Page 5 - BOSS Today Issue 52

BOSS Today #52

Putting It All

Back, Together

ccording to “The State of the OP Industry Problems At Home
A2020-21”, the recently-published latest While home working has its undoubted
annual survey of the global OP industry benefits, it also has downsides beyond
by Martin Wilde Associates (MWA) and its negative impact on office supplies
OPI, the UK market for core OP shrank demand, such as isolation and an impact
by at least 25% in 2020. While ongoing on mental health, as Martin Shaw,
digitisation accounted for a small part of MD of D3 Office Group, points out: “If
this, what mostly impacted the market people remain at home, they tend to go “If people remain at home,
in 2020 was the COVID-19 crisis and the a bit feral. It’s also much more difficult
move to working from home. While the bringing new people in, and getting them they tend to go a bit feral.”
product categories most perceived as in trained and assimilated into your culture
decline in 2020 were traditional stationery and way of working.” For Craig Baldwin, Martin Shaw, MD of
and cut office paper, products which Sales Director at Commercial, one of the D3 Office Group
require workers to be in their offices – biggest problems has been ensuring that
eg business gifts, catering/breakroom staff were looking after themselves by
supplies and MPS – were also widely not working themselves too hard: “The
mentioned. last thing we wanted was for them to be
If that was not bad enough, the chained to a laptop between 8am and
survey also showed that the shift to 6pm without a break and without getting
home working had most benefited the any fresh air.”
online players, which has meant that the
‘traditional’ channels have now had to Why We’re Better Together
compete with Amazon on its home turf Indeed, there are number of key factors
– online – while having to swallow the which argue strongly in favour of a return
additional costs of home delivering smaller to the office, at least for some part of the
value orders. week:
In short, the UK OP industry now
urgently needs the UK to return to the
workplace.

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