Though 2010 financial reports for Ingram Content Group (IGC) have yet to be finalized, CEO Skip Prichard said that its Christian distribution division has been "going well" since getting a makeover.

He attributed that in part to SA having increased the range of gifts, family DVDs, music and church supplies available to stores to help differentiate them. A team from the La Vergne, Tenn.-based company was at the Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market earlier this month to explore adding more non-print additions to its inventory.

Books that "might not be deemed 'Christian' " like Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken—the biography of Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini—had done well for some stores, Prichard said.

He encouraged Christian retailers to consider expanding their children's resources, too, as parents were "looking for the bookstore to curate and provide value, to tell me what is acceptable." That could include materials that are not specifically Christian. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar is not something that you would call a Christian book, but it's a wonderful book," Prichard said.

Such resources were more readily available to Christian stores through SA, he added, since IGC had restructured so that Christian products could be better distributed to any channel and other general market products could in turn be accessed by Christian stores. "We want to do everything we can to help Christian stores survive and thrive," he said.

Although the overall market had been tough, SA had opened new domestic, church-based and international accounts in 2010. "Though 182 locations we ship to were closed, we had more than that open last year and added 350 new ship-to locations," he told Christian Retailing.

SA's new look was unveiled at the International Christian Retail Show last July, when the single green leaf replacing the former triangular tree was explained to symbolize a renewal and recommitment to the Christian retail channel.