Ingram’s Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, facility, now with its print-on-demand installation in place. Image: Ingram Content Group
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Co-Locating Print-on-Demand with Automated Distribution
In its media messaging today (August 28) from its Nashville international headquarters, Ingram Content Group is announcing the launch of what it describes as the newest addition to its print-on-demand distribution network in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
As the company is pointing out, Chambersburg has been part of the Ingram system for many years. Our information indicates that the 665,000-square-foot site was opened in 2002.
Early this year, in mid-January, the company telegraphed the expansion it’s announcing today with news of book manufacturing and print-on-demand capability coming, making the facility “a co-located, state-of-the-art print-on-demand and distribution center.”
In today’s commentary to the news media, Ingram’s team says that tennis legend Ashley Brown’s Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson (Oxford University Press, February 2023) is now the first book to have come off the new print line to serve a wholesale customer.
Niko Pfund
At Oxford University Press, the company’s president Niko Pfund says, “Given her trailblazing life, it seems entirely appropriate that Althea Gibson would even now continue to set precedents in the form of the inauguration of this new facility with the printing of Serving Herself, Ashley Brown’s acclaimed biography of the tennis great.”
An interesting parallel to that, of course, is that the 2023 US Open grand slam tennis tournament today is in first-round play in New York, Gibson (1927-2003) having won the US Nationals in her day–the predecessor championship to the modern US Open.
The first hardcover book to be produced by the new Chambersburg operation is The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Grove Atlantic, May 2023).
Morgan Entrekin
Morgan Entrekin, publisher and CEO of Grove Atlantic, says, “We’re pleased to partner with Ingram as they expand their industry-leading digital printing program.
“The quality of these print-on-demand editions is impressive, and it’s great to be able to get books with strong demand to customers faster.”
And for Ingram, Shawn Everson, the company’s chief logistics officer, is quoted, saying, “Our long-term strategic vision of co-locating fast print-on-demand services with state-of-the-art, automated, book distribution is coming true.
Shawn Everson
“We’re proud of our Chambersburg team for bringing this vision to completion and are grateful to both Oxford University Press and Grove Atlantic for their partnership in finding new and better ways to serve customers.”
Our international readership at Publishing Perspectives, of course, will remember that the Lightning Source Sharjah–Ingram’s print-on-demand facility in the United Arab Emirates–opened just over a year ago, in July 2022, at the Sharjah Publishing City free trade zone project, headed up by Sharjah Book Authority‘s chair Bodour Al Qasimi and CEO Ahmed Al Ameri at the behest of Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi.
In its announcement today, Ingram points out that its integrated operations and joint ventures reach not only to the UAE but also to the United Kingdom, Australia, and France.
Ingram’s description of the significance of the new Chambersburg development asserts that the print-on-demand or “POD” approach for Ingram’s retail and library customers “means millions more books will be available more quickly and efficiently.
“For publishers, it’s a sustainable, integrated inventory solution that improves availability and increases speed to market.”
As most of our professional world publishing community knows, Ingram Content Group, a part of Ingram Industries, comprises Ingram Book Group; Ingram Publisher Services; Lightning Source; Ingram Library Services; Tennessee Book Company; Ingram Content Group UK; and Ingram Content Group Australia.
The first hardcover off the new print-on-demand system at Ingram’s Chambersburg location in Pennsylvania. Image: Ingram Content Group
More from Publishing Perspectives on Ingram Content Group is here, more on book distribution is here, more of our Industry Notes series is here, and more on print-on-demand is here.
About the Author
