Christian Book Distributors buys Best to You

Multititle cataloger and online merchant Christian Book Distributors (CBD) agreed to purchase Best to You, which sells Christian-themed gifts via catalog and the Web. Terms of the deal, which was expected to close on Jan. 2, were not disclosed.

Colorado Springs, CO-based Best to You will close its offices there. Some senior staff members will join Peabody, MA-based CBD on a consulting basis.

CBD is integrating the Best to You logo into the tagline of its CBD Gift & Home catalog, says CBD president Ray Hendrickson. The company will also make a point of welcoming the Best to You customers in its January catalog mailings.

“Although CBD has had its own extensive and very successful gift and home product line for 10 years, including many CBD-exclusive products,” Hendrickson says, “the acquisition of Best to You will allow us to take the best attributes of each company’s individual catalog and product offering and develop one line that continues the emerging strength in the Christian gift product line.”

CBD describes itself as the largest religious-catalog company in the world, sending more than 60 catalog mailings a year. Its data card lists 834,000 12-month buyers, who spend an average of $70 an order on books, software, home-schooling products, gifts, and toys. In addition to its core catalog, CBD mails several specialty titles for children, clergy, churches, schools, and home-schoolers, as well as catalogs specializing in fiction and music.

But Hendrickson, whose father was a pastor, says CBD’s beginnings were humble. He started the business from his home in 1978 by selling Bibles to churches. CBD then added a few academic titles to its product line, selling them at discounted prices to pastors and Bible school students.

Best to You has been in business for more than 25 years. According to its data card, it has nearly 47,000 12-month buyers, who spend an average of $60 per order.

Hendrickson says he’s been familiar with Best to You for about a decade, and last year CBD approached the cataloger about a possible sale. “We’ve seen them at various trade shows and have always admired them. During the summer, we reached out to them and said, ‘If you’re ever interested in selling the business, we’d be interested,’” Hendrickson says. “So the timing was right.”

Catalog and online merchant Christian Book Distributors (CBD) has purchased Best to You, which sells Christian-themed gifts via catalog and the Web. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close on Jan. 2, were not disclosed.

Colorado Springs, CO-based Best to You will close its offices there. Some senior staff members will join Peabody, MA-based CBD on a consulting basis.

“Although CBD has had its own extensive, and very successful gift and home product line for 10 years, including many CBD-exclusive products, the acquisition of Best to You will allow us to take the best attributes of each company’s individual catalog and product offering and develop one line that continues the emerging strength in the Christian gift product line,” CBD president Ray Hendrickson said in a statement.

CBD is planning to integrate Best to You into the tagline of its CBD gift and home catalog, Hendrickson says. It will also make a point of welcoming the Best to You customers in its January catalog mailing.

Best to You has been in business for more than 25 years. According to its data card, it has nearly 47,000 12-month buyers, who spend an average of $60 an order.

CBD describes itself as the largest religious-catalog company in the world, sending more than 60 catalog mailings a year. Its data card lists 834,000 12-month buyers, who spend an average of $70 an order on books, software, home-schooling products, gifts, and toys. In addition to its core catalog, CBD mails specialty titles for children, clergy, churches, schools, and home-schoolers, as well as catalogs specializing in fiction and music.