UTP seeking solutions to anticipated rise in book distributions costs [Video]

One of Canada’s leading publishing houses is worried that it may soon not be able to keep up with the rising costs of storing the hundreds of book titles it distributes, potentially impacting the availability of educational materials and trade books from coast to coast.

Officials with the University of Toronto Press (UTP), which has been distributing books for a range of independent Canadian publishers since 1975, say that the publishing house no longer has sufficient space at its 95,000-square-foot distribution centre on Dufferin Street, south of Steeles Avenue West, and is in need of a new, modern facility to accommodate the distribution of its wide range of titles.

An image of UTP’s overcrowded, aging warehouse on Dufferin Street in North York. (UTP photo)

To make matters worse, the leases at three overflow sites UTP has paid to use in Newmarket, Mississauga, and Georgetown since 2018 will soon be due …