Peabody, Massachusetts (August 8, 2008):   Ray Hendrickson, President of Christian Book Distributors (CBD), proudly announces that long-time industry veteran Craig Stoll will be joining the company as Sales Promotion Manager later this month.  For the past 19 years, Craig has been with Mardel stores where he started out managing store locations.  In 1993, Craig moved to the corporate office where he became Mardel’s Book and Bible Buyer.  He currently serves as a Merchandise Manager with Mardel, supervising and training a team of buyers based out of their corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City, OK.

Craig brings to CBD an extensive merchandising background.  In his new role, he will focus on improving the merchandising and marketing methodology already in place, as well as working to ensure great product promotions are offered throughout all of the many sales vehicles —including more than 65 different catalog mailings each year to millions of customers; e-casts including customer-favorite Fab Fridays; and the strongly positioned online home of Christian Book Distributors, Christianbook.com.

“Craig is an exceptional buyer and merchandiser who will bring many years of industry experience to CBD,” said Ray Hendrickson.  “I’m confident he will add considerable value to our team with his strengths in identifying developing trends, determining solid merchandise assortments, and creating and coordinating effective promotions.”

CBD is the largest religious catalog company in the world, sending out more than 65 mailings of unique catalogs to millions of customers each year. CBD’s customers have access to the premier selection of Christian products available—over 200,000 books, Bibles, CDs, DVDs, gifts, toys, games, and more.  Christianbook.com, the online home of Christian Book Distributors, is a six-time recipient of the BizRate Circle of Excellence Platinum Award.  This award is presented to top performing online retailers who have met the strict criteria set by BizRate Research to recognize outstanding customer service.

In closing, Ray Hendrickson commented, “Among his other duties, Craig will still have an opportunity to work on one of his favorite aspects of the job: remainder (closeout) buying.  We look forward to having Craig on our team, and to the part he will play in expanding and improving the strength of our product offerings.”

Craig and his family will be moving to the local area in the next few weeks.