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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Penguin Random House Plans Major Expansion At Its Crawfordsville, Indiana, Operations Center

07/02/2014
Penguin Random House LLC, the world’s largest consumer book publisher, plans to consolidate a major portion of its U.S. distribution and fulfillment operations to Crawfordsville, Indiana, creating up to 313 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.

“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/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 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. 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.

“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.”

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.”

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