California Princeton Fulfillment Services will shut down its Lower Ferry Road warehouse next April. The location serves as a distributor for the Princeton University Press and the University of California Press, both of which will join Perseus Academic, a division of Perseus Distribution.
The closure will mean the loss of 34 jobs. Peter Dougherty, director of the Princeton University Press, said that the industry move toward digital publishing and smaller print runs had hurt the long-term viability of the company, and an impending lease deadline forced the issue. Dougherty said Princeton University will follow the industry trend of joining bigger distributors. Columbia Press joined Perseus last year.
“Our business is undergoing a revolution, and the warehousing and distributing and selling of traditionally printed books is on the decline,” he said. “We expect it to continue that way, and so we decided it was time to engage the services of a larger distribution enterprise where we would be able to exploit the economies of scale that come with that kind of arrangement.”
CPFS has been located in Ewing for more than 20 years. “This was not an easy decision,” Dougherty said. “We have an appreciation for the people who work here, and we have tried to be fair and humane in dealing with them.”
California Princeton Fulfillment Services, 1445 Lower Ferry Road, Mercer Industrial Center, Ewing 08618; 609-883-1759.
