Dear Customer,

At IngramSpark, we are anticipating a busy fourth quarter. Each day brings multiple news stories about the impact of the Covid pandemic on the global supply chain and its ripple effect across all industries. Fortunately for our industry, the demand for books has increased dramatically during the past 18 months. However, the book industry, like all physical goods industries, is experiencing Covid’s negative logistic impacts due in large part to labor and supply shortages and transportation issues.

This fall, the global publishing business can expect disruption in shipping, increases in costs throughout the supply chain, shortages in consumables used for packing and shipping, and shortages in manufacturing supplies for books and printed matter. Like many other companies that rely on warehouses, trucking, and manufacturing, IngramSpark expects to be challenged by labor shortages and transportation challenges. We expect to have difficulty finding available workers in many of our warehouse locations and manufacturing plants. We may also lack enough transportation assets to keep books moving at our typical speed.

IngramSpark is committed to contributing to a successful year-end and holiday season in the book industry. We feel it is important for our publishers, suppliers, and customers to be fully aware of the current macroeconomic issues facing the global supply chain and the potential effects of these trends on the book industry.

Here is what we are doing to prepare for these challenges:

• Actively developing wage structures to meet labor market demand.
• Ordering manufacturing and warehouse-related materials, such as paper and packing materials, earlier and in larger quantities.
• Working with our transportation partners to anticipate and remove challenges, when possible, through frequent shipping forecasts.
• Encouraging retailers to stock up early to avoid potential delays.

We also want to offer guidance to help you prepare for the anticipated challenges in year-end.

• Order Early: Stock up on anticipated titles and order early to avoid delays.
• Offer More Formats: Consumers like options and availability, so have your titles available in multiple formats, including ebook.
• Go Global: Set pricing for all available global markets for faster delivery and reduce the risk of shipping delays.

We recently announced updates to our standard print service levels and turn-around times and anticipate we will continue to see challenges within the industry, as well as within our organization. Take time to review your titles, set global pricing, add new formats, order extra inventory, and prepare for a busy Q4.

We wish you great success during this holiday season and will continue to update you through the IngramSpark platform, our business updates page, and email. 

Thank you, 
IngramSpark