MennoMedia has announced that it will close its office and distribution centre in Kitchener, Ont., in early 2017, leaving one full-time employee out of work. MennoMedia has maintained an office in the Mennonite Central Committee Ontario centre at 50 Kent Avenue for the past three years; before that, the office was located for many years in nearby Waterloo. “This was a difficult decision,” said Russ Eanes, executive director of MennoMedia and its book imprint, Herald Press. The main office is located in Harrisonburg, Va. “We have a loyal Canadian customer base, especially in Mennonite Church Canada congregations. However, as both the church world and the publishing world have changed, we have to change. We are actively working to develop one or more partnerships with third parties that can continue to provide top-level service to our Canadian customers.” In looking at costs, the staff and board of MennoMedia found that “it will be more cost-effective, with our limited resources, to work through a third-party distributor in Canada for Herald Press,” Eanes added, pointing out that a significant portion of Canadian congregations are already being serviced through a call and distribution centre in the U.S. “That will continue seamlessly in the coming months,” he said. —MennoMedia
