HomeBibles Music Video Gifts Links Location The business was originally started in December 1973 by Ed and Alice Martin, operating as Martin Christian Supplies and located in the Hanover Mall on 7th Ave. in Hanover. The inventory consisted of bibles, books and gifts. Over the next few years the Martin's decided to focus on "christian" products, and started to carve out a niche for the store. In June of 1985 the Martins sold their store to Bob & Mary Peckham of London, Ontario. The new owners expanded the inventory line to become a full-service Christian Bookstore and continued to operate the store in the Hanover Mall, under the present name, Hanover Bible Book Music & Video.In September 1989 the Peckham's purchased a larger location at 306 10th Street, with approximately 1800 sq.ft. of sales area.The store was an early adopter of computers with all inventory and point of sale information being captured by the system. The business showed good growth under the Peckham's until the early 1990's when sales stagnated and Bob & Mary, looking to retire, began to look for new owners.
"In June 1995 Colin & Joan Robertshaw of Cambridge, Ontario, purchased the assets of the business and moved their family to the Hanover area. The new owners revamped the inventory and upgraded the product lines, while still focusing on the "christian market" as the previous owners had done In 1998 the computer system was replaced with a very user friendly system that gave the store a greater ability to capture and use the sales history in their marketing efforts. The majority of the advertising budget was directed towards direct mailing of flyers, which were purchased as part of a marketing group.
After 4 years of solid growth, the owners realized that to continue to grow the business a larger location would be needed. The Robertshaw's moved the business to the current location at 399 18th Ave. in April 2000, which doubled the customer area to over 3600 sq ft. The floorspace was expanded again in February 2002 when a customer coffee area was carved out of a storage section. The store continues to keep up-to-date with advances in high-speed internet access which enables them to track down many difficult to find products, and was one of the first Canadian Christian Bookstores with a presence on the world wide web, at www.hanoverbible.com. The store has grown to the largest of its kind in the region, and the future looks exciting as Hanover seems to have been revitalized with new businesses such as WalMart and others choosing to locate here.