ALPHA bookstore

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The ALPHA bookshop (GmbH) with twelve branches and 19 franchise partners the largest Christian bookstore chain in Germany. It is headquartered in the central Hessian city ​​of Gießen and in 2010 was ranked 44th among the fifty largest bookshops in German-speaking countries.

history

In 1908 Friedrich Herrmann, preacher of the Evangelical City Mission , opened a Christian bookshop in Gießen, which in 1909 joined the international community and mission organization Pilgermission St. Chrischona (based in Basel ) and was named Buchhandlung der Pilgermission . The city missionary Herrmann had already run a theological travel bookstore beforehand . One year after the end of the First World War , the company, which was now under the management of the bookseller Karl Peters, moved to Gießener Plockstrasse. Peters met the great demand for Christian literature by opening the Brunnen Verlag on September 1, 1919founded as a 1½-man business and managed it in personal union with the bookstore. In the 1920s, the series "Witnesses of the Living God" appeared for the first time and around one hundred titles were available. In 1919 the bookstore and publisher were converted into a limited liability company (GmbH). In 1943, the National Socialist government banned publishing. The bookstore was able to continue its work until 1944. That year the building on Plockstrasse was destroyed in a bomb attack.

In 1948 the bookstore and publisher received permission from the military government to continue their literary work. Three years later, the premises on Plockstrasse were restored and, after the Brunnen Verlag moved to downtown Giessen in 1952, they were used exclusively by the bookstore as a commercial building.

From 1972 the bookstore of the pilgrim mission took over other Christian literature distributors and began to set up a branch system. This business expansion required larger premises. In 1981, the administration and the warehouse were moved to a new building, which was located in the Gießen industrial park on Gottlieb-Daimler-Strasse and was shared with the Brunnen Verlag . In 1991 all branches were named ALPHA Buchhandlung .

The ALPHA bookstore has been working with a franchise system since 1995 . The first partner bookstore using this system was opened in Mannheim.

In 2002 a new logistics center was opened in Staufenberg . Linked to this was the founding of the logistics company ChrisMedia , which, as another GmbH in the ALPHA group of companies, has taken on responsibility for the logistics of the central warehouse as well as the delivery for the Brunnen Verlag and other Christian publishers.

In 2006 the managing director Herbert Nolte retired and after more than 30 years handed over the management to Frank Spatz.

A change of shareholders took place in 2010. The German Chrischona joint venture based in Gießen (previously 10% co-partner) took over all of the shares in Chrischona Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH (CBG) from the Swiss pilgrim mission St. Chrischona . The ALPHA bookstore, Brunnen Verlag Gießen, ChrisMedia and Chrischona-Service-Gesellschaft are now united under the umbrella of the CBG . The bookstore has 95 ALPHA employees (plus franchise partners; as of 2008). Around 100 people have been trained as booksellers in an ALPHA bookshop over the years. A six-person management team is responsible for planning and making decisions in day-to-day business; an extended strategy team takes over the strategic planning and target setting. On January 1, 2015, Chrischona-Beteiligungsgesellschaft sold 25 percent of its shares each to Brunnen Verlag (Gießen) , Verlag der Francke-Buchhandlung in Marburg and Kawohl Verlag in Wesel, all of which Alpha took over in June 2017.

The company is a member of the German Book Trade Association .

Branches of work

The motto “Books for Life” describes the key data for the selection of the literature on offer. The range includes over 100 subject groups. This includes Bible editions, Bible topics, devotion and prayer, congregation, Christian ethics, novels and biographies, illustrated books and gift books, children's and youth literature, family, games and gifts, guides, society and politics, stationery, music and film. Around 5,000 new items are added to the range every year.

Branches

The range of bookstores on offer is tailored to the denominations of the region. As a result, the shops vary in size and range. Titles that are not in stock can be delivered at short notice from the ALPHA central warehouse (approx. 20,000 items) or from the general KNV bar range (approx. 450,000 items).

Mail order bookstore

The ALPHA book box appears five times a year , a generally 16-page brochure with news, special offers and remaining items in a print run of up to 150,000 copies. The ALPHA calendar prospectus is published once a year as a 12-page print run of up to 250,000 copies. Added to this is the annual 350-page Blickfeld catalog of the ABCteam catalog community with new publications for one year. ALPHA is responsible for editing the catalog. There is also an online shop.

Advertisements for individual products are broadcast on Bibel TV and ERF-TV . The ALPHA bookstore supports the book table supervisors in 1,800 parishes of different denominations with Bibles, Christian books, cards, calendars, CDs and DVDs.

Franchise partner

Franchise partners obtain their goods at preferential rates from the ALPHA central warehouse and pay an annual franchise fee for central services. All ALPHA bookstores are based on a uniform corporate design. These partner bookstores are owned by private individuals, sponsoring associations, communities or Christian institutions. You are independent and have economic responsibility for your bookstore.

logistics

Thanks to the franchise network and taking over delivery for other mail order bookshops, ALPHA reached the limits of its spatial capacities. In 2002, the logistics company ChrisMedia was founded together with Brunnen Verlag. Around 20,000 titles are kept in stock on 2,000 m² of storage space and up to 1,200 parcels are dispatched daily.

literature

  • Between profit and mission. In: Börsenblatt des Deutschen Buchhandels , SPEZIAL, 1/2003, p. 36ff.
  • Expansion as a mission. In: buchreport.express , No. 44 (November 1, 2001), p. 14.
  • Stores with a mission. In: Rheinische Merkur 32/2009, p. 26.
  • Christian booksellers have long been media dealers. In: Buchreport.spezial , 2009 (Religion & Theologie), pp. 10-14.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alpha bookstore with more shareholders. Börsenblatt des Deutschen Buchhandels from November 17, 2014; accessed on January 8, 2017
  2. ^ Article The largest bookstores , in buchreport.magazin , March 2010, pages 22–28
  3. ↑ ideaSpektrum , No. 36/1991 (April 25, 1991)
  4. ↑ Article: Five ways to partnership , in: BuchMarkt , July 2004 edition, p. 140
  5. ↑ per media magazine (June 14, 2006); Article: Wechsel an der Alpha-Spitze , in: Gießener Allgemeine , No. 137 (June 16, 2006), p. 29; Article Kopf der Woche , in: börsenblatt , 25/2006, p. 5
  6. ↑ The historical data are taken from the following company brochure (unless otherwise stated): 100 Years of Books on Life! - Insights from the Christian ALPHA bookstore , Giessen 2008, p. 4f
  7. ↑ Four wins: The Christian alpha chain from Gießen dares a new beginning , boersenblatt.net, interview with Alpha boss Helmut Köther from February 19, 2015.
  8. ↑ Francke and Kawohl take over Brunnen, Alpha and ChrisMedia , pro-medienmagazin.de, accessed on August 15, 2017.