What Catholic Purchasing Services does

Catholic Purchasing Services Inc (CPS) is a privately held group purchasing organization and B2B e-commerce platform that procures and resells supplies exclusively for Catholic institutions across the United States. Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts, the company serves a vertical composed of Catholic K-12 schools, parishes, and diocesan offices, addressing their need for value-aligned procurement of furniture, liturgical items, educational equipment, and facility maintenance products. The company operates as an independent corporation with no parent entity, no external funding rounds, and no disclosed ownership changes in the available material.

The product portfolio is organized into five core categories plus two platform/service programs. Furniture spans educational seating, desks, tables, cafeteria, STEAM/science, library/media, storage, outdoor, preschool, church furniture, and office furniture, with a QUICK SHIP sub-brand offering expedited fulfillment. Church Supplies include liturgical items such as altar breads, altarware, vestments, candles, statues, and sacramental publications. School Supplies cover AV/technology (notably OneScreen Smart Boards), whiteboards, laminators, and lockers. Facility Equipment includes commercial refrigeration, HVAC/air quality, flooring, and outdoor products. The CPS Marketplace and Renovation Hub extend beyond the proprietary catalog: the Marketplace connects members with preferred third-party vendors, and the Renovation Hub aggregates curated facility-design and renovation partners. The commerce stack is built on BigCommerce, with member pricing gated behind account registration tied to institutional EIN verification in order to comply with manufacturer Minimum Advertised Price policies.

The business model is a membership-based group purchasing operation. Revenue is generated on a transactional, pay-as-you-go basis through three GTM motions: self-serve e-commerce (product-led growth), inside sales via a toll-free number and email support, and enterprise account-based sales for diocesan-wide Business Solutions and Renovation Hub coordination. Pricing is not publicly displayed at the SKU level due to MAP constraints; actual member pricing is visible only after login. Distribution is fully domestic to the United States, and customer acquisition is supported by content marketing (CPS Insights blog), email, and an organic social presence on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. The AI/data layer is absent from the disclosed stack: there are no APIs, integrations, third-party AI features, or proprietary models referenced in the available material.

Name

Catholic Purchasing Services

Legal name

Catholic Purchasing Services Inc

Website

https://catholicpurchasing.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1985

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Catholic Purchasing Services is a privately held group purchasing organization and B2B e-commerce platform serving US Catholic K-12 schools, parishes, and diocesan offices with discounted procurement of furniture, liturgical supplies, educational technology, and facility equipment.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Newton

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Product Sales: Direct product sales through e-commerce platform. Products include educational furniture (desks, chairs, tables), church furniture (altarware, vestments, candles), facility supplies, and liturgical items. Revenue generated from individual transactions with volume discounts available through group purchasing.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Catholic Purchasing Services is a group purchasing organization that aggregates demand from Catholic schools, parishes, and diocesan offices to negotiate discounted pricing on furniture, liturgical supplies, educational equipment, and facility products. The company operates a BigCommerce-powered e-commerce storefront where registered Catholic institutions can purchase educational and religious furniture (desks, chairs, church pews, kneelers, sanctuary furniture), liturgical items (altar breads, vestments, candles, statues), AV/technology products (OneScreen Smart Boards, whiteboards, laminators), and facility equipment (commercial refrigeration, HVAC, flooring). It also runs the CPS Marketplace connecting institutions with preferred vendors and the Renovation Hub for facility design and build projects.

Product overview

Catholic Purchasing Services operates as a group purchasing organization and B2B e-commerce platform serving Catholic schools, parishes, dioceses, and religious institutions. The offering is structured as a comprehensive procurement marketplace rather than a single unified software product. The core portfolio consists of five main product categories: (1) Furniture - a broad catalog of educational and religious furniture including QUICK SHIP expedited delivery options, featuring subcategories for seating, desks, tables, cafeteria, lounge, STEAM/science, library, storage, outdoor, preschool, church, and office furniture; (2) Church Supplies - liturgical items including altar breads, altarware, vestments, candles, statues, and religious publications; (3) School Supplies - educational equipment including AV/technology products like OneScreen Smart Boards, whiteboards, and laminators; (4) Facility Equipment - commercial refrigeration, HVAC, flooring, and outdoor products; and (5) Services - the CPS Marketplace for vendor access and Renovation Hub for facility design/build services. The platform operates on a membership-based model where Catholic institutions can access discounted pricing through collective buying power, with account registration requiring EIN verification.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Furniture
• QUICK SHIP Furniture
• Church Supplies
• School Supplies
• Facility Equipment
• CPS Marketplace
• Renovation Hub

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Grainger: Grainger is a large B2B distributor of facility, MRO, and operational supplies to institutional buyers. It overlaps with CPS's facility equipment category (HVAC, refrigeration, flooring care) and competes for institutional procurement budgets, but operates at vastly broader scale and does not serve the Catholic-specific furniture/liturgical niche.
• Amazon Business: Amazon Business is the B2B procurement arm of Amazon serving institutions, schools, and non-profits with broad assortment and business pricing. It is a structural competitive threat to CPS as schools and parishes increasingly default to Amazon Business for non-specialized supplies, though it cannot replicate CPS's liturgical and faith-aligned procurement depth.
• ULINE: ULINE is a large direct-to-business distributor of facility, packaging, and operational supplies. It competes with CPS for institutional facility procurement spending and offers a similar self-service e-commerce plus phone-sales model, but lacks specialization in education furniture or faith-based products.

Emerging players

• Really Good Stuff: Really Good Stuff is an educator-focused supplier of classroom furniture, organizational supplies, and learning materials. It overlaps with CPS in the preschool and K-12 educational furniture and supplies niche, particularly as a digital-first direct-to-institution seller, though it does not address the Catholic/church liturgical category.
• Kaplan Early Learning Company: Kaplan supplies early childhood and preschool classrooms with furniture, learning materials, and sensory products. It directly overlaps with CPS's preschool furniture and sensory products subcategories, but focuses specifically on early childhood rather than the broader K-12, church, and facility mix.

Direct peers

• Demco: Demco is a long-established B2B supplier of furniture, library, and classroom materials to schools and libraries. It competes with CPS in the educational furniture and supplies category and shares a similar institutional sales-and-catalog model targeting educators and school administrators.
• School Specialty: School Specialty is a major B2B distributor of educational supplies, furniture, and equipment to K-12 schools. It is directly comparable to CPS because both sell classroom furniture, school supplies, and equipment to institutional education buyers through a sales-assisted B2B model, though School Specialty serves the secular market while CPS focuses on Catholic institutions.
• Office Depot / ODP Corporation: Office Depot (via ODP Business Solutions) sells office furniture, school supplies, and breakroom/facility items to institutional buyers including schools and non-profits. It overlaps with CPS in office furniture, classroom supplies, and AV/boards, and competes for the same institutional procurement dollars even though its catalog is far broader and not faith-focused.
• National Purchasing Partners (NPP): NPP is a group purchasing organization that aggregates buying power for non-profits, schools, and government entities to negotiate discounted contracts with vendors. Its GPO structure, member-based pricing model, and institutional buyer focus make it one of the closest functional analogs to CPS, although it serves a broader non-profit base rather than exclusively Catholic institutions.

Others

• Virco: Virco is a manufacturer of educational furniture (seating, desks, tables) that is also sold through CPS's Renovation Hub partner network. It is an upstream supplier/partner rather than a direct competitor, but its brand and product mix make it comparable as a benchmark for the institutional educational furniture market CPS serves.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@catholicpurchasingservices
• Facebookfacebook.com/CatholicPurchasingServices
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/catholic-purchasing-services
• Instagraminstagram.com/catholicpurchasing/?hl=en

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Catholic Purchasing Services