home
General Information

Our Vision

To be the world’s foremost source of information valued by enthusiasts.

Our Mission

To develop profitable, long-term customer relationships by creating and distributing information that engages, educates and excites the enthusiast.

Our History

In 2005, MBI Publishing Company celebrated its 40th anniversary. From our founding in a Minneapolis garage in 1965 to today, we have provided high-quality titles in a wide range of subjects: cars, motorsports, motorcycles, tractors, railroads, racing, military history, aviation, rural life, Americana, and calendars.

Our founder, Thomas Warth, began a modest automotive book retail business, then known as Classic Motorbooks, in his home because he was unable to find quality car, motorcycle and racing books.

In 1973, Motorbooks began to publish auto-related books of its own, which it distributed along with those of leading publishers from around the world. In 1976, Motorbooks relocated to Osceola, Wisconsin, where the company’s warehouse remains today.

Motorbooks was created in the mid-1970s to wholesale automotive and aviation books (through its Zenith Books catalog), first to specialty bookstores and then to the world’s book trade.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the company continued to grow, expanding its own publishing program of books and calendars, and providing the highest quality products to enthusiasts in the United States and around the world. Tom Warth sold the company to the Chronicle Publishing Company of San Francisco in 1989.

Motorbooks.com was established in 1998 and now offers more than 8,000 book and calendar titles across a wide range of subjects, making it truly the “place to be” for enthusiasts everywhere.

In 2000, Motorbooks was acquired by Flagship Partners, Inc. of New York, a private equity investment firm, and a new phase of growth began. The publishing offices and headquarters were moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, and the publishing program further expanded.

MBI Publishing Company launched the new imprint, Zenith Press, along with its related Web site ZenithPress.com, in 2004, continuing our tradition of military history and aviation publishing.

In 2005, the company acquired Voyageur Press, formerly of Stillwater, Minnesota, which specializes in travel, nature and country living titles. This imprint also has a Web site: VoyageurPress.com.

Today, MBI Publishing Company publishes 200 new titles each year under its Motorbooks, Zenith Press, and Voyageur Press imprints.

The Quarto Group Inc. acquired MBI Publishing Company in August 2007. Read the announcement