Christian Book Distributors celebrates the opening of their 70,000-square-foot expansion in Peabody Wednesday with a ribbon cutting. Item photo by Owen O’Rourke.
By Adam Swift
PEABODY — Most ribbon-cutting ceremonies gather together a couple of company bigshots and local dignitaries posing for the cameras.
But that’s not how Peabody’s Christian Book Distributors does business. For the ribbon-cutting of its new 70,000-square-foot warehouse expansion project on Summit Drive, each of the company’s nearly 500 employees were encouraged to grab a pair of scissors and cut off a piece of the ribbon to take home.
Even with the ribbon stretching nearly 350 feet across the length of the new four-story addition, it was hard to squeeze all the workers into the picture.
The opening ceremony was the culmination of a year-long effort to expand resources at the book distribution center, which employs hundreds of people from across the North Shore.
“This much-needed expansion to our warehouse will help us immensely with the management of our inventory, as we no longer have to navigate our way through four off-site facilities to locate product to fulfill our customers’ orders,” said Ray Hendrickson, president and CEO of Christian Book Distributors. “We are extremely happy to have the new space up and running in time for our busy Christmas season. We are especially thankful to the city of Peabody for working with us on permitting, Citizens Bank for financing, Dacon as general contractor, SMMA as architect and Fraser Project Management as a consultant in the building process.”
From concept to completion, the warehouse project sped along in less than a year, almost unheard of for a project of that size.
Hendrickson was especially appreciative of the relationship his company has with the city.
“Before we built the original building 20 years ago, we went to another city which was so against it,” he said. “After nine months, we gave up and went to Peabody, which was excited about the opportunity.”
That willingness to work together extended to the plans to get the warehouse expansion off the ground.
“We are fortunate in Peabody to have Christian Book Distributors as one of our flagship companies,” said Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt Jr. “They employ hundreds of our residents, and I have close friends who work here. Christian Books has always been a company the city can go to to assist with events, and they always step up.”
Even though the $8 million warehouse addition is up and running, Kevin Hendrickson, Ray’s son and the company’s chief operating officer, said there is little time to rest.
“We definitely have our work cut out for us before the Christmas season,” he said. “We need to get as much of our product in as possible.”
Christian Book Distributors is the largest religious catalog/internet company in the world, sending out more than 65 mailings of unique catalogs to millions of customers each year. Customers have access to more than a half-million products, including Bibles, church supplies, gifts, toys, games, CDs, DVDs, academic references, commentaries and more.
While the company is a leader in its field today, it comes from humble roots in Lynn. Ray Hendrickson and his brother started the business in their parents’ Lynn home in 1978. The Item even played a role in the company’s early history.
“When we first started out at our parents’ house, we used to use the typesetter on the fifth floor of the old Item building (on Exchange Street),” Hendrickson said.
Adam Swift can be reached at aswift@itemlive.com.