Page 8 - BOSS Today Issue 26

7. Do you know whom by Angela Anderson and Mark
your competitors will be Monte-Colombo, respectively
tomorrow? They will not be the Head of Papershop Buying
other OP companies, but and Head of Web Trading for
associated product suppliers Tesco. Their observations not
like Bunzl and 3663. only reaffirmed the large and
growing presence of this retail
8. What do we do about our giant in our marketplace (their
antiquated pricing model? YTD stationery sales are up
Distributors have to earn 2.9%) but also of the company’s
sensible money for the commitment to developing
service they provide. multichannel sales, since Tesco
customers that purchase online
9. How will increased make more than double the
mobility and flexibility affect instore purchases of other
your business? A customer’s customers. They concluded their
office may be their car or a presentation by sharing some
coffee shop. of the lessons they had learned
from online trading: that 50% of
10. How open is your visits to the Tesco online store
mind for change? History is were from mobile devices; that
littered with people who the online range need not be
have said “That will never the same as that held in-store;
happen to me”! that good product content
was vital; and – shockingly –
Mark Cooper, VP Avery Europe that 69% of their customers
and Asia Pacific was keen to searched for stationery using
re-emphasise the scope and the incorrect spelling ‘stationary’
extent of future technological – and that this needed to be
change, but warned us not to accommodated for.
fall into the equal traps of either Certainly the most passionate
believing that none of it was speaker of the day was Elliot
1. Why do we keep calling it 4. How much do you know relevant to us, or that we were Jacobs, MD of UOE, a smaller
the office products industry? about latex? The FM/FS market all doomed (for example, 77% of independent dealer and
Office products only accounts is another £5bn opportunity, electronic invoices, he claimed, member of OFDA, but – like
for £5bn of the c£15bn and EVO’s FM/FS sales have were still being printed out). Tesco – a multichannel player!
‘addressable market’. increased by 20%pa for the Instead, Cooper encouraged Addressing the question “Is
last two years. us to: move away from talking There A Future For Resellers?”
2. What are we going to about price; find promotions Jacobs warned us that while
do about the antiquated 5. How are you going to do that add value; engage with in the past the industry had
product lifecycle which what you’ve always done customers more and ask them been “pretty good at game
is based around annual with more competition and the right questions in order changing changes” such as
catalogues? It takes 18 lower margins? The old model to collect ‘big data’; strive to the ‘hub and spoke’ model,
months to get a product into of ‘double stockholding’ by take costs out; find genuine there was now “a lot of talk in
a catalogue: some IT products’ wholesalers and dealers is too product innovation and work to this industry and not a lot of
lifecycles are less than that! costly and has to go. attract the right people to our action!” Challenging and plain
industry. “It’s not the strongest speaking, Jacobs asked “How
3. What are you doing 6. What are we doing about that survive,” he concluded, “but can I compete without data and
about technology? This is the web and Amazon? Dealers those that are most adaptable.” flat pricing? Get me good data!
a market worth c£5bn. have to build a good web Following the coffee break we I can’t afford to take photos of
presence. were treated to a presentation 20,000 products! Stop talking

8 BOSS TODAY | February/March 2015

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