Retailers and suppliers were asked to work on trust and cooperate in order to expand their sales and reduce costs in the supply chain, at the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's (ECPA) 2004 Spring Management Seminar last week in Hilton Head, S.C.

While improving the supply chain was the focus for the weekend, Tony Hawk, the director of business development at the Soderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics, told attendees that they must trust each other if they hope to move forward on initiatives surrounding the five critical issues-which include restoring trust in working relationships, creating a plan to attract customers to retail and restoring financial health-as defined by Christian retail industry insiders last fall.

Suppliers also were challenged by Tom Freking, vice president of book-production services at printer RR Donnelley, to eliminate returns waste. He estimated there is $75 million of annual waste on returns in the Christian market alone, due in part to administrative and shipping costs between vendors and bookstores.

Power point presentations from several of the ECPA Spring Management Seminar are posted at http://www.ecpa.org/springsem.html.

Look for a full article on the seminar, as well as an exclusive in-depth interview with incoming ECPA President Mark Kuyper in the June 1 edition of Christian Retailing.

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