Sept. 25, 2006 issue
Publishing network sells another bookstore
By Paul Schrag Mennonite Weekly ReviewPage:
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NEWTON, Kan. — Mennonite Publishing Network reduced its Provident Bookstores chain to five stores Sept. 15, selling its Newton store as part of an effort to pay down MPN’s debt.
It was the third sale of a Provident Bookstore in less than two years. Since January 2005, the publishing network has sold its stores in Goshen and Berne, Ind., and closed one in Bloomington, Ind.
MPN, the publishing ministry of Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada, continues to own four Provident Bookstores in Pennsylvania — in Lancaster, Souderton, New Holland and Ephrata — and one in Wooster, Ohio.
The Newton store was sold to a local group of investors. The store will be renamed Faith and Life Bookstore, the name it had when it was owned by the former General Conference Mennonite Church, before the store joined the Provident chain.
It will remain in the Main Street building that also houses MC USA’s Great Plains office.
The sale price was not announced.
MPN executive director Ron Rempel said all four stores that have been dropped from the Provident chain were losing money. The remaining five are profitable.
“Our bookstore strategy has been to review all stores and to either close or sell to ensure that the chain could be as profitable as possible,” he said.
Selling the stores has helped MPN reduce its long-term debt from $5.1 million to $3 million over four years.
Rempel said MPN is seeking to focus on its core mission of publishing books and resources with an Anabaptist perspective.
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