How McHenry-based Follett Content grew from a family business to an international company

Follett Content CEO Britten Follett always said she never wanted to be a part of the multi-generational family business because she wanted to do her own thing. For 10 years she was an Emmy Award-winning TV reporter before joining Follett Content in 2010. Now, she’s inspired to infuse her family legacy while transforming the distributor of books and resources to school libraries, classrooms and institutions.

“I like to read, so it’s kind of a dream job,” Britten said.

More than 100 years ago, Follett Content st arted with four brothers selling educational books in Chicago. Headquartered in McHenry since 1997, the company now employs more than 700 people in McHenry County, including more than 300 jobs within its 360,000-square-foot warehouse.

Follett Content is a national provider of educational materials to 86,000 prekindergarten through 12th grade schools. The company distributes books, eBooks, learning materials and digital resources to librarians and schools around the world.

The family sold the company to private equity giant Francisco Partners in 2021. Despite not officially being family-owned, the Follett legacy still runs deep in the company.

It started in the early 1900s with Britten’s great-great-grandfather Charles W. Follett married Edythe Benepe, a reporter from Chicago, and started working at a bookstore under Charles M. Barnes, as in Barnes & Noble. Soon after, Charles and his four sons started growing an educational book business that became Follett Corporation over time, according to Follett archives.

Much like her family, Britten said she has always loved learning, reading and staying curious.

“I guess you never know if it’s inherited,” she said.

Her father, Chuck Follett, was part of every aspect of the company from working in the international division to being the CIO and the CEO. His favorite accomplishment, he said, was he founded Follett Software in 1980, a software designed to organized library inventories and bibliographies.

“I had a storied career at our family business and I was very, very lucky,” he said.

Chuck saw the company grow from making $36 million in annual sales in 1974 to $3 billion in 2021. He credits the key to growth was allowing each division to operate and grow as its own company, much like how federal and state governments operate, he said.

When it outgrew its library warehouse in Chicago, Follett moved in 1974 to Crystal Lake, along Routes 14 and 31, where the U-Haul Moving & Storage now stands.

“That was the beginning of an incredible run for our library book division,” Chuck said. “We never looked back after that.”

From there, the company moved to a previous Althoff Home Services facility in McHenry where the McHenry Public Library now stands and built the McHenry headquarters it now operates in today.

“Our growth was phenomenal,” he said. “We were growing like a weed.”

When Chuck was working in the international sales division, Britten started to tag along for international work trips.

“I got to know Follett indirectly through my desire to see the world,” she said.

Chuck said he was sad to hear when Britten said she was leaving journalism, but grateful for the leader she has become.

“It’s the best of all worlds,” he said.

The family influence spread far as Chuck’s cousin Kathy Paur worked as a sales representative for the company for more than 40 years in California and retired last year. She, Britten and many family members are bookworms, Paur said. Family members always are recommending books to read to one another. She grew up surrounded by books and was even “fired” after picking out books for herself from the Chicago warehouse when gathering orders, she said.

“I thought every family had hundreds of books in their home,” she said.

Paur first worked as an elementary school teacher and that pattern continues with the next generation. Her daughter is a first-grade teacher and her son works as a sales rep for Follett.

“He has some of the same territory that I had when I was a sales rep,” she said. “Even though we’re not family-owned anymore, it’s still very much a lot of family influence and pride.”

Now the company is working on “Follett 2.0″ that focuses on virtual book fairs where students can pick out books online. Making the fairs digital makes them a lot more accessible since physical fairs can be a costly production for schools, Britten said.

Another focus is on local and national philanthropy. The employee bookstore, Edythe’s Book Nook, takes proceeds every month and donates to a local organization. The company also aids libraries impacted by natural disasters across the country by sending books.

“If you can’t read, you can’t learn,” Britten said. “There’s no question getting books in the hands of kids and providing students access to quality books through libraries is fundamental to the success of our society.”