BETHANY, Mo. — It’s been a long journey for the Fitzgerald family, who have spent almost four decades building Gumdrop Books into a successful and cherished business.

Gumdrop Books serves the education and library communities in domestic and foreign markets. The company is a leading international distributor of educational materials for pre-kindergarten through college students, labeling books as library books for use at public libraries, private and public schools.

The Fitzgerald family and their employees are guided by an enduring slogan: “Exceptional Service, Unconditionally Guaranteed.”

It took time for the family to accomplish its free-enterprise goal, said Chief Executive Officer Jeff Fitzgerald. Gumdrop Books has been in the same location — off Interstate 35 in Bethany, Mo. — for about nine years. Trial and error in various ventures occurred before the Fitzgeralds settled on their present business model.

“We’d always be trying different things,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “We had double-digit growth for the first 20 years.”

The business is located in a 160,000 square-foot building, with 75,000 square feet devoted to a warehouse. Services rendered to customers runs against type compared to the rest of the industry.

“We do business a little differently in that we do not produce catalogs,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.

Instead, contractors fan out to offer samples that librarians and school officials may preview at their leisure.

“That’s our niche,” Mr. Fitzgerald said, “to give personal service. ... We do virtually everything but print the book.”

Machine-Readable Cataloging software and services are available through a sister company — Mitinet, Inc., Library Services. The MARC system was designed by the Library of Congress in the late 1960s to allow libraries to convert their card catalogs into a digital format. The format is now followed by libraries worldwide to provide computerized access to their collections.

From 30,000 to 35,000 schools rely on Gumdrop’s services, and the customer base isn’t limited to the United States. The company does business in 60 other nations, including Australia and in the Pacific Rim area.

“We’ve got a guy hired in Botswana and Namibia,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “We’re looking to hire in South Africa.”

There are no concerns that the growth in digital media will harm Gumdrop. For example, Chief Financial Officer Tom Schnieders said the firm now offers e-books in 3,000 titles. The company has access to 250 publishers.

About 65 employees work one shift at the plant, which Mr. Fitzgerald admitted has felt the impact of education cuts. Despite such adversity, Gumdrop has ambitions for future development. For instance, a new website is under development.

Ray Scherer can be reached at ray.scherer@newspressnow.com.