — just then being created by a merger of the Mennonite Church and General Conference Mennonite Church — faced the challenge of rescuing a publishing agency that was $5 million in debt. The denominations provided loans and appealed to constituents for funds.
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