About Thomas Allen & Son

Thomas Allen & Son is the oldest privately owned and operated trade book distributor in Canada and has served the Canadian book trade for over 100 years and 4 generations of the Allen family.

We are the exclusive Canadian distributors for over 25 US and British book publishers, and are positioned as one of the top 10 book distributors by volume in the Canadian marketplace (BookNet Canada 2020).

Our diverse product lines include everything from dictionaries to self-help books, award-winning fiction and non-fiction, calendars, gift products, journals and stationery, and a wide range of children's books. Our Bibliographic Data base features over 55,000 available titles and our warehouse facility stocks over 13,000 active titles at any one time. More information about our publishers and their books can be found here.

Thomas Allen has a customer base of more than 3500 active accounts that are as diverse as the products we sell. Bookstores, gift shops, public and regional library systems, office and school supply retailers and wholesalers, warehouse clubs, toy stores, hardware retailers, specialty retailers, and independent distributors/news dealers (CMMI and TNG) are all an important aspect of four business. Our sales representatives take a multi-functional approach to selling that includes the non-book segment of the market. This approach provides us with an edge over our competitors since our sales force is able to justify the expense of travel to smaller markets with the knowledge of business being written with a wide range of customers.

Thomas Allen has 6 sales representatives who work in the trade and specialty areas of the market. They are supported by a team of Customer Service representatives and our business-to-business website that allows for placing orders at our customers convenience 24/7. We participate in all of the regional trade book fairs, along with gift trade shows, library conventions and selected hardware industry shows.

Our offices and warehouse are located in a 75,000 square foot facility at 195 Allstate Parkway in Markham, Ontario. We share this facility with its owners Fitzhenry & Whiteside, another venerable Canadian family owned publisher/distributor.

Our business continues to thrive and we are continually interested in new distribution opportunities that align with our existing client publishers and with the market segments in Canada in which we have a strong and growing presence.

We would be pleased to discuss our company with you in further detail and what we can do for your business in the Canadian market.