Penguin Random House to expand distribution, fulfillment operations in Crawfordsville, Indiana, expanding existing facility by 350,000 sq. ft. by October to double book shipments; state to offer up to US$100,000 in grants, US$700,000 in tax credits

Aimee Bellah

CRAWFORDSVILLLE, Indiana , July 2, 2014 (press release) – Penguin Random House LLC, the world’s largest consumer book publisher, announced plans today to consolidate a major portion of its U.S. distribution and fulfillment operations to here, creating up to 313 new jobs by 2016.

The New York-headquartered company will make a multi-million dollar investment to expand, renovate and equip its Crawfordsville operations. With a 350,000-square foot expansion, the company plans to grow its existing facility to one million square feet. This growth, which is scheduled to be operational by this October, will allow the company to double annual book shipments.

“Just as Indiana’s business climate is constantly evolving to meet market demands, Penguin Random House has shown its ability to adapt to new trends in its industry,” said Governor Mike Pence. “When businesses needed a more stable environment to place their investments, Indiana responded with balanced budgets and lower taxes. Today, Indiana stands out as a state that works because we’ve taken the proactive steps necessary to promote pro-business policies that build our economy and attract more jobs for Hoosiers.”

Penguin Random House, which currently has more than 300 full-time employees in Indiana, plans to begin hiring for full-time positions in August and continue throughout the fall and winter. Interested applicants should visit the Penguin Random House website for current hiring information.

“The city of Crawfordsville, Montgomery County and the state of Indiana long have been valued partners with Random House, and now Penguin Random House, in providing our booksellers, authors and publishers with the very best distribution and fulfillment service,” said Annette Danek, senior vice president and director of fulfillment of Penguin Random House. “These strong relationships with the city, county and state, together with our investments in employee development and facility expansion, will enable us to strengthen our commitment to the future of print books and to physical retailers nationwide. We deeply appreciate the opportunity to build upon the support and cooperation of the Montgomery County and Indiana to further grow our business.”

Formed as a merger between publishers Random House and the Penguin Group in July 2013, Penguin Random House publishes and distributes adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print, hardcover, paperback, and audio titles and e-books across some 250 publishing imprints worldwide. The U.S. Pulitzer Prize boards have honored Penguin Group and Random House books more than 120 times over the past ten decades. The growth of the company’s Crawfordsville facility will allow Penguin Random House to unify its current U.S. operation centers into two locations, with the other facility in Westminster, Maryland.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered Penguin Random House LLC up to $700,000 in conditional tax credits and up to $100,000 in training grants based on the company’s job creation plans. These tax credits are performance-based, meaning until Hoosiers are hired, the company is not eligible to claim incentives. The city of Crawfordsville approved additional incentives at the request of Montgomery County Economic Development, Inc.

“We are very excited that Penguin Random House has chosen to expand their operations in Crawfordsville,” said Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton. “They have become a valuable member of our community, and this expansion will provide additional employment opportunities for our residents. Their decision to invest in our community is truly a testament to the hard work that is being done to make us more competitive in economic development. The city of Crawfordsville and MCED worked very aggressively to ensure that we had a winning proposal and that these new job opportunities came to our community. And, of course, the fact that Crawfordsville is a home to the publisher of more than seventy Nobel Prize winners, and many of the world’s beloved and widely read fiction and nonfiction authors also makes us enormously proud.”

About Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House (http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/) is the world’s most global trade book publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively. Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, and Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and Brazil; DK worldwide; and Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial’s Spanish-language companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.

About IEDC
Created in 2005 to replace the former Department of Commerce, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation is governed by a 12-member board chaired by Governor Mike Pence. Victor Smith serves as the Indiana Secretary of Commerce and Eric Doden is the president of the IEDC.

The IEDC oversees programs enacted by the General Assembly including tax credits, workforce training grants and public infrastructure assistance. All tax credits are performance-based. Therefore, companies must first invest in Indiana through job creation or capital investment before incentives are paid. A company who does not meet its full projections only receives a percentage of the incentives proportional to its actual investment. For more information about IEDC, visit www.iedc.in.gov.

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