WESTMONT, IL— Building on its seventy-five-year tradition of developing and publishing thoughtful Christian content for both trade and academic markets, InterVarsity Press has announced a shift in its business operations. Starting in September 2023, IVP will begin outsourcing its order processing, customer service, and product fulfillment operations to Longleaf Services. This change allows IVP to focus on its core editorial strengths and expand its product offerings—including to aggressively seek key acquisitions and to reach a digitally focused generation.
Clay Farr, chief executive officer for Longleaf Services, said, “We are thrilled to welcome InterVarsity Press to the Longleaf Services group of publishers. Our mission is to provide excellent fulfillment and publishing services so our presses can focus on what they do best: produce great content and support their communities of authors, institutions, and readers. We are honored that IVP has selected us to help them achieve their future goals.”
Terumi Echols, president and publisher at IVP, said, “IVP is increasing its capacity to do what we do best, which is to create and publish resources that deepen lives in Christ to engage the university, church, and world. This shift allows us to focus on our strengths and leverage Longleaf’s best-in-class fulfillment and distribution services. As a nonprofit publishing services company, Longleaf understands IVP’s missional ethos, close partnership with thoughtful booksellers, and commitment to trade and academic markets.”
Echols continued, “IVP will be working closely with our trade and academic bookselling partners to help them transition smoothly to Longleaf’s systems. We want them to continue to experience IVP’s excellent customer service throughout this process.”
As the current work of IVP’s distribution, customer service, and general services teams move to Longleaf Services, thirteen positions within IVP will end as of September 1, 2023. Echols said, “I am so grateful for the passion that IVP’s current distribution, customer service, and general services teams have offered to our customers and to our mission. We did not make the decision to outsource lightly, and our team is committed to serving our partners with excellence through this transition.”
While customer care will still be a key focus for IVP, Justin Paul Lawrence, divisional vice president of marketing and sales, said that the time is right for IVP to focus its resources and efforts on the press’s core strengths. “We have gone through a year of strategic planning to identify IVP’s greatest potential opportunities and contributions. IVP is financially healthy, and we’re clear about our mission. We’re ready to make this significant shift so we can better serve authors, readers, and booksellers.”
Echols added, “As we consider our strategic plan for the coming period, it is evident that we must focus on our core competencies of book publishing and resource development. This has always been IVP’s strength and its calling. Working with Longleaf will allow us to invest our resources into developing IVP’s digital infrastructure, expanding into Spanish resources, and positioning IVP to seek acquisitions that expand the reach of IVP’s ministry to the next generation.”
