A publisher who hasn't laid anyone off? In these times?

Great company, this. I caught up http://www.cleanslatepress.com

Tell us about your business, what do you do?

Clean Slate Press is a publisher of innovative literacy and social studies resources for the international education market. We create grade-appropriate material that is curriculum-linked for each market we sell to. We present series overviews and prototypes to international publishers, who then, if we’ve done our jobs properly, commit to the series. The market we’ve been most successful in is Canada, and we’re also starting to reap rewards from the U.S.

We are also publishers/distributors for the NZ/Aus market. Providing quality materials for NZ/Aus teachers and students is something we are very passionate about. We are 100% NZ owned and operated, and we are committed to serving our local market.

What is your attitude towards the recession?

While we are aware that the recession has impacted significantly on our industry and on the individual schools we sell to, we are in a growth period. This is partly due to the fact that because we are a small,dynamic company we can make decisions quickly and change our focus. We operate on several business models and try not to hold all our eggs in one basket. In some ways, we may benefit from the recession due
to large companies choosing to outsource design and editorial services from companies such as ourselves rather than work with a costly inhouse team.

Do you have a recession plan?

We don’t have a plan as such apart from continuing to grow our client base and making sure that we are open to different ways of doing business. Our hard costs, such as printing, have increased due to the recession, but our sales are up. Our policy is that we must be doing something right, so we’re just going to keep on doing it. We learn more about our industry every day.

How do you keep staff happy/uplifted?

We are lucky that our staff all want to work in the publishing industry and are passionate about their jobs. They take pride in their work, and we take pride in having such a great team. We offer our design/editorial staff flexible hours and a casual, friendly working environment. We work closely together, and every staff member is valued. We also go through quite a lot of wine!

Who is your ideal target customer?

We love all customers, but there is one company we have been wooing for several years that we would really love to do business with and that is Scholastic U.S.A. The time will come – we just have to be patient!