She and Ledingham are concerned that Indigo may lack the expertise in curriculum-related book selection and sourcing, invoicing, cataloguing and processing that wholesalers and community-based booksellers have developed over decades. "What we really don't want is one supplier to our public libraries," said LeFave, whose own store has sold books to more than 100 school libraries in Ontario. This week they'll be arranging meetings with the Premier, the education and culture ministers and the Ontario School Library Association. Members of the CBA and education wholesalers held an emergency meeting last Friday in Toronto to discuss the issue but are waiting for the results of the election before deciding what to do. She predicts that if the deal goes through by the turn of the decade, "there won't be a man standing in the school library market - or a woman for that matter." Except Indigo which, for its 2006-2007 fiscal year, reported net earnings of $30-million. Our rule overall is to make 20 per cent somehow," Ledingham says. "Any wholesaling business is going to be small margin. Eleanor LeFave, president of the Canadian Booksellers Association and the owner of Mabel's Fables, a modest-sized children's bookstore in Toronto, said last week that "it's quite fantastic that got more money out of the Premier."Īnne Ledingham, national sales manager for Mississauga-based S & B Books, a wholesale supplier of books to school libraries nationwide for 28 years, calls it "a wonderful gesture."īut they both warn the exclusivity that's been granted Indigo is according to Ledingham, "short-sighted of the Premier and ignores a regime of suppliers that's been efficiently supporting school libraries for decades. It's the Indigo connection that irks the educational book sector and has raised howls of protest in the waning days of the provincial election campaign. Reisman said she hoped other provinces would emulate the McGuinty model, and indicated she would be approaching other premiers and provincial education ministers to join the cause. Indigo founder and CEO Heather Reisman strongly lobbied for the Premier's commitment, and even appeared alongside McGuinty when he made his vow at Indigo's flagship store in downtown Toronto. "The intention is for us not to profit from this initiative." Indigo says it will provide these books "at cost" - meaning that "any books purchased will be purchased at our cost," an Indigo spokesperson said last week. Under the scheme, Indigo is to be the sole supplier of books to school libraries. 19 announcement by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty promising that, if his Liberals gain a second term in Wednesday's provincial election, he will provide $80-million in new funding for books for Ontario school libraries over the next four years. The concern among some wholesalers, distributors, independent booksellers and school librarians arises from the Sept. And now, according to some industry observers, it's positioning itself to become the dominant player in supplying non-text books to school libraries in Ontario and possibly the rest of the country. Depending on whom you ask, Toronto-based Indigo Books and Music has cornered at least 65 per cent and perhaps as much as 80 per cent of the Canadian retail book market.
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