This year, Albert Whitman celebrates its 95th anniversary, and continues to be independently owned and operated. Best known for its series The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner (which hits the big screen today--more on that a bit later), and more recently, early chapter book series (including the Lulu series by Hilary McKay) and a line of young adult books, Albert Whitman began in the educational and library markets, and has expanded its reach well into the trade market.
|
|
| John Quattrocchi | |
John Quattrocchi, president and co-owner of Albert Whitman, bought the company, located in Park Ridge, Ill. (about 17 miles NW of Chicago) in 2008 together with senior vice-president Patrick McPartland; the two have been friends since first grade. McPartland has been with Albert Whitman for 25 years, and his decision to buy the company with Quattrocchi is part of the company's 95-year legacy--and perhaps in large part, the reason for its success and longevity. "What's interesting is when Albert Whitman sold the company the first time, he sold it to employees, who sold it to employees who sold it to employees," Quattrocchi said. He and McPartland are only the fourth generation of owners. "Because of that, we keep our culture intact and our history intact," he explained.
 |
|
| Pat McPartland | |
Quattrocchi came from an operations background at H2O Plus--shower gels, facial skin care, consumer products--where efficiency was key. "That's a rough-and-tumble business," he admitted. "I think, especially when the recession hit in 2008, that many publishers were not as efficient as they should have been. It made people become more efficient as business owners." The Albert Whitman team has just completed what Quattrocchi called "a corporate identity process." He explained, "We went through our history and how important it is to know who we are as a company, and how it affects what we do." They're now working through their three-to-five-year business strategy. "We're at an interesting point here. We've gone through our identity process, we're in the middle of our longterm strategy process, and we're publishing the books we want to publish. Everyone here wants to be here. It's the old 'getting the right people on the bus,' and at this point, I have all the right people on the bus. We're really doing some exciting things."
Quattrocchi said Albert Whitman saw low double-digit sales growth last year, and they've projected the same for 2014. "We're still relatively small, and we can move faster than some of our peers," he said. Sales are about evenly split between institutional and trade. "That's helpful to us from a planning standpoint," Quattrocchi explained. "It's a necessary change if we want to grow."