Opi february'18 issue 276 a

BIG INTERVIEW

Connecting the

business products world

Steve Haworth, EVO Group of Companies February 2018

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Avery cracks down on counterfeiters l Management changes at Depot Europe l M-commerce: important for B2B resellers? l Workplace 4.0 at Kaut-Bullinger l How to maximise social media l Paperworld interview l EOPA preview l The word from Oz

CONTENTS 16 Big Interview Steve Haworth on the restructured EVO Group of Companies and what it all means going forward 26 Hot Topic M-commerce has become ubiquitous in the B2C sector, but how about B2B – is it gaining traction?

31 Spotlight A look at Kaut-Bullinger’s brand new Workplace 4.0 service solution 34 Interview As Paperworld takes centre stage in Germany, OPI talks to Messe Frankfurt Director Michael Reichhold 36 Category Update The evolution of office technology and how it’s helping to change the way we work

Big Interview: Steve Haworth, EVO Group of Companies

After nearly two years at the helm, Steve Haworth is ready to build on all the hard work that’s been done at the newly-restructured EVO Group of Companies. Further investment in products, services and solutions as well as M&A are just a few things on the cards HOT TOPIC: M IS FOR MOBILE

42 How to... ... successfully use social media as a sales and marketing tool 47 Preview: Partnership OPI raises the bar for strategic discussions in Amsterdam 48 Preview: EOPA Who’s up for a gong this year? Take a look at this year’s potential winners of the European Office Products Awards

REGULARS 5 Comment 6 News 52 5 minutes with...

Jolanda de Vries 54 Final Word Brad O’Brien

February 2018

M-commerce is becoming an increasingly important part of the mix. And while the majority of purchases in the business supplies industry are still made using a desktop, the movement of millennial workers into purchasing positions, combined with the growing trend of working outside the office, will likely accelerate the adoption of m-commerce.

There are mixed opinions from the OP world on how mobile is shaping B2B e-commerce, but the overriding view is that, given time, m-commerce will become a major force for buying and selling.

40 Category Update Challenges abound in the writing instruments sector, but there are still plenty of sparks to inject new life

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COMMENT The OPI team EDITORIAL Editor Heike Dieckmann +44 (0)20 7841 2950 heike.dieckmann@opi.net Deputy Editor Michelle Sturman +44 (0)20 7841 2942 michelle.sturman@opi.net Reporter Joshua Allsopp +44 (0)20 7841 2952 joshua.allsopp@opi.net OPI Special Correspondent Andy Braithwaite +33 4 32 62 71 07 andy.braithwaite@opi.net Freelance Contributor David Holes david.holes@opi.net

SALES & MARKETING VP – Continental Europe, Middle East and Africa Ewan Dickson +44 (0)20 7841 2954 ewan.dickson@opi.net VP – North America and UK Chris Turness +44 (0)20 7841 2953 chris.turness@opi.net Director of Growth Services Jeremy Hughes +44 (0)7807 810617 jeremy.hughes@opi.net Digital Marketing Manager Aurora Enghis +44 (0)20 7841 2959 aurora.enghis@opi.net

EVENTS Events Manager Lisa Haywood +44 (0)20 7841 2941 events@opi.net

PRODUCTION & FINANCE Studio Joel Mitchell +44 (0)20 7841 2943 joel.mitchell@opi.net Operations & Production Eda Sismanoglu +44 (0)20 7841 2950 eda@opi.net Finance Kelly Hilleard +44 (0)20 7841 2956 kelly.hilleard@opi.net

PUBLISHERS CEO Steve Hilleard +44 (0)20 7841 2940 steve.hilleard@opi.net Director Janet Bell +44 (0)20 7841 2941 janet.bell@opi.net Executive Assistant Debbie Garrand +44 (7718) 660249 debbie.garrand@opi.net

A

Stay on the ball

few weeks into 2018 and most New Year’s resolutions will already have fallen by the wayside. And while nobody really cares if you’re back on the biscuits as opposed to eating superfoods, from a business point of view it will pay to stick to your plans. The first resolution for companies, according to a number of sources: devise (or review) a social media strategy.

Our industry – certainly the B2B side of it – has been slow on the uptake so far, but using social media as a sales and marketing tool makes perfect sense, says Jennifer Rae Schulman (see page 42).

So does being on-board with mobile commerce trends, explains OPI’s Michelle Sturman (page 26). Again, too many resellers are still dragging their feet instead of jumping on the m-commerce bandwagon, arguably because there’s simply no demand from their customer base. That will change and probably quicker than those operators sitting on the fence will be able to catch up with.

Using social media as a sales and marketing tool makes perfect sense On a more upbeat note, the European Office Products Awards (EOPA) are nearly upon us again, rewarding all that is good and innovative about our industry (see page 48 for a preview). With all the change and progress in mind, I was wondering how the shortlist this year compares to the one we had back in 2002 for the very first EOPA. The categories have evolved for starters, of course. There’s no sign of Retailer of the Year now – there simply wouldn’t be enough entries that make the cut for a shortlist (so any retailers that are shortlisted for Reseller of the Year – hats off to them), but there is a Video of the Year (unheard of as a marketing vehicle 17 years ago) and several marketing campaigns indeed are social media-based.

As for the shortlisted companies, how the mighty have shifted. Office Depot and Staples were the darlings of award ceremonies in the noughties, with Amazon not even on the radar.

There are some perennials across the channels that are just as prominent today as they were 17 years ago. ACCO Brands, Integra Business Solutions, Quantore... Because they’ve seen what’s happening in the industry, anticipated trends and changes and reacted to them – in time. They were – and are – on the ball.

HEIKE DIECKMANN, EDITOR Have a good month.

Twitter: @opinews Linkedin: opi.net/linkedin Facebook: facebook.com/opimagazine App: opi.net/app

Connecting the

business products world

Office Products International Ltd (OPI) 2nd Floor, 112 Clerkenwell Road London, EC1M 5SA, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7841 2950

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February 2018

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5

NEWS

Analysis:

Fighting the fakes

www.opi.net

OPI spoke to office products vendor Avery about how it is trying to crack down on resellers selling counterfeit products on Amazon’s online marketplace

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In late November 2017, Avery Products in the US and its sister company CCL Label filed a lawsuit in an Ohio court against six unnamed defendants accusing them of “running a fraudulent counterfeiting scheme […] to pass off inferior office supply and label products as though they are genuine Avery products”.

“This has confused and upset Avery customers who have purchased inferior counterfeit products, has caused irreparable reputational harm to Avery as deceived and dissatisfied customers attribute their dissatisfaction to the Avery brand, and has caused [the company] to lose sales,” Avery said in its case summary.

While the lawsuit has been filed against six unnamed companies (or “Company Does” – pronounced ‘doze’), the office products manufacturer called out six entities that are selling counterfeit Avery products on Amazon in the US: StationersSupply or ShoppingCities, Literaturenet, OfficeMall, RapidRobot, Carnival of Sorts, and Shop Easy.

Why, then, are these parties referred to as Company Does in the lawsuit?

“While we have had some success in doing so prior to the litigation, we found that a number of these sellers had not used authentic information in setting up their accounts,” newly appointed President of

Avery Mark Cooper told OPI. “The counterfeiters have tried to exploit the privacy rules and the freedom of online businesses to hide their identities. In filing the lawsuit, we will be able to discover more information about the identities of the counterfeit sellers and enforce the law against them.”

We found that a number of these sellers had not used authentic information in setting up their accounts POOR QUALITY In the lawsuit, Avery contends that the “counterfeit products have a variety of poor quality issues, including poor adhesives, low-quality packaging (likely a result of scanning genuine Avery packaging), and a foul chemical odour”. This has resulted in multiple examples of negative feedback and complaints on Amazon.

“It is only after purchase and receipt of the counterfeit products that someone having familiarity with Avery packaging would discern differences

INTERNATIONAL SCALE Avery is still trying to determine the extent of the problem, although the lawsuit states that the company has suffered damages exceeding $25,000.

“Through our investigation to date, we have discovered that a number of our most popular address and shipping labels designed for laser printers have been counterfeited by others,” noted Cooper. “The litigation against the counterfeiters will help us determine the full extent of products at issue to eliminate any instances of counterfeit products on the market.”

Cooper added that Avery frequently scans the most popular marketplaces and subscribes to a third-party service that monitors even more of them to find possible counterfeit sellers.

While the recent lawsuit relates to the US market, he confirmed that Avery is also checking the situation on an international scale. “We take counterfeit products very seriously and will pursue counterfeiters regardless of the jurisdiction in which they operate,” he stated.

Meanwhile, Cooper said that consumers should be wary of offers from third-party sellers that appear ‘too good to be true’. Avery has set up a hotline for consumers to call and report suspicious products or websites.

@WasteGroupUK Saving our biscuit wrappers. Is that a lot for 7 people in 7 days? #recycling

@MarisolTheGr8 Everyone going into the office #Monday morning like #9to5

@MarkBluefish Just checking our paper deliveries for 2030

@commercialgroup Our #sustainability team has delivered 20 kg of Christmas cards to @cobaltfr for upcycling Follow us on Twitter @opinews

IN BRIEF SYNNEX CEO retires CEO of IT distributor and services company SYNNEX Kevin Murai has announced his retirement after ten years at the helm, effective 1 March. He will assume the role of Chairman of the board of directors and will be succeeded as CEO by current COO Dennis Polk, who has been with the company for more than 15 years.

Private equity buys Fedrigoni Specialty papers and labels maker Fedrigoni has been acquired by private equity firm Bain Capital. Italy-based Fedrigoni has 13 manufacturing facilities in Italy, Spain and Brazil, more than 2,700 employees, and a distribution network covering over 110 countries. It is expected to generate sales of around €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion) for FY2017.

Eakes makes Nebraska acquisition US office products dealer Eakes Office Solutions has acquired fellow Nebraska-based reseller Latsch’s.

Latsch’s VP John Costin will be joining Eakes as Sales Manager for Office Products while President Mike Decker will oversee the merger and then retire from the OP industry once completed.

New VP for Mac Papers US-based paper distributor Mac Papers has announced a new VP and Regional Manager. Tallahassee (FL) branch General Manager Carter Whiddon has been promoted to the role, joining VP and Regional Manager Craig Boortz in the company’s most senior branch leadership positions. Whiddon joined Mac Papers in 1987.

Tragic news for Compass Group Tragedy has struck UK-based facilities services and catering provider Compass Group after retiring CEO Richard Cousins died in a plane accident while on holiday in Australia in December 2017. The previously announced appointment of Dominic Blakemore as his successor has now been advanced.

First Base promotes Polanski Canada-based office products vendor First Base has promoted Peter Polanski to the position of VP of Operations. He is now responsible for the company’s domestic manufacturing, logistics and Asian supply chain procurement.

Polanski joined First Base in 1992 as a warehouse worker and successfully progressed to Director of Operations in 2015.

February 2018

BIG CONCERN The issue of counterfeit products being sold through online marketplaces is nothing new – and we are not talking about ‘grey market’ products here where resellers try to bypass authorised sales channels, but blatant knock-offs. There was an interesting post on SkuVault last year – written purely coincidentally in the context of this article by an author called Avery Walts – that highlighted Amazon’s efforts to tackle the problem.

“Counterfeit goods are a big concern for e-tailers, and they are continuously updating their programmes to try to help ensure that only legitimate products are sold through their sites,” concurred Cooper.

However, as the Avery lawsuit underlines, the problem hasn’t gone away, even though it appears that the resellers referred to in the lawsuit have stopped selling on the Amazon site. That will be of great relevance to Amazon and, more particularly, its Amazon Business arm as it looks to provide an online marketplace solution for the likes of the US Federal government (see Analysis, OPI December 2017/January 2018, page 6).

It is unlikely that government purchasers will want to go anywhere near a procurement option where there is the risk of inadvertently acquiring counterfeit products.

BIRD FEED

NEWS

between the Company Does products and genuine Avery products,” the lawsuit continued.

“Company Does’ products feature over-labels on the shrink-wrap that state ‘Made in China’, the wafer seal is smaller, the label sheets include different capitalisation and are of a different white hue, and the barcode is over-labelled on their packaging.”

7

NEWS

Analysis:

Further twist in OfficeMax sale

Reports from the financial press suggest that Platinum Equity may be looking to divest assets in an effort to get its proposed acquisition of OfficeMax completed

the competitive status quo in New Zealand remains.

But it might not be as straightforward as that.

Would a standalone Winc NZ be the same competitive force against OfficeMax as it is now?

As OPI understands it, Winc NZ is largely run as a regional division of Winc Australia, with senior management and support staff all located in Sydney.

Winc NZ is thought to do about A$85 million (US$65 million) in annual sales, while OfficeMax NZ is about three times as big. Winc, however, is able to count on the resources and expertise of its parent company located in Australia.

Therefore, if Platinum divests Winc NZ and acquires OfficeMax NZ, the new Winc NZ would effectively be an A$85 million dealer – without the benefit of the support coming from Australia – competing against a A$1.3 billion giant (the combined OfficeMax and Winc Australia businesses) based in Australia.

Would a standalone Winc NZ be the same competitive force against OfficeMax as it is now?

Platinum Equity’s attempt to acquire OfficeMax in Australia and New Zealand has stalled after a High Court injunction by New Zealand’s Commerce Commission (ComCom) and a court hearing that is not due to take place until the middle of 2018. This means that the deal will not be able to go through before the closing deadline set by Platinum and OfficeMax owner Office Depot Inc, suggests an article that appeared at the end of 2017 in the National Business Review.

Platinum has purportedly come up with a solution that will allay ComCom’s fears and get the deal over the line: it is said to be looking to offload its Winc (formerly Staples) unit in New Zealand to private equity buyers, leaving Winc to compete with OfficeMax in New Zealand when the latter is acquired by Platinum.

On the surface, it might seem like a perfect solution: Platinum gets the OfficeMax assets and

A COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE Presumably Winc NZ would also have to rebrand and develop its own IT systems, etc, with all the intellectual property owned by the Platinum-owned group. Then there is the matter of senior Winc management in Australia having such an in-depth knowledge of their main competitor in New Zealand, something they could clearly use to their advantage.

ComCom will have to do a thorough analysis of the competitive landscape both prior to and after any Platinum-proposed divestments. Let’s hope the outcome of any enquiry is more satisfactory than ComCom’s look at the proposed Staples NZ and OfficeMax NZ merger in 2015. Back then, ComCom came to the conclusion that Fuji Xerox would act as a competitive counterbalance.

That, in itself, was a strange decision at the time given Fuji Xerox’s lack of expertise in supplying traditional office supplies. But now with Fuji Xerox’s apparent implosion in New Zealand and its removal from servicing government contracts there (see News, OPI November 2017, page 8), the decision is now nonsensical. Will it do better this time around?

www.opi.net

Innovative acquires again… and switches dealer groups

8

Progressive US independent dealer Innovative Office Solutions started 2018 with another major acquisition that gives it a strong presence in the Dakotas market.

Innovative has acquired Sioux Falls-based Brown & Saenger, a dealership that was founded in 1889 and which now

has ten locations across North and South Dakota.

Lyle Dabbert – who first joined Brown & Saenger in 1973 and went on to buy the company in 1991 – confirmed to OPI that he is staying on as President of Innovative’s Dakotas operations in a similar role to the one he already occupies.

Dabbert is the Immediate Past Chairman of dealer group TriMega and played a key role in establishing the current structure of the group via the merger with NPA in 2002.

As such, selling his business to Pinnacle Affiliates member Innovative might be seen as a blow for TriMega.

But in fact, quite the opposite appears to be the case. OPI understands that Innovative has left Pinnacle and is currently finalising the paperwork for its membership of TriMega. That’s certainly a positive development for TriMega and its DSC group for larger dealer members.

OPI acquires Independent Dealer OPI has acquired the US-based Independent Dealer e-zine (ID) from De Groot Resources.

ID was first published in January 2007 by its founder and Editor Simon De Groot, building on a 30-year career writing about the office products industry for the National Office Products Association (NOPA) and the now demised OfficeDEALER publication.

Having successfully championed the cause of the US independent dealer channel for more than a decade, and after 40 years of meeting strict publishing deadlines, De Groot has decided to transition slowly into a more balanced lifestyle that allows him to spend more time with his family.

As part of the handover agreement, De Groot will remain at ID as a consultant for a period of two years, assisting new Editor and Publisher Rowan McIntyre who will head ID’s already established team of writers.

McIntyre is an experienced B2B journalist who is very familiar with the US business supplies industry, having written for OPI in a freelance capacity as well as writing and publishing for several years the official publication for the annual EPIC trade show on behalf of co-organisers Independent Stationers and TriMega Purchasing Association.

Commenting on the announcement, former independent dealer and now OPI’s CEO Steve Hilleard said: “I am delighted that Simon De Groot has entrusted us to continue the excellent work he has done with the ID e-zine and we look forward to building on that success.

“The publication’s mission will remain the same: to celebrate success in the independent dealer channel and to point the way to new opportunities for dealers to grow stronger and more profitably.”

De Groot added: “The good thing from my point of view – and for ID’s readers – is that the new owners, OPI, are well known to just about everyone in the industry and come to our publication with an outstanding track record of publishing excellence and journalistic integrity. Steve Hilleard and I have been competitors and friends for many years and I know he and his team are going to do a great job for the dealer community.”

A list of FAQs about the acquisition can be accessed on opi.net.

EUROPEAN

Forum 2018

Power panel confirmed

Several top industry names are lined up to participate in OPI’s ‘Power Panel’ at this year’s European Forum.

Taking place in London, UK, from 5-8 June 2018, the event brings together an exclusive group of highly-influential OP figures to debate the state of the industry.

The panel – entitled Dynamics of the European Business Supplies Market – comprises newly-appointed Office Depot CEO Neil Maslen, Lyreco CEO Hervé Milcent, 3M Global Business Director Henk Beukman, ADVEO CEO Jaime Carbó and Head of Amazon Business

UK Bill Burkland. Visit opi.net/EF2018 for more information.

NEWS

New Zealand reseller goes out of business

New CFO at Office Depot Inc

Corporate Consumables (CCL), one of New Zealand’s leading office products resellers, ceased trading just before Christmas. In a statement on its website, the company said that “a number of factors” had combined to “create a situation where Corporate Consumables in its current state is unsustainable as a business”.

CCL was founded in 1990 as a print consumables company, but had diversified into wider workplace supplies over the past few years. In fact, it was a supplier on the New Zealand All Of Government (AOG) office supplies contract that includes general office supplies, washroom consumables, cleaning and hygiene consumables, ICT consumables and educational supplies.

Office Depot Inc has named Joe Lower as its new CFO to succeed the retiring Steve Hare.

Lower officially took on the role at the beginning of January 2018 following the retirement of Hare who spent four years in the CFO role and played an instrumental role in the integration of OfficeMax. Hare will assist in the transition of duties, said Office Depot.

50-year-old Lower most recently served as CFO at B/E Aerospace – acquired last year by Rockwell Collins – where he oversaw all the financial reporting for the company. Before that, he was VP of Business Development and Strategy at Boeing where he spent 12 years. Among other finance positions, Lower spent six years with Credit Suisse in various investment banking roles.

ISSA and RAI reach restructuring agreement

www.opi.net

It seems worldwide cleaning industry association ISSA and trade show platform RAI have finally come to the decision to part ways. The former trade show partners issued a joint statement in December regarding a restructured agreement.

In November, ISSA and owner of INTERCLEAN RAI Amsterdam came to blows after the latter announced that their long-standing alliance had been terminated. This was swiftly refuted by ISSA. Speaking to OPI at the time (see News, OPI December 2017/January 2018, page 11), Hilke de Vries, who is Marketing & Communications Manager of INTERCLEAN for RAI Amsterdam, confirmed the termination and said the two parties had since entered into discussions regarding the Turkish and Latin American trade shows.

Both groups have now reportedly reached a “mutually beneficial agreement that allows both parties to play to their strengths”. The Amsterdam event in May 2018 will remain part of the RAI portfolio, along with Istanbul. Meanwhile, the trade fairs in America and Mexico will remain ISSA events.

ISSA will now rebrand its family of shows, starting with ISSA 2018 in Dallas (TX), USA, and all other ISSA shows in Mexico, Australia and South Africa. The events, on a preliminary basis, will be called ISSA Show North America 2018; ISSA Show Mexico 2019 and ISSA Cleaning and Hygiene Expo (for the Australia event) – there’s no name for the South Africa event yet. RAI, meanwhile, said that the Amsterdam and Istanbul events will be renamed INTERCLEAN.

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$967 6

Average spend of US shoppers during the holiday season

$5

billion

Total spend by US shoppers on Black Friday

IN BRIEF New acquisition for Penketh UK-based independent office products dealer Penketh Group has acquired photocopier and office supplies firm Currie Business Services.

The photocopier division will continue trading under the Currie brand, while the other divisions, including the office supplies and furniture segments, will fall under the Penketh banner.

Depot and charity cut ties Independent charity Office Depot Foundation is now known as the Listen Learn Care Foundation and will no longer be linked to OP reseller Office Depot, which founded it in 1994. The reasoning behind the move has not been revealed, but a spokesperson for Office Depot told OPI that it would be launching its own foundation managed by internal staff in the coming months.

Digital relaunch ahead for Stationery News Australia-based publishing house Yaffa Media has announced the closure of long-running OP industry magazine Stationery News. That said, Editor Barrie Parsons – who has headed the team for the past six years – has taken over the rights to the digital side of things and is relaunching the email newsletter and website.

New COO for Highlands Highland’s SVP of Marketing Gordon Christiansen has been promoted to COO. Christiansen – who joined the B2B sales and marketing agency back in 2015 – has left his home in the UK and relocated to the US, where he will join the team at the company’s corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

Scandal at Asia Pulp & Paper Despite persistent public denials of any involvement, one of the world’s largest paper producers, Asia Pulp & Paper, was found by investigative reporters to have extensive ties to a number of Indonesian wood suppliers that are linked to fires and deforestation in the country.

Independent Stationers (IS) revealed that Director of Merchandising Mike Foster (pictured) left the group in early January.

The US dealer group did not give a reason for his departure, but IS CEO Mike Gentile said: “[Mike Foster’s] contributions are recognised by the many members of IS and our suppliers.

We wish Mike the best in his future endeavours.”

Foster left after more than 27 years with the group and is a familiar industry figure. During his time at IS, he also held the position of Purchasing Council Chairman at international buying group BPGI from 1997 to 2012.

Prior to IS, he worked as a buyer at US dealer Action Business Equipment.

In other IS news, the group has launched a new furniture initiative. Named ‘Connexions powered by IS Contract’, IS has called it a “comprehensive office furniture sales, marketing and purchasing solution” available to its contract and mid-market commercial furniture dealers.

Gentile said it was a significant step for the channel.

Senior management changes at Office Depot Europe A number of high-level management changes, including the appointment of a CEO, have come into effect at Office Depot Europe.

Chief Sales Officer of Contract, Neil Maslen, has taken on the CEO role at Office Depot Europe although he will also continue to head contract operations.

At the Viking unit, SVP Direct Europe Thomas Glatzel is stepping down, with leadership for Viking being taken on by Oliver Klinck in the role of Chief Sales Office Direct & Merchandising. The experienced Glatzel will be staying on at Office Depot until June, working on a number of special projects.

Also leaving Office Depot is VP of Procurement Olaf de Boer. Jens Kiebler will assume responsibility for procurement for a short period until André Kaiser joins the firm as Senior Director of Procurement.

MindNode 5 One for the thinkers and dreamers, MindNode’s slick interface and focused feature set allows users to connect ideas and put together a coherent project without having to worry about those initial notes making sense. Inspiration can be captured as either words, images or links – MindNode will ensure everything is readable and in order, clarifying connections between each idea and reflecting these on the page. The final document can then be presented or exported, using smooth in-app layouts, and shared with colleagues for further collaboration.

Users can even store files on the cloud and access them across all devices.

Available to download for iOS at the App Store. Go to www.mindnode.com.

ADVEO closes France warehouse sale

European office supplies wholesaler ADVEO has finalised the sale of its French subsidiary’s warehouse for €8 million ($9.55 million).

The facility in Compans, France, was bought by real estate developer IDI Gazeley. Capital gains from the sale amount to approximately €2.6 million. According to an agreement which was announced last October, ADVEO France will keep its operations as a leaseholder until it moves into a new logistics centre nearby by November 2018.

The new building will be equipped with cutting-edge technologies and infrastructure, said the group, reducing costs and resulting in a more efficient management system.

ADVEO has been shedding many of its logistics locations across Europe as part of its transformation into a workspace solutions platform. In December, it outsourced its Italian logistics operations following a similar move in Spain back in September.

WHO’S WHO IN OP

Top 100 new entry 2018: Carl Lindgren – CEO, AllOffice Following the merger of AllOffice with fellow Swedish office supplies company OCAY in September of last year, Carl Lindgren has become the CEO of the new, combined group (OCAY was headed by Michael Andersson until early 2017, followed by a brief spell

by Christian Hamrin). Lindgren, previously the owner of OP specialist Kontorsvaruhuset, brings extensive market knowledge coupled with excellent supplier relations to the business.

The merger adds 36 stores and 50,000 customers from across Sweden to the company, making AllOffice one of Sweden’s largest suppliers of office supplies, with combined revenues of nearly SEK1 billion ($120 million). Its range of products and services now covers a wide number of categories, including office supplies, jan/san, breakroom and coffee, packaging, workwear, furniture, and document management solutions.

“Through the acquisition of OCAY, AllOffice will be able to speed up our expansion and I look forward to continuing the development of the new group,” Lindgren said. “Our aim is to combine the personal customer relationships of a small company with the efficiency in distribution and systems that a larger company brings.”

February 2018

Neil Maslen

BEST IN APP

NEWS

Surprise departure at Independent Stationers

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US mega dealer WB Mason has boosted its presence in Florida after snapping up one of the state’s leading independent dealers.

The Massachusetts, US-based giant has recently bought leading dealer Gator Office Products from Jacksonville, OPI has learned.

This latest deal comes after WB Mason acquired central Florida dealer Patterson’s Office Supply in June 2017.

In addition, Mason has begun a job recruitment push in Florida, advertising sales positions in several locations, including

Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Daytona Beach.

Daytona Beach, incidentally, is the home of Capital Office Products which was acquired

by Staples in 2016. A search on LinkedIn shows several former Capital employees now working for WB Mason, so the dealer would appear to be going after Staples’ business customers in the Sunshine State.

Florida doesn’t fall under the self-styled ‘Masonville’ region in the north-east of the US which is WB Mason’s heartland; the official line has been that the company delivers to locations across the US for customers based in Masonville.

However, this move into Florida and its national agreement with Major League Baseball last year seems to indicate that WB Mason does indeed have plans for a wider national presence.

Sign up for Ski for Hope City of Hope National Business Products Industry’s (NBPI) inaugural ski fundraiser kicks off later this month following City of Hope’s annual Tour and Hall of Fame dinner on 5-6 February.

From 26-28 February in the scenic mountain town of Breckenridge, Colorado, NBPI will be hosting its first ever annual Ski for Hope event. Presented by wholesaler SP Richards (SPR) – CEO Rick Toppin is this year’s Spirit of Life Honouree – in conjunction with HP, HSM and Supplies Network, the charity ski trip is part of the NBPI’s long-standing efforts to raise funds for life-saving cancer and diabetes research at City of Hope.

The idea behind this inaugural event is to get the whole OP community more involved than ever before in the 2018 campaign. As Toppin told OPI: “One of the goals for this year’s campaign is to get more people from all corners of our industry engaged. Not everyone plays golf. Pete Klauck from HP came to us last autumn with the idea to sponsor a ski event.

Jack Reagan from SPR and Pete worked together on the sponsorship and we’re all very excited about it.”

Reagan added: “We want to thank Pete and the entire City of Hope technology committee for coming up with Ski for Hope which is an exciting new fundraising idea. It falls exactly in line with one of Rick’s key goals for his campaign of ‘expanding the base’.

This is one of many new events to that effect which will be part of his campaign this year.”

The Ski for Hope package includes two nights at the Village in Breckenridge Hotel with a choice of either lift tickets for two full days of skiing, a snowmobile tour of the summit mountains, or a relax and wellness treatment at the local spa. Space is limited and demand for this inaugural event is expected to be high.

For more information on how to book and for sponsorship opportunities, visit CityofHope.org/nbpi-ski-for-hope.

Amazon’s share of US e-commerce sales in 2017

2%

Jim O’Brien speaking at ABC 2017 SP Richards (SPR) EVP of Operations Jim O’Brien has retired.

Having joined the firm back in 1987 as General Manager of its Hartford, Connecticut branch, he rose through the ranks to become SVP of Marketing in 2004. He was appointed to his latest position in 2016.

During his career, O’Brien was always an advocate for independent dealer customers and championed the launch of initiatives such as SPR’s Advantage Programme and the Advantage Business Conference (ABC). He is well-known across the industry, particularly for his role as the inimitable emcee of the ABC events, a serving board member of the National Office Products Association and the Business Solutions Association (BSA). For his work at the BSA he was honoured earlier last year with its prestigious Leadership Award.

Two other senior executives are also set to retire in 2018. CFO Phil Welch is leaving after 32 years at the company while EVP for Global Procurement Steve Lynn will retire after 40 years with the wholesaler.

VP and Controller Doug Sawyer will replace Welch as CFO. In light of the departures, SPR’s said it was making a number of organisational changes. Current SVP Bryan Wight will oversee all of the core business, while division VPs and sales directors will report to the newly-appointed VP of Sales and Operations Bryan Hall. Hall – formerly Central Division VP – will report to Wight, meaning that all sales, field, marketing and pricing operations come together under one leader.

SVP of Operations Chad Lee will take on additional responsibility for the company’s recent acquisitions, including The Safety Zone, Impact Products and Garland C Norris. while VP of Merchandising Jack Reagan will now also manage supply chain and purchasing.

The company said more details would be released as the changes are implemented.

February 2018

44%

Decrease in holiday season foot traffic at bricks-and-mortar stores in the US

SPR reshuffles as senior execs retire

NEWS

WB Mason doubling down in Florida

13

EVO on course for

BIG INTERVIEW

EXCITING FUTURE

After nearly two years in the top job, Steve Haworth is ready to further build on all the hard work that’s been done at the newlyrestructured EVO Group of Companies

I

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t’s been a while since OPI had a Big Interviewee from what is now known as the EVO Group of Companies – or any of its constituent parts. Back in 2011, Robert Baldrey, who was to become EVO Group CEO eventually, headed reseller Vasanta when we talked to him, while wholesaler VOW under the guidance of Richard Martin was a very different animal during our Big Interview even further back in 2009.

After many ups and downs, a certain amount of M&A, plenty of integration and the inevitable disruption that this brings, Steve Haworth – Group CEO since May 2016 when Baldrey departed – is now steering the EVO ship into steadier waters, having overhauled the organisation and refocused its structure. That’s not to say that he’s going to sit back and enjoy the fruits of his labour. Quite the opposite.

More acquisitions are on the cards, as are ongoing changes to infrastructure, systems and services, all in an effort to at least keep up, at best anticipate and spearhead the changes that are happening in the wholesale and distribution channel and in the industry as a whole.

Just before Christmas, Haworth visited the OPI offices in London to give CEO Steve Hilleard chapter and verse about EVO, its most recent history and plans for the future.

16

OPI: Let’s start with some of the refocusing and restructuring actions that have taken place since you assumed your current role.

Steve Haworth: The main restructure was really a subtle name change, from the EVO Group to the EVO Group of Companies. This gives better clarity to the four companies that form the group: VOW in the UK and VOW in the Republic of Ireland as a wholesaler; Banner as a large reseller/contract stationer and Truline as a transport company.

Each one of these organisations has its own managing director with its own management team. All four companies have a unique set of assets and that is why they need to present themselves differently. It’s a differentiated, but scaled approach to the market that is defined by geography – in the case of Ireland – or by product range, service, customer and supply partner proposition.

When we were EVO Group, we had got to a position where we were effectively doing business with ourselves. The operation, transport, merchandising and support structures didn’t actually recognise who their customers and suppliers were outside the group.

In practical terms, somebody working in our Arrow flagship distribution centre, for instance, would have regarded an internal sales rep as the customer, not the dealer at the end of the delivery sequence.

Broadly speaking, I vertically aligned all aspects of the business that touch a supplier or a customer. If I take VOW as an example, it was treated like a son or daughter of the umbrella organisation: it had to battle for its voice and to make its own decisions. I flipped that round to make it the parent, so it can now decide on behalf of its customers and suppliers the right approach to its specific market.

BIG INTERVIEW Steve Haworth

It’s very important to me that Adrian Butler and his team at VOW are working solely and exclusively on behalf of their customers, with control over the things that impact them. We’ve never had that before.

OPI: But I guess we won’t be seeing Banner selling 5 Star any time soon (Spicers’ private label brand)?

SH: Don’t rule anything in or out. If Banner decided that 5 Star was a better private label option than the Banner Essentials brand or the Q-Connect brand, it can make that decision.

OPI: So what’s the next stage?

SH: There are a number of things. We haven’t done this segmentation in isolation. It’s part of an overall management strategy of how to take the various companies forward. Our role as a distributor and reseller is to connect manufacturers with end users and consumers.

We are in quite a unique position whereby we can access all aspects of the market in different ways and with significant scale, both as a contract stationer and as a wholesaler.

February 2018

OPI: Why was VOW seen as the “son or daughter”?

SH: VOW essentially had to go and ask permission to do things from within the group and it was a group decision that it got, instead of one that focused on what was best for VOW and its customers.

I’ll give you some practical examples of what we changed: all of the VOW range is now being held and picked at Arrow, back to what it used to be like in its successful Kingfield Heath days 15 years ago.

The Banner inventory, meanwhile, is held in Normanton, Basingstoke and Newtonards near Belfast.

And Banner has got a fantastic wholesaler called VOW! Think of us now as different companies. Banner has its own stock – in fact, 60% of the items that Banner sells are not consistent with the VOW range.

It’s important to understand that Banner, as a reseller, can buy from wherever it likes, not solely VOW.

When we were EVO Group, we had got to a position where we were effectively doing business with ourselves

17

Steve Haworth BIG INTERVIEW

finally come out of the other side. It won £21 million ($28 million) worth of new business in 2017 across a range of public and private sector companies. The aim is to be the number one contract stationer in the UK by the end of 2018, measured in terms of size. We believe we can do that.

Truline, lastly, is now a completely segmented transport company that delivers parcels either to the dealer or directly to the end consumer.

We don’t want to lose that impetus. The companies within the group are at different stages of their evolution. VOW is a significant leader in wholesale.

It has a good market share position and clearly growing from there within its existing categories just by acquiring more customers is something we’d like to do and intend to do. But it’s not going to be as easy as coming from a low market position elsewhere. VOW has a clear intent to help existing customers grow and to win share where it can and where it makes sense.

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A number of firms have tried to be a third wholesaler and haven’t been able to make it work.

Perhaps it’s not as easy as it looks once you get to scale

18

The evidence of that is visible in all the training, support and development materials that VOW is putting into facilities supplies, in furniture, exclusive brands and other products that are unique to resellers. We’re seeing 16% growth year on year in facilities, for instance, double-digit increases in furniture and we’re doubling our exclusive brands sales month on month.

Banner, meanwhile, has a huge opportunity to win share in a marketplace where its core competitors have been and still are challenged – they’re on a disruptive journey of either integration or new ownership. Banner has been through that disruptive journey over the past two and a half years and has

OPI: Going back to VOW, other distributors – particularly EOS ones – have historically flirted with our sector and then backed away from it. Do you think it’s still possible to achieve satisfactory shareholder returns as a pureplay business supplies wholesaler in the current environment?

SH: Yes. In a distribution business that is reliant on high physical volume, low unit value, very low average order value with high numbers of transactions, the cost to serve is always going to be relatively high.

I obviously know who you’re referring to and it’s interesting that those people perceive office products as high margin. And of course, when you look at the margins per line or per unit, when you’re reselling or wholesaling a ruler compared to a laptop or a piece of software or a toner cartridge, they are significantly different. As such, it’s understandable, particularly when you look at the history and the challenges of Spicers and VOW over the past five years, that other distributors would be looking at that and want a slice of it.

But in my lifetime in the industry – just over 20 years – a number of firms have tried to be a third wholesaler and haven’t been able to make it work. Perhaps it’s not as easy as it looks once you get to scale.

From the manufacturers’ point of view, it’s evident that they want to find more and different routes to market – I’m sure we’ll come to the topic of Amazon at some stage. They want to have choice and that’s why we see the manufacturers as much as our customers as we do our actual customers. We’re providing services and efficient routes to market for them that they need and value.

OPI: Do you think they value initiatives like your exclusive brands that you already referred to?

SH: Let me tell you where we stand with exclusive brands. Where manufacturers have got brand leadership or a brand-leading position we’re not looking to displace that – we actively want to work with market-leading vendors that support the market with their brands.

All the feedback we get from our customers confirms that there are too many me-too brands in the second and third division and they are overcomplicating the market. Our exclusive brands approach is intended to simplify that – through the range, the marketing and the message. We want to give resellers something unique they can hook onto and make theirs. It doesn’t mean we’re walking away from well-known brands – they are really important.

But brands that don’t actually bring any value to the table are less important.

Also, we’re not looking to reinvent the wheel in mature categories. This is about exclusive brands in emerging segments like breakroom,

OPI: Talking about investments, what’s the involvement of your owner Endless in the day-to-day running of the business?

SH: I’ll start by explaining what the involvement is not. Endless doesn’t run the business or manage it and it certainly doesn’t tell us what to do. Endless is our investor and operates as an investor – it has non-executive seats on the board and we have a monthly board meeting.

This is a private equity firm – unlike some – that is committed to this business and to the execution of the management strategy over the long term.

OPI: Does Endless have any other investments that are eight and a half years old?

SH: I think we are one of the older as well as larger investments in the Endless portfolio, but we don’t feel any time pressure in that regard. In real terms, the clock restarted when EVO merged with office2office, so Endless views this as an investment it has held for three years, not eight.

The firm believes in this industry and in the company’s position in the market; it fully supports the management plan and is confident that there’s an exciting future for the EVO Group of Companies.

OPI: Does that commitment extend to giving you additional finance to make acquisitions and to be involved in further consolidation of the industry?

SH: We have the ability to do M&A and the management plan includes M&A to accelerate the execution of our strategy. It doesn’t necessarily require additional funds from Endless, but the support is certainly there.

That said, we’re not looking for opportunistic M&A, it’s M&A that matches and accelerates the strategy.

OPI: Let’s talk about the big elephant in the room, the industry even. Amazon. Where do you stand?

SH: I like Amazon – it’s here to stay and it’s clearly

identified our category as one of great interest. That in itself is exciting, because if an organisation like Amazon says there’s something in this, perhaps we need to stop talking so negatively about our market.

There are still great opportunities in it.

For many years, Amazon acted like a retailer and has taken market share from the bricks-and-mortar operators in our category – that’s evidenced by the fact that retailers are reducing the space they dedicate to office products in stores.

Now Amazon is investing in its B2B side and launching initiatives and features on Amazon Business on a monthly basis. It will take share here too.

BIG INTERVIEW Steve Haworth

ergonomics, storage and others where we don’t have market-leading brands that are well-established. That’s where the focus is and it’s looking good so far. As a group of companies we have the ability to invest in and implement these strategies and then stick to them.

If an organisation like Amazon says there’s something in this, perhaps we need to stop talking so negatively about our market Manufacturers are interested in Amazon because the site has the ability to get their products close to the end user without the long cycle of wholesaler, reseller, dealer group, etc. That is very appealing to them. My concern with Amazon has always been the threat that the manufacturers are changing their preferred route to market. That’s why it’s so important for our vendors to understand exactly what our – and by that I mean the EVO Group of Companies’ – route to market is and the unique and substantial breadth of coverage we can give them.

February 2018

OPI: The conversation I used to have with manufacturers was what a breath of fresh air Amazon was because of its fairly transparent pricing model. No soft money, no marketing allowances. Now I’m hearing that it’s become so big and cumbersome that actually dealing with Amazon is as much of a pain as it was dealing with Staples in its heyday.

SH: You’re right. Manufacturers have historically seen Amazon as an easy, neat, simple route to market.

They can get their new products out there very quickly for the lowest possible price. That’s great for the manufacturers in terms of speed to market and brand awareness, and great for the consumer in terms of choice and price.

But with scale comes complexity and as soon as things fall outside the norm, it gets complicated.

It’s no secret – VOW works with Amazon. But the business we have with Amazon is on behalf of the manufacturers. Manufacturers come to us because they believe we are better at doing this than they are – wholesaling is what VOW does. We have a service

21

OPI: If Amazon has 45% of search – you know the numbers better than I do – that’s huge indeed.

SH: It is, but it still leaves 55% to go at in the online channel and it’s worth remembering that there’s still a big addressable market outside that channel too.

I really believe Amazon is good for our market.

We have for a long time been remiss at looking to the future swiftly and dynamically. Our industry is technology poor and Amazon will lead us into working in different ways, operating in different ways, being more efficient, being more customer friendly and thinking more about customer quality.

OPI: So should dealers embrace Amazon too and become marketplace sellers or should they plough their own field with the support of the wholesalers, dealer groups and technology providers?

SH: Dealers that are putting their products on the marketplace are feeding Amazon with the data it needs to compete with them. So no, I wouldn’t recommend that.

OPI: Could it be argued that the wholesalers, by providing product to Amazon, have created a beast because once that volume reaches significant levels it just disintermediates you guys anyway?

SH: No, I don’t think so. It’s more the other way round.

Amazon approached the manufacturers to begin with and both parties are now realising that wholesale distribution is actually the better way. VOW is working with Amazon in exactly the same way as we have done with Wilko, Asda and Morrisons for a long time.

Like I said before, there’s a value to distribution, so why, as a leading distributor in the market, shouldn’t we engage with that?

The impact that’s perhaps a bit more hidden, but of great concern to us, is the human impact on our people. We employ roughly 1,000 staff in our warehouse operations. Many of these people come from continental European countries and we’ve certainly seen a higher churn of staff from these nations over the past six to nine months, compared to immediately after the Brexit vote, as people review where they want to work in Europe. That’s been accelerated by the fact that the weakening of the pound has meant the money they have available is worth less to them.

OPI: What would be your advice to your smaller dealer customers with regards to Brexit and how it might potentially impact their business?

SH: Don’t get too distracted, but as much as you can, build flexibility into your business, in terms of pricing models and contracts with customers, for example.

And be ready for a more dynamic market with a swifter pace of change.

Build flexibility into your business, in terms of pricing models and contracts with customers OPI: Before we wrap up, any final words?

SH: Yes. I’m really proud of the entire team that we’ve built – it’s committed, strong, stable and aligned with our investors – we are here for the future.

We’re also listening more than ever before to our customers. I’m specifically referring to their pressures on working capital and cash here. As you will be aware, we launched an Amex facility in 2017 that allows resellers to get up to an extra 30 days’ credit – they can use that cash to reinvest in their business or take pressure off their cashflow. That initiative has started to build some great momentum in the market the last four or five months of 2017.

I’ve already referred to significant investments in new product category growth and in our exclusive brands. We have a plan and we’re going to execute it, supported, in time, with further M&A.

February 2018

OPI: We’ve seen a weakening of the pound against the euro and also of course the dollar since the Brexit vote about 20 months ago. What ramifications has that initial vote had on your business and the UK industry so far? And what do you think will happen come 29 March 2019?

SH: There have been a couple of impacts. Obviously, it’s contributed significantly to the undisputable price inflation we’ve seen. In a good way it’s forced us to look hard at how we approach pricing, price updates and strategies, and perhaps be a bit more dynamic in how we handle pricing. That was hard, but also necessary I think.

We’re looking at several options now. Onshoring more of our supply so that we’re less exposed to currency and being more supportive of domestic manufacturing is one example. I remain nervous about the impact of Brexit on our business in the Republic of Ireland. We have a very strong, fast-growing business there, and it will be interesting to see how duties, tariffs and the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will work.

For more exclusive content from the interview, including the topics of the competition, Advantia, stocking/non-stocking, and the relationship between dealers, dealer groups and wholesalers, visit the February issue in the Magazine section on opi.net.

BIG INTERVIEW Steve Haworth

that we can offer to manufacturers which takes the pain away of dealing with the complexities of a large reseller. It’s a massive opportunity for us.

From an overall market perspective, however, yes, Amazon is huge and will get even bigger, but 55% of online office products searches are still made away from Amazon.

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HOT TOPIC

M is for MOBILE S

Mobile commerce – m-commerce – is booming in the consumer sector as shopping on smartphones becomes ever easier. But can the same be said for the B2B industry, and is it worth investing in mobile capabilities? Michelle Sturman finds out...

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hopping on mobile devices went through the roof last year. In fact, 2017 could well turn out to be the pivotal year for m-commerce (see definition on page 27). Amazon recently released some extraordinary figures about the December 2017 holiday season shopping period.

According to the e-commerce giant, customers’ worldwide shopping using the Amazon app increased almost 70%, with more than 1,400 electronics products ordered per second on a mobile device.

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THE C-SIDE On the consumer side, boundaries are being pushed in order to entice people to buy more online, and mobile is frequently at the forefront of revolutionary technologies and new types of business models – think Uber, Instacart and TaskRabbit.

In November 2017, Amazon launched AR View which lets shoppers view products in their home before buying. Launched in the Amazon app, the augmented reality technology works by users taking a snap of their kitchen, for example, and then searching for products with AR View and ‘placing’ them within the picture. Each available product is configured and rendered for size, colour, etc. Amazon didn’t release figures for AR View, but did report its highest usage on Cyber Monday with furniture, toys, Amazon devices, kitchen items and consumer electronics reported as the top categories.

Still, even Amazon’s mobile shopping statistics pale in comparison to Chinese online titan Alibaba.

The company’s version of Black Friday/Cyber Monday is known as the Global Shopping Festival, held in November. In 2017, $25.3 billion of gross merchandise volume (GMV) was conducted through

Alibaba’s eWallet, Alipay, in the 24-hour sale. Mobile GMV through Alipay accounted for 90% of total GMV. As mobile is so important to Alibaba, it has concentrated on providing services for both merchants and buyers. Sellers on Tmall, Alibaba’s dedicated B2C platform, benefit from the Tmall Smart Choice system that helps merchants identify products which have the potential to become best-sellers. According to Alibaba, the analysis and forecast provided by Smart Choice can help manage inventory better and encourage traffic for popular items.

Customers’ worldwide shopping using the Amazon app increased almost 70% Both Tmall and Taobao (a C2C platform) offer buyers a mobile virtual fitting room app. Customers simply take a picture of themselves on the phone, add their body measurements and the app ‘virtually dresses’ them with their chosen clothes. Participating fashion brands include Guess, Levi’s, Gap and adidas, among many others. eMarketer’s Mobile Commerce Roundup survey estimated that retail m-commerce in the US would account for around one third of e-commerce sales in 2017, surpassing 50% by 2021. The volume of m-commerce sales is expected to more than double, from $156.28 billion in 2017 to $336.98 billion in 2020.

Putting these numbers into a global perspective, the US is only ranked seventh in terms of countries

24%

24%

VERY, MORE THAN 50% OF SALES

LESS THAN 10%, BUT GROWING

LESS THAN 50%, BUT STILL IMPORTANT

NOT AT ALL, BUT PART OF OUR PLANS

18%

29% NOT AT ALL, AND NO PLANS FOR IT

6%

MOBILE FIRST Many OP resellers have been slow to provide m-commerce facilities for customers, with a large proportion failing to even yet offer a mobile-optimised website. And it’s not necessarily a question of cost.

“Adding a mobile site is not cost-prohibitive,” says BMI USA VP of Sales Craig Greitzer. “Dealers need to be ready for customers that want to transact business this way. Losing even one or two mid-range customers over their inability to support mobile users will begin to negatively impact the bottom line,” he adds.

Providing mobile capabilities can also help win business, as FriendsOffice has discovered.

“We recently won a bid with a predominantly online-focused company and our mobile app capabilities were something we believe played a role in obtaining that business,” comments Hughes.

Indeed, in the pursuit of online business, a mobile-optimised website is more than just a ‘nice to have’. Competing against giants like Amazon is serious and as Richard Sinclair, Product Director at UK-based dealer platform Office Power, points out, mobile-friendly websites are becoming more important, not only for a seamless customer experience, but also to enable office supplies dealers’ websites to rank higher on search engines.

According to Google, adds Sinclair, on average 56% of all searches are now performed on mobile devices and this number is growing year on year.

Without being alarmist, there’s also the small issue of Google’s mobile-first search rankings, building on a process that began in 2015. In December 2017, the first websites were transitioned to mobile-first, which

Definition: M-commerce Commercial transactions conducted electronically by mobile devices including smartphones and tablets.

February 2018

THE B-SIDE While the B2B market is usually much slower to embrace new technologies and trends, m-commerce including mobile retail, mobile payments, mobile apps and on-demand services, are so ubiquitous in everyday life that the overspill is inevitable, and for many sectors it has already happened.

Often, if you want to see where the trends and market are heading, follow the advertising spend. According to eMarketer’s recent US B2B Digital Advertising study, B2B advertisers will increase their spending on digital advertising by 13% in 2018 to $4.60 billion. Mobile ad spend, which was calculated to reach $1.53 billion in 2017, has been steadily increasing, but this year is expected to leap 25% to $1.91 billion – the biggest growth in overall B2B digital spending.

While these are all impressive numbers and clearly indicate the growing trend in m-commerce, B2B still lags behind. And a traditional industry such as business supplies is particularly slow on the uptake, especially independent resellers, many of which still only operate basic websites.

Having said that, as B2B companies embark on omnichannel journeys, m-commerce is becoming an increasingly important part of the mix. And while the majority of purchases in the business supplies industry are still made using a desktop, the movement of millennial workers into purchasing positions, combined with the growing trend of working outside the office, will likely accelerate the adoption of m-commerce.

There are mixed opinions from the OP world on how mobile is shaping B2B e-commerce, but the overriding view is that, given time, m-commerce will become a major force for buying and selling.

Ireland-based reseller Codex says that while m-commerce has minimal impact for the company currently, it is growing at a fast rate, albeit from a low base. Director of Operations Patrick Murphy told OPI that mobile traffic has grown in the past year from 2% to 5% on its ordering platform, and 7% on its corporate brochure site. Still, although traffic is up, it has had little bearing on sales conversions.

UK wholesaler VOW expects sales on mobile to increase as the handover to the next generation comes to fruition. “Most orders are still placed by a generation that is a slow adopter of technology.

As time progresses, the uptake will increase.

In 2017, around 3% of VOW’s sales came via mobile devices,” says EVO Group of Companies E-commerce Director Darren Mack.

In the US, Ohio-based reseller FriendsOffice agrees that m-commerce in the B2B sector is still a few years away, as supplies are ordered when people are in the office at their desk. However, President of Sales and Marketing Betsy Hughes believes that one area where m-commerce can excel in the B2B sector is approvals and order tracking. “Approvers and executives that travel can utilise our mobile technology to do things that they would previously have needed a computer for.”

OPI.NET POLL: HOW IMPORTANT IS M-COMMERCE TO YOUR ORGANISATION AS A SALES CHANNEL?

HOT TOPIC M-commerce

with the largest volume of mobile use for shopping, according to the Criteo State of the Mobile Commerce 2016 report. Japan leads the pack, followed closely by the UK – both of which now sell more on mobile than through a desktop – then South Korea, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands.

27

M-commerce HOT TOPIC

will undoubtedly be ramped up this year. “Essentially, this means that Google is giving priority to sites that are mobile friendly. Their primary index will be their mobile index and will even be used the majority of the time for desktop search results. Think about that... if you don’t have a mobile site, you will soon fall off the search engine results page in most cases,” warns Logicblock President Alexander Nicolaides.

APP OR NOT? Clearly, a mobile-optimised website is a must in today’s competitive landscape, but what about mobile apps? Conversion rates for apps used for consumer shopping are increasing substantially, but the jury is still out for B2B applications. “In a retail context, an app may be an option only for larger entities, as the effort to develop and maintain it must be combined with a push for users to download and use it,” says Bernard Dahl, Creative Director for North American e-commerce agency Absolunet.

Sinclair agrees, adding that B2B office supplies dealers probably won’t want to invest a huge amount of time and money in building and maintaining a separate mobile app if the web platform is designed to feature as many mobile benefits as possible.

But could this be a case of chicken and egg?

Technology solutions providers are unlikely to develop mobile apps for the OP industry if dealers

Without a fully-responsive mobile web presence, dealers will simply be left behind the times and lose business M-COMMERCE TRENDS TO WATCH OUT FOR...

Augmented reality (AR) Remember Pokemon Go? That’s augmented reality. Basically, AR is computer-generated images superimposed over a real-world view.

Mobile image recognition The essential element of this is recognising images captured on a mobile phone. There are countless applications being developed. For example, a person could take a picture of someone else wearing a pair of jeans they like, and be automatically directed to the retailer online. Also, objects included within pictures of immediate surroundings can be identified through voice to help the visually impaired.

NFC payments While not new, Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay are paving the way for a huge increase in the use of smartphone payments.

www.opi.net

Chatbots These are familiar in scenarios such as customer service in banking and Apple’s Siri, but they are fast becoming more ubiquitous.

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Single-click payments Made famous by Amazon, the one-click payment takes a lot of the pain out of m-commerce and significantly reduces shopping cart abandonment. Now Amazon’s patent has expired, expect this to boom.

and customers aren’t willing to make the leap. But, if mobile apps aren’t made available or continuously enhanced, then adoption rates will remain low.

Is the solution to educate customers first?

FriendsOffice seems to think so, stating that its number one priority for mobile is informing its customers of its capabilities. Hughes admits that the FriendsOffice mobile app is currently at a standstill as its technology provider has halted any updates due to minimal interest from dealers and few app downloads. She adds that this will likely remain that way “until we can show developers it’s worth their time to continue to add features to the app”.

DON’T GET LEFT BEHIND Responses from the Q4 OPI Confidence Survey (visit the Research section on opi.net for a selection of responses) regarding m-commerce and the business supplies industry highlighted widespread apathy towards doing business through mobile. It also threw up some interesting replies, including the scary “what’s m-commerce?” which appeared numerous times, particularly from dealers.

Contrary to what’s happening in the consumer world, it’s not likely that B2B customers buying office products will require all the bells and whistles that are currently being launched by Amazon or Alibaba.

But, a mobile-optimised website would be a good start. “Dealers should make it as easy as possible for their customers to transact business. Whether that requires desktop or mobile access, the dealer needs to be ready,” says Greitzer.

As Nicolaides points out, not only are dealers competing with the big boxes, but also with the major internet retailers including, of course, Amazon. “The fact is, without a fully-responsive mobile web presence, dealers will simply be left behind the times and lose business to the more adaptive online retail outlets. Not to mention fall off the search results pages. It’s really not a debate or choice anymore,” he concludes.

For more on the m-commerce topic, visit the February 2018 issue in the Magazine section on opi.net.

Let’s talk about...

Kaut-Bullinger is getting ready for its full-on foray into complete workplace solutions

O

ffering solutions rather than just products is increasingly the name of the game in today’s business supplies industry.

Germany’s independent reseller Kaut-Bullinger has taken the concept to a new level, calling it ‘Workplace 4.0 as a Full Service’. OPI’s Heike Dieckmann speaks to Cordula Adamek, Managing Director of the company’s B2B division (the Büro-Systemhaus), about the brand new concept, what it means and how it’s designed to set the company on a growth path for the future.

OPI: Why is it necessary to create a complete customer solution like this?

CA: In addition to generic market conditions, the specific demands of our customers regarding their sources of supply and what they require from their B2B supplier are also changing. In the past, the focus was often on product, price and delivery speed; today it’s about a comprehensive range of services and solutions that are very much geared towards the individual requirements of customers.

Recruiting and retaining highly-qualified employees has become more difficult – and very costly if you also factor in continuous professional development – for companies. As such, employers want to concentrate on and maximise the core skills of their staff, rather than wasting time and money on peripheral activities, such as researching and implementing new technologies and solutions that allow them to do their work most efficiently.

As a supplier of products and services in an increasingly ‘me-to’ market, this is becoming our job – we have to differentiate our offering and provide added value to our customers. Workplace 4.0 does all of that.

OPI What have been the main challenges in making Workplace 4.0 happen?

CA: Actually realising that the market and its requirements are changing is the first challenge.

Developing new solutions such as Workplace 4.0 and then implementing and really integrating them into the fabric of your company with complete employee support is another.

You also need the support of all participants in the process. Inspiring our manufacturer partners to come on board and share our visions and ideas has definitely been a challenge. In order to offer the most innovative products available, we are hugely dependent on this collaboration with our partners as well as the willingness of our customers to invest in new concepts.

OPI: What have been the criteria for selecting suppliers to work with?

February 2018

OPI: Please tell me about ‘Workplace 4.0 as a Full Service’ at Kaut-Bullinger.

Cordula Adamek: As our working environment is changing at an unprecedented pace, so are the requirements for work processes within the workplace. It is my belief that only innovative and progressive suppliers that address these needs will be able to stand out from the crowd – and indeed survive – in the future.

The idea of Workplace 4.0 as a Full Service at Kaut-Bullinger was first conceived with paper-based documents and their digital processing in mind.

Experience has shown, however, that condensing the concept to just the copy and print segment is far too restrictive. Ever-growing digitisation requires a much broader outlook.

Workplace 4.0 for us is the whole package: it comprises an ergonomic workstation; all the necessary IT equipment complemented by the maintenance and service for all systems and devices; the analysis and management of the print fleet as well as the automated and contractually-agreed supply of consumables; and the replenishment of all other products needed.

Workplace 4.0 is a general application and concept, but one that can be highly customised.

SPOTLIGHT

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Kaut-Bullinger SPOTLIGHT

CA: In the first project phase, we deliberately limited the number of suppliers as well as customers that we approached. Workplace 4.0 is not at all a one-fits-all concept and as such, supplier as well as customer groups will vary considerably.

Flexibility on our part is a prerequisite for making this work. What we can say already is that all parties have shown great interest in the idea and are keen on working with us.

OPI: So what is the timescale for Workplace 4.0?

CA: The goal is to finish laying the foundations for Workplace 4.0 in the current financial year which, for Kaut-Bullinger, ends 31 March 2018. We’ve worked hard over the past few months on preparing this strongly service-driven solution which also comprises a highly-consultative offering.

The goal is to finish laying the foundations for Workplace 4.0 in the current financial year

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Right from the start, we’ve involved our selected customers in a hands-on manner in the first test phase. We’ve also participated in trade fairs and a large variety of other events to publicise the idea. That said, the professional and very specific marketing of Workplace 4.0 is earmarked for the new financial year.

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OPI: Can you give a typical example of a service that you might be offering to a customer?

CA: One application for Workplace 4.0 is to, for example, equip a meeting room or a ‘modern lounge’ for a customer. In the past, this has usually been a large table with a number of identical chairs. Now we would offer a height-adjustable table with height-adjustable stools and different seating options. Modern conferencing technologies, including Skype or Teamviewer, are very much part of the package, as are lighting and sound insulation options, and access to our online shop Büro Express for an easy procurement process.

Meetings typically result in documents of some kind. These are now mostly digital and it is our goal to completely remove the need for any paper copies.

Our remit is to enable all participants to access original, modified, marked, completed and signed documents without the need to be in the same location. It’s about facilitating the workflow and the process chain.

OPI: How important is it today to have a service as opposed to just a transactional product offering?

CA: It’s absolutely essential for resellers if they want to remain relevant and attractive in the market.

That said, for Kaut-Bullinger, transactional business will also continue to be an important part of the company in the next few years, supported by considerable investments in the areas of marketing, e-business and e-commerce.

In these times of decreasing margins and lower demand, the digital value chain must be in tune with the need for a comprehensive product range.

Both strands of business have their relevance and raison d’être, but I believe the balance will tip in the not-too-distant future, with service and consultancy-based offerings outweighing the transactional side.

OPI: What do you view as the ultimate workplace of the future?

CA: I am not convinced it exists. By the time we think we’ve found it, it will already be outdated again.

What I do believe is that all the tools at our disposal which are at the heart of the communication and global networking of companies – communication networks, mobile devices, software tools – are by no means used to their full potential yet. Achieving this, to me, is the biggest challenge in the future. It’s the core objective for the use of Workplace 4.0 and the associated digital value chain.

OPI: Does the Workplace 4.0 concept span all parts of Kaut-Bullinger or predominantly the Büro-Systemhaus?

CA: Well, we’re still only at the beginning and currently the focus is very much on the B2B sector and as such is driven by the Büro-Systemhaus division. In the medium term and with more customer-specific data and insights, I see further development and expanded implementation as a distinct possibility.

The ultimate aim is to make the concept a standalone business unit at Kaut-Bullinger which, in time, will span all parts of the group.

OPI: Where is Kaut-Bullinger’s Büro-Systemhaus on its growth path now?

CA: Our Büro-Systemhaus has developed strongly in recent years, with a specific focus on the strategic reorientation and expansion of our solutions business.

Our objective was to achieve an even higher degree of specialisation and differentiate ourselves as an innovative solutions provider. I believe we’ve already done this to a great extent – our results in the 3D segment, for example, are testament to that.

Workplace 4.0 combines many areas of what Kaut-Bullinger offers today. On their own, some products and services might only offer limited growth opportunities or could already be stagnating or declining. But as an overall concept and provided as an individual customer-specific service package with a very high degree of consultancy, I’m convinced it will generate growth as well as long-term customer loyalty.

INTERVIEW

Back to THE

FUTURE

With a focus on emerging trends and the office of the future, OPI finds out what else Paperworld is doing to stay relevant and keep visitors interested – by Joshua Allsopp

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head of the return of Paperworld to Frankfurt, OPI caught up with Messe Frankfurt Director Michael Reichhold to find out what’s new for the trade fair in 2018.

With a shake-up to the layout of the halls, the return of a special exhibition, and an extensive complementary programme of events, Paperworld 2018 promises to keep attendees engaged. And with continuing changes to the industry and some turbulence among other show organisers in the sector, we find out how Paperworld manages to stay ahead of the curve.

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OPI: What can we expect from Paperworld 2018?

Michael Reichhold: Paperworld is a very international trade fair – 82% of exhibitors come from abroad, for example, and for the 2018 event we expect about 1,500 of them to come to Frankfurt. This shows just how important Paperworld is as a global platform in the sector.

As ever, visitors can see new products, get in touch with business contacts, listen to lectures about innovative developments within the industry and discover the latest trends. There are some exciting new features to explore, and of course the popular favourites will return.

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OPI: Last year you revamped the layout of the exhibition hall – how did that work out and what are you doing this year?

MR: The hall layout and occupancy will be very similar this year. Halls 3.0, 4.0 and 6.0 present national and international manufacturers in the office sector while visitors will find new items for trendy stationery and gift items in Halls 4.0, 5.1 and 6.1. This time round, we also have extra space at Forum 0 for the International Sourcing division, in addition to Hall 1.

OPI: How can you make the format of Paperworld attractive for both attendees and exhibitors year after year?

MR: We have had many talks with industry participants about the future of Paperworld and what it could and should look like in the coming years.

These discussions are hugely important to us.

We have worked out new product areas and target groups that we will systematically introduce at Paperworld in the next few years. The focus this year is on the workplace of the future and the latest trends in the private stationery sector. As such, in the Visionary Office, visitors will find the entire range of commercial office supplies, while the Stationery Trends area is all about personalised stationery, gifts, greeting cards and packaging.

We will continue to sharpen the structure of the event in collaboration with exhibitors, associations and our partners.

OPI: After the successful return of the biennial Paperworld Plaza last year, are you concerned that 2018 will be comparatively quiet without some of the big German manufacturers?

Paperworld takes place from 27-30 January 2018 in Frankfurt, Germany.

OPI: Paperworld has always been about trends and the office of the future. What’s different this year?

MR: Well, 2018 will broadly see us stick to this format.

What’s different is that we’ll be showcasing the two concepts – Visionary Office and Stationery Trends as I mentioned – alongside each other. The hall structure and exhibition space is focused on this concept, as is the extensive fringe programme we have.

I am particularly looking forward to the Trend Show in the foyer between Hall 5.1 and 6.1 which will present both office and stationery trends for the coming season. We’re hoping that everyone will find plenty of inspiration to start the year.

OPI: The Future Office was a real success last year and you already referred to it for 2018. Tell me a bit more about it.

MR: Yes, at Paperworld 2017 we presented the Future Office in its entirety across a broad spectrum of issues and innovations. This time we wanted to delve a little deeper into some of the concepts, so this year the special show will focus on the healthy office.

The overall area is bigger and there are several stations that visitors can go through – a kind of product trail to experience workplace well-being. There will also be 13 exhibitors – I named some earlier – that are present adjacent to the show as well as experts who can elaborate on exactly what makes an office healthy.

OPI: We’ve been talking for some time about the many adjacent product categories that are popular with resellers right now. Last year you referred to it as a “difficult and lengthy process” in accommodating this evolution. How far down that process are you now – are we ever likely to see things like cleaning, breakroom and safety products at Paperworld?

MR: As a trade fair organiser, it is our job to create attractive platforms for exhibitors as well as an inspirational environment for trade visitors. If the product composition or sales concepts change, then we must also change, and we have done that already to some extent, for example with the Mr Books & Mrs Paper show that addresses the book trade in the German market.

The idea of reaching new target groups, such as facility managers and architects in the Future Office area, has also worked very well and we believe we have laid a good foundation for further expansion.

Michael Reichhold

It is our job to create attractive platforms for exhibitors as well as an inspirational environment for trade visitors

OPI: Can you elaborate on the fringe programme – what’s on offer this year?

MR: There will be a packed itinerary featuring a diverse set of lectures, talks and presentations that specifically address the different groups of visitors we expect to attend. On the first and second day of Paperworld, it will be all about topics for the trade, while on day three and four, the fringe programme is geared towards architects, facility managers and interior designers.

In Hall 6.0, meanwhile, there will be discussions about the state of the remanufacturing industry.

INTERVIEW

MR: We are very satisfied with the number of exhibitors this year. The fact that it’s not a Plaza year will make no difference to us as we have learned to focus on other categories that are interesting for a new set of exhibitors. For example, our Future Office will provide extra exhibition space for manufacturers showcasing products for a healthy office. Brands like Active Office, Agoraphil, Casio, Durable Hunke & Jochheim, Fellowes, Legamaster, Novus Dahle, Pelikan, Sigel, tesa and Wilkhahn are all coming to Frankfurt this year especially for this special show.

OPI: The date of Paperworld remains a challenge for some manufacturers, especially those relying heavily on the back-to-school season. Insights-X seems to get full marks for better timing (October) in that regard. What’s your view?

MR: We have been asking exhibitors for the best date for Paperworld for many years, and January is the most popular, with about 90% of respondents choosing this time.

The other 10% are spread out over the rest of the year, with no particular preference.

The back-to-school area in Hall 4.0 is very well-represented and is very important to us.

February 2018

OPI: Tradeshows – hugely expensive to run and attend – are often coming under pressure. But while several have faltered over the years, many have also had remarkable staying power. Why is Paperworld Germany one of them?

MR: One reason for the continued strength of Paperworld is that we are committed to developing the event alongside the market we serve. The fair also features an unrivalled product range and a broad international focus, both of which put us ahead of the competition.

The market and the industry are changing and as that happens, so does Paperworld. But after some adjustments, there is a trend towards stabilisation now I believe. Manufacturers are exploring new ideas and concepts and are looking positively into the future. And that, in my opinion, is also reflected in the industry as a whole – there’s a positive outlook.

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CATEGORY UPDATE

Technological advancements are not just changing the equipment we use in the office, but also facilitating shifts in the very way we work – by David Holes

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he nature of the office workspace is changing fast. Indeed, some argue that the physical office may eventually cease to exist altogether, and is already gradually being replaced by a form of virtual office that we’re accessing via remote working. This is allowing employees to work wherever and whenever they need to and giving companies access to a much broader talent pool than was previously available. No longer constrained to recruiting from their local area, employers are potentially able to tap into a skilled workforce from anywhere in the world.

But if this drive for increased remote working and ever-improving access and connectivity is to be sustained, then businesses must keep up with the fast pace of technology evolution. Investing in the correct hardware, software and communications infrastructure to achieve this is vital.

According to US-based research organisation The Brookings Institution, the millennial cohort of digital natives will make up nearly three quarters of the workforce by 2030. So the pressure is on to ensure that the needs of this tech-savvy generation are catered for if businesses are to attract and retain the brightest and best employees.

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DIRECTION OF TRAVEL To assess the current situation, OPI spoke to several companies that are in the front line when it comes to providing the technology required to achieve this.

Says Ian Metcalfe, Executive Director for Sales & Marketing at Brother International Europe: “Office technology is continually adapting and evolving.

Businesses are going wireless to reflect the rising demand for flexible working and ‘bring your own device’ is growing significantly, with the use of personal smartphones and tablets in the workplace more popular than ever. These trends have resulted in more products with multiple connectivity options

such as USB, wireless and Bluetooth. Associated apps are now allowing users to securely connect to office equipment via their own portable devices, without the need to remember passwords.

“We predict that increased access to a company’s internal processes and systems using employees’ personal devices will be the next big trend. As will the use of software development kits to add extra functionality, both streamlining workflows and improving productivity.”

Businesses are going wireless to reflect the rising demand for flexible working As more businesses operate globally, with offices in various regions needing to connect and interact, clear visual communication is becoming a key issue.

Video conferencing is increasingly the way workers on different sites collaborate and organisations are looking for the right tools to make this happen successfully.

“Projectors can make all the difference to a conference call or visual presentation,” says Claire Robinson, Director of Business Sales at Epson UK. “A projector that delivers large, sharp, bright and colourful images that improve the viewing experience is invaluable.”

ACCESS AND SPEED This need to operate seamlessly across multiple sites is also seeing many organisations increase their use of electronic document and file storage, mainly in the cloud. It provides easy access to key data for remote and field workers and improves efficiency. As a recent report about information management from AIIM Research found, 72% of companies feel that business

SECURITY CONCERNS However, it’s the imminent May 2018 introduction of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that is focusing the minds of many firms (see ‘Private Matters’, OPI November 2017, page 37).

“Improved access is not the only benefit of digital file management,” says Robinson. “It also reduces physical storage requirements and improves security and compliance – an issue of particular importance with GDPR implementation approaching rapidly.”

Mark Harper, Head of Sales UK & Ireland at HSM, is also noticing heightened interest in its shredders as a result of this legislation: “We’ve seen a number of companies install complete new fleets of large office shredders across multiple locations to ensure that they have a robust on-site document destruction solution.”

The manufacturer is also detecting more interest in higher-security shredders, with organisations turning

from standard cross-cut machines to the higher DIN P-4 or 5 levels. The latter cuts an A4 document into around 2,200 pieces, with over 19 million possible permutations to reconstruct it, making its destruction very secure. The UK National Health Service is a recent example of an organisation where new guidelines now require all documents containing patient-identifiable data to be shredded to at least level 4/5 on-site, prior to disposal.

“There’s also growing awareness of the need to destroy the hard drives found in many office devices such as printers and copiers, as well as the more obvious PCs and servers,” adds Harper. “The data risk from such information-intense media is high and shredding all drives before devices are disposed of is an excellent way to ensure that there can be no data breaches.”

February 2018

THIRD-PARTY WORRIES GDPR is also making organisations look more closely at the wisdom of using a third-party shredding service, as an on-site system can be inherently more secure than subcontracting. Consequently, HSM has seen a two-fold increase in the sales of large industrial shredders and balers as companies shift to in-house solutions.

As Harper explains: “Customers have found that the large size of shredded particles produced by some mobile-shredding services can leave parts of highly-sensitive documents still legible.

“Plus, can organisations honestly say they know what’s happened to sensitive documents outsourced for destruction? Probably not. This is concerning as GDPR clearly states that organisations are ultimately responsible for their data security, even after handing it over to a third party. You can’t prove that any sensitive document that comes to light in the public domain was handed over for destruction.

Any ‘certificate of destruction’ is largely worthless unless every document is individually logged. When a subcontractor simply collects paper in bulk and shreds it en masse, there’s no way of telling exactly what’s been shredded.”

The increasingly remote, cloud-based way in which we now work, coupled with a tightening regulatory environment, is proving a headache for many companies. The dual, but often conflicting, requirements for increased access to documentation – both analogue and digital – and the necessity to keep the content secure, is likely to be a continuing conundrum for the office technology sector in the years ahead.

CATEGORY UPDATE Office Technology

conducted at the ‘speed of paper’ will simply not be acceptable in five years’ time.

“As office products go, the humble scanner may not be seen as the sexiest,” says Robinson, “but the upwards trend of companies opting to digitally manage files is seeing a resurgence in scanning.

“The main drivers are enhanced shareability and searchability, with key information being captured, stored and injected into relevant automated workflows for processing. Content analytics software is then used to classify information, making it findable and available beyond its original purpose.”

Despite these advances, research by Avery in the UK found that the average office worker still wastes over 13 minutes each day searching for missing paperwork and 85% think that having a better filing system would make their work less stressful. As such, it seems that while electronic filing may be on the increase, the effective storage of hard copy documents is still an issue in many offices.

“There’s clearly a greater need for organisation in the workplace,” says Fiona Mills, Avery’s UK Marketing Director. “Important paperwork needs to be easy to find and this points towards solutions such as colour-coded filing systems, clear labelling and signage in the office.

Personalisation is another trend we see – whether it’s used on company property to deter theft and prevent loss, or on mail and packages to add branding and logos. Technology that makes this easy and inexpensive continues to be popular.”

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Office Technology CATEGORY UPDATE

TIME AND MONEY Security firm Safescan produces business machines for niche markets – time-management products such as clocking-in devices and money-handling systems designed to detect counterfeit coins and notes. OPI speaks to Steve Robinson, the company’s General Manager in the UK & Ireland, about the opportunities that exist in these sectors.

OPI: What are the overarching trends you’re seeing in the office technology category?

Steve Robinson: There are three big trends.

Firstly, a move towards increasingly sophisticated machines that is often driven by device convergence. Secondly, the demand for internet connectivity, allowing information access from anywhere, at any time. Lastly, an attitude away from the ‘cheapest is best’ mentality, driven by consumers who are becoming more knowledgeable and demanding more from their technology.

Steve Robinson, General Manager, Safescan UK & Ireland

Convergence is where one device does the work that many different devices did previously

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OPI: When you talk about device convergence, what exactly do you mean?

SR: Convergence is where one device does the work that many different devices did previously. Evidence of convergence can be seen in most technology areas. In our own cash management portfolio, for example, we now have one device which can do counterfeit checking, mixed banknote counting, sorting, as well as a number of other functions, previously done by many different devices.

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OPI: What other drivers are having an impact on the cash management sector?

SR: The influence of regulatory changes cannot be underestimated. In our sector, the Bank of England is now issuing new polymer notes to reduce the chance of counterfeiting. When a government or a regulatory body implements a change like this it can have a major impact on the technology that businesses need.

In this instance, the need for devices that can be easily updated and which can cope with both the new polymer and old style ‘linen’ notes still in circulation has led many businesses to review the technology they need. Safescan works very closely with the Bank of England and other banks in the UK to ensure that we are always at the forefront of industry developments.

OPI: How are changes in the way we work affecting the time management sector?

SR: Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation revealed that almost half of the UK workforce – more than 14 million people – want flexible working.

Supporting this change, but still being able to effectively manage the workplace, is a challenge for managers in businesses of all sizes. It’s no surprise that cloud connectivity is rapidly becoming a necessity.

Safescan’s newly-launched TimeMoto attendance devices provide a sophisticated cloud management solution for companies that need a fully-connected method of monitoring flexible working. It facilitates clocking-in on one device and clocking-out on another, while data can be accessed from any browser, any location, on any computer and at any time.

Interest is not just coming from big corporates with offices in different countries, however, but from businesses of all sizes that are determined to focus on employee satisfaction as a fundamental part of their business operation.

OPI: You say that the ‘cheapest is best’ mentality is shifting. How so?

SR: Quality has always been a factor in decision-making, but in recent years it seems as if price had become the dominant criteria. Now, however, there appears to be a trend that people are willing to pay more if products show clear and realisable benefits. The idea that Apple can launch a mobile phone costing over £1,000 ($1,340) and still have queues waiting on street corners for the doors to open, speaks volumes.

It is evident that if technology delivers a tangible advantage to the customer, then that customer is happy to pay. Price is still a factor, but the conversation is more about providing excellent value for money to a very discerning buyer and that’s what makes this business interesting.

Improvements in technology are occurring on an almost daily basis and it’s how quickly people adopt these changes that impacts on their ability to outperform their competitors.

CATEGORY UPDATE

How’s the writing instruments sector performing?

It depends who you ask – by David Holes

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peak to some of the biggest players in the writing instruments sector about the current state of the market and you get a very mixed response.

Pentel UK reports a positive annual performance, with a slight decline in retail sales offset by a modest resurgence in the commercial OP market.

UK wholesaler VOW, meanwhile, saw 7% growth across the whole category in 2017, with sales of branded pens (+11%) and value bulk packs (+18%) outperforming the rest of the sector.

However, the signs from continental Europe are not as positive. Following several years of growth, German manufacturer Schneider Pen has seen a sharp sector reversal and says that, at best, sales in the market have been flat over the past 12 months.

It’s a similar story at RKV – Sweden’s largest office supplies dealer group – which acknowledges that it has seen little, if any, growth in the past year.

Across the Atlantic in New Jersey, US, manufacturer Zebra Pen also reports flat sales in this category. Interestingly, despite considerable online competition, US consumers are still making 70% of their writing instruments purchases from retail outlets.

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SUB-SECTOR STRENGTH Different sub-segments within the broad writing instruments category are performing better than others. For Pentel, the strongest sellers are rollerballs, mechanical pencils and markers. “In this latter group,

2018 will see the company introducing two products,” says Wendy Vickery, Marketing Director at Pentel UK. “The N50XL is a jumbo permanent marker with a large chisel tip, ideal for use on posters, notices and other large surfaces. Its smaller cousin, the N50S, is a new fine bullet-tipped permanent marker which is suitable for use where space is limited.

“Coloured inks also remain popular for specific uses, such as marking and proofing. We continue to be told by the education sector that both teachers and students are marking and editing their own work in a variety of colours. This will help fuel demand for products in this area.”

While it might be tempting to think that there is only so much that can be done with a pen, experience proves otherwise Stefan Sonesson, Managing Director at RKV, points to specific highlights in an otherwise declining category as well: “For us, the product group overall is in retreat, with pencils, in particular, in sharp decline. However, sales of the Pilot FriXion range have been very good on the back of a strong marketing campaign and overall, I’m more positive about the sector’s prospects in 2018.”

Schneider Pen’s most important product group is ballpoint pens, with its Slider series proving

Below left: Schneider’s new Link-It fineliners and fibrepens.

Below right: Bond’s ‘writing robot’.

CRAZE NO MORE One aspect of the market that everyone agrees on is that the adult colouring craze has now largely run its course. Schneider Pen cites it as the main reason for the lack of growth in the writing category in 2017.

That said, Jill Strutt, Traditional Category Product Manager at VOW, reveals it has definitely had a positive knock-on effect: “This craze reached its peak a few years ago, but we’ve found that it triggered awareness of the multiple colours available in fineliners. Consequently, we continue to see growth in their sales as consumers are now using these pens for everyday use.”

And new trends are beginning to take effect too, says Vickery: “So the adult colouring market is in decline after reaching saturation point, but new opportunities have emerged, especially in the creative sector. The colouring of Mandala patterns – Hindu/Buddhist circular spiritual designs – is extremely popular. Also, ‘journalling’ is offering a fresh direction for end users. This is the keeping of a diary detailing your innermost feelings, used as a method of stress management or to help you achieve work/life goals. This new activity cries out for coloured inks to help differentiate and identify your thoughts, ideas and plans.”

Zebra Pen’s Director of Marketing Ken Newman agrees: “The new focus on writing as a creative outlet is represented by journalling, bullet journalling (a blend of ‘to-do’ list, planner and diary) and lettering or calligraphy. Writing is becoming more of an art form these days. It’s almost as though people are rebelling against technology in order to regain and express their individuality.”

This bullet journal concept is having a big impact, according to Sabrina Hamann-Gleißner, International Sales Manager at German manufacturer Stabilo: “A simple notebook is transformed into a customised life planner. There are no rules, it’s down to you what you decide to put in it, with the content arranged,

structured and shaped in whatever way suits your creative mind.”

Vickery picks up on the same theme: “The demise of the pen is not on the horizon. In fact, there’s a potential backlash against the dehumanising effect of technology overload from an unexpected audience.

We’re hearing rumblings about young people keen to put down their smartphones and pick up a pen to write letters, notes and messages to loved ones, friends and colleagues. This is driven by a desire to express their personalities and stand out from the anonymous tech crowd.

“Wishful thinking? Misty-eyed nostalgia? Perhaps.

But, as we’ve said all along, there is a place for traditional and new technologies to co-exist and complement each other quite successfully. To witness this renewed interest in ‘old technology’, look no further than the fountain pen market, which continues to experience a renaissance few would have predicted.”

Indeed, in this increasingly digital world, there are signs that handwriting is becoming fashionable again.

Many businesses are now realising that a personal handwritten note can set the sender apart and illustrate a genuine appreciation for the recipient.

But we don’t all have fantastic handwriting.

Sending lots of individual notes also takes time. US company Bond helps businesses send personalised, handwritten notes at scale. Essentially, you tell Bond electronically what you want to say and to whom and one of its ‘writing robot’ machines scripts your message with a real pen and even mails it in a handwritten envelope on your behalf.

As CEO Sonny Caberwal says, email is all about the sender whereas a note is about the recipient. “A well thought-out card or letter will almost always be read and carries a stronger sentimental value,” he says. “By giving a customer something that won’t go unnoticed and something they can keep, businesses can spark interest and build loyalty.

“There are strategic times when a personal note to the consumer can significantly impact retention, particularly if a customer seems to be slipping away.

Whether it’s thanking them for a repeat purchase, or for simply being a customer, it builds excitement and applauds their loyalty, driving customer satisfaction.”

Product development and new services show that innovation in the writing instruments sector is evidently not dead. As Vickery sums up: “While it might be tempting to think that there is only so much that can be done with a pen, experience proves otherwise.”

CATEGORY UPDATE Writing Instruments

particularly popular. The 2017 launch of the Slider Xite made of bio-based plastic has been a hit with the environmentally-conscious. Also, says the company’s Head of Public Relations, Martina Schneider, “whereas ballpoints tend to be the pen of choice for industrial needs, we are also seeing 10%+ growth rates for our school products, thanks to the launch of our new Link-It fineliners and fibrepens and our new fountain pen ‘Ray’.”

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HOW TO...

• In 2019, it is estimated that there will be around 2.77 billion social media users around the globe, up from 2.46 billion in 2017.

• 81% of all small and medium businesses use social media platforms.

• More than 56% of ‘online’ adults, aged 16-64, use more than one social media platform.

Despite these statistics, most B2B organisations fail to recognise the value of most social media channels, typically stating that “it is not where the buyers are”. That’s just simply not true. It’s more likely that organisations struggle to measure the ROI and brand awareness coming from social media marketing efforts.

In fact, according to a recent study by Immediate Future, 58% of B2B brands surveyed fail to measure social media efforts well.

So how can you harness the power of social media as a sales and marketing tool, let alone measure its success? The first trick is to just get started – you can’t accomplish anything if you simply do nothing at all.

Social media

IN BUSINESS AND HOW TO MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU

In this first How to… guide to using social media as a sales and marketing tool, Jennifer Rae Schulman takes a look at Facebook and Instagram and what they can offer to businesses

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ocial Media. It can be argued that it is the most powerful of all forms of online marketing. After all, it is essentially word-of-mouth marketing, conducted online. And what is the strongest form of all marketing? Word-of-mouth, of course.

All too often, arguments are made against social media. However, it has become a staple of our existence, an easily accessible extension of our arm as we unlock our phones to post a status or check updates.

As the new year starts getting into gear, we can expect to see numerous trends, advances in marketing techniques and a definite increase in numbers regarding the usage of social networks. Consider this:

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FACEBOOK

Despite growing numbers on other channels such as Snapchat and Instagram, Facebook is still the most widely used social network and it is the one where organisations should get started as they dive deeper into social media.

In order to use Facebook as a sales and marketing tool, you should focus on three core principles to start with: content, audience and advertising.

CONTENT Be real. Cater not to B2B (or even B2C) marketing techniques, cater to the person-to-person (P2P) and human-to-human (H2H) elements. Reinvent your marketing message when it comes to social media and engage audiences on a personal level. People do not like content that is not relevant to them. Even when you are marketing a traditional B2B business, you need to engage with your targeted audience differently on social media.

• Use videos and strong imagery that people can relate to. Try ‘Facebook Live’.

• Create content that answers questions on a relatable and easily understood basis.

• Humanise your brand as much as possible with staff photos or pictures of events.

• Use a storytelling approach and narrate your story/ content in a way your users will understand it best.

• Engage with your audience. ‘Like’ or comment on posts, share comments and tag them when appropriate.

Posts that cater to the P2P aspect have much higher engagement and click-through rates (see Yuletide

Facebook has 2.01 billion monthly and 1.32 billion daily active users 22% of the world’s total population uses Facebook 50 million businesses use Facebook

AUDIENCE The number one rule of marketing is “never to implement what you cannot measure”. The second rule should easily be “know your audience”. You’d be surprised at how many organisations do not have full personas mapped out for their buyers.

But how should you get started? Ideally, you should be creating buyer personas for each type of potential customer your organisation is targeting. According to HubSpot, which is an excellent resource to learn about buyer personas and buyer journeys, the former is: “A semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behaviour patterns, motivations and goals.”

All of this is often easier said than done. How do we have time to create buyer personas when we don’t even have time to use Facebook to its full potential?

Well, start by looking at your Audience Insights within Facebook. There is no doubt that the more customer data (or insights) you have, the better you will be equipped to deliver the right messages to the right people. Facebook Audience Insights helps marketers learn more about their target audiences, including aggregate information about geography, demographics, purchase behaviour and more.

The following information explains the type of data you can extract for your given Facebook audience.

FACEBOOK REMAINS THE MOST POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM FOR ‘ONLINE’ ADULTS IN THE US

• Demographics: age and gender, lifestyle, education, relationship status, job role and household size • Page likes: the top pages people like in different categories • Location and language • Facebook usage and device information • Purchase activity: past buying behaviour and purchasing methods You can view this information for three different groups of people: people on Facebook, ie the general Facebook audience; people connected to your page or event; and people in Custom Audiences you’ve already created (such as an audience made up of your current customers).

There is a plethora of audience and engagement data waiting for you inside Facebook, and it just takes a few minutes each week to take a look and learn something new or to make sure you are hitting the right audience targets.

ADVERTISING Advertising is essential to a successful Facebook strategy. Several years ago, Facebook dropped the visibility of posts coming from brand and company pages. It meant that only about 1-2% of the followers of a brand’s page saw the content they were posting.

With Facebook Ads, the content you put on your page can go much further. Yes, it costs money.

Yes, Facebook did monetise its channel by doing so. However, Facebook Ads remain one of the most cost-effective, highly-targeted and successful ways to grow your brand and generate leads, as well as sales, on social media. To get started, you must be an administrator of your company page. From there you can navigate to the ‘Ads Manager’ section of the page to move on.

Keep in mind that with Facebook’s wealth of information when it comes to audience statistics, you can have access to Audience Insights which can help you target your ad very specifically. You can target by age, gender, income, interests, location and even followers of a specific page (as long as they have

February 2018

Source: PEW Research Center

HOW TO... Social Media

Office Solutions post, right). Product or ‘offer’ type of posts tend to perform much worse than content that is relatable and shareable.

That said, you are an expert at what you do. Make sure you sprinkle in posts that emphasise your subject matter expertise. An easy way to do this is by blogging about products and services you offer and then promoting that blog post on social media channels. Posts like the one from Source One Office Products (see right) tend to perform well too.

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HOW TO... Social Media

enough followers to actually define a decent-sized audience segment). You can also run ads on any budget. I believe that a little will go a long way when it comes to Facebook Ads. There are several ad formats and types of campaigns Facebook offers as well. You can run a ‘web clicks’ campaign if you have a goal to drive people to your website and convert (purchase, fill out a form, etc). Or you can run a ‘like’ campaign that will gain brand awareness for your organisation by showing your posts within your target audience’s news feed, with the hope they like your page, thereby increasing your following and of course your brand awareness.

When it comes to ad formats, here are a few favourites that will gain attention: • Photo ads (do not use too much text in your image) • Video ads (these work extremely well) • Carousel ads (show multiple videos or images in one ad) • Collection (tells a story with a single image that showcases your products) Once an ad runs (you can set start and end dates as well), do not forget to go back and look at the data to see how your ad has performed. Facebook makes this easy with the reports available within Ad Manager.

You will be able to view the reach, engagement, clicks, likes, etc, that your ad received.

INSTAGRAM

Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion in 2012.

Ever since then, this image-sharing social networking app has been on the rise. The statistics are perhaps a little surprising from a business point of view: • 80% of Instagrammers follow a business on Instagram.

• 400 million+ people worldwide use Instagram every day.

• 60% of people say they discover new products on Instagram.

• 75% of Instagrammers take action after being inspired by a post.

• 33% of the most viewed stories are from businesses.

80% of Instagrammers follow a business on Instagram With an Instagram Business Account, you can not only showcase your brand but obtain real-time metrics on how your stories and promoted posts perform as well as insights into your followers and how they interact with your posts.

When creating an account or posting, be sure to follow several best practices:

As we look at 2018 social media trends, we are going to see a very sharp rise in engagement metrics for ephemeral content. Such content on social media is short-lived and the longest it can last is 24 hours.

After that, it disappears forever. Think Snapchat.

This might sound extremely scary to marketers, but when you consider that content which is short-lived is thought to be much more authentic than ads, coupled with the fact that ephemeral content piques the FOMO (fear of missing out) factor, it makes sense to incorporate it into your strategy.

If you want to give ephemeral content a try on Instagram, take a look at Instagram Stories – it’s a perfect example of ephemeral content and a great place to get started.

DON’T MISS OUT Whether you’re just getting started or looking to enhance your strategy, small steps can bring big gains. The truth is that B2B buyers are indeed on social media, multiple times a day, whether it is for personal or professional reasons. If you are not being an advocate for your brand in the social realm, you are missing out on a large opportunity to get in front of the right audience a majority of the time.

Jennifer Rae Schulman is President of Fortune Web Marketing, an online marketing agency with an extensive team of experts in the area of search engine marketing, content writers, link builders, social media gurus and creative masters ready to help businesses create and execute a digital strategy.

February 2018

• Add pertinent business information like address, phone number, URL and hours of operation • Add captions, locations and hashtags to enhance the post • Make sure hashtags are relevant to your post

• Set up a main company hashtag (#yourbrandname) • Use between 3-5 #hashtags per post, despite the fact you can add 30 • Frontload the important stuff • Include a call-to-action • Ask a question • Direct people to the link in your bio • Invite users to tag others

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EVENT

WHY ATTEND OPI PARTNERSHIP? “Partnership ensures that vendors and customers which are serious about engaging enjoy a quality, uninterrupted hour together at a most senior level. The event allows you to have several of these quality meetings in two days – impossible if you had to visit 12 different partners” RAJ ADVANI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, EXERTIS SUPPLIES

“Rapesco attended for the first time in 2017 and benefited greatly from meeting industry leaders from all the major European players.

Lots of networking and meeting opportunities in a relaxed and conducive atmosphere.

The event helped move forward a number of strategic discussions which have secured important new business for 2018” KEN TRENBERTH, GROUP TRADING DIRECTOR, RAPESCO

“OPI Partnership is the most relevant and valuable event in the business supplies industry. Both the networking and the opportunity to talk to C-level executives is extremely interesting and productive”

DENNIS ALBERS, PURCHASING & CATEGORY DIRECTOR EUROPE, ADVEO

JOHAN TOPS, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR EUROPE, GREENSPEED

Partnering FOR SUCCESS

S

everal years ago, OPI felt that there wasn’t an event in the OP calendar that successfully brings together the leading vendors, resellers and distributors in the European business supplies industry. Not for an exhibition or a conference, but as a forum to facilitate strategic discussions between the channels in a confidential, time-measured and well-organised setting.

Born was OPI Partnership, launched in 2014 and now held on an annual basis in early March in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. What began as a small gathering with a modest selection of hand-picked attendees from predominantly the office supplies sector has since developed into a much-anticipated and always sold-out event that brings together decision-making executives from an ever-broadening industry (see panel, left).

The fifth OPI Partnership, to be held from 5-7 March 2018 at the exquisite Hotel Okura, will be the most expansive ever, hosting not only the biggest names in office products – Lyreco, Office Depot, Printus, Newell Brands, ACCO Brands and Fellowes to name but a few – but also the wider business supplies community,

PARTNERSHIP

2018

including the mighty Amazon, well-known Duracell and niche operator Safescan.

In addition to creating new and consolidating existing business relationships in strategic, timed meeting slots, attendees will also have plenty of networking opportunities, not least during the annual European Office Products Awards gala dinner (for the shortlist and more information, see page 48), which will be held on 6 March at the end of the first full day of OPI Partnership.

This year’s OPI Partnership is now sold out, but if you’re interested in finding out more or to be considered for this invitation-only event in 2019, please contact Steve Hilleard on steve.hilleard@opi.net.

PARTNERSHIP

2018

February 2018

“The quality of our meetings was beyond our expectations”

OPI PARTNERSHIP PREVIEW

47

EVENT

EUROPEAN OFFICE PRODUCTS AWARDS

Who’s up for A GONG THIS YEAR?

O

n 6 March 2018, the leading lights of the European business supplies industry will come together for the 17th time for the European Office Products Awards (EOPA).

And judging by the number and calibre of entries received, and the shortlist – see below – that was compiled during the judges meeting in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in early December, it’s promising to be an unmissable event.

A total of 11 awards are up for grabs, rewarding anything from innovation, ingenuity and the ability to evolve and transform, to persistence, perseverance and sheer dedication. The winners of this year’s EOPA will be announced during a Presentation Dinner at the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam during the OPI Partnership event (see page 47).

On the following pages, you’ll find a short description of all the shortlisted products, initiatives, companies and individuals.

EOPA 2018 SHORTLIST Product of the Year • ACCO Brands – Leitz MyBox • COLOP – ARSI Motivational Stamps • Fellowes Europe – Lotus Sit-Stand Workstation • Floortex Europe – AFS-TEX 5000 Anti-Fatigue System • Logitech – Spotlight

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Video of the Year • Dams – 50th Anniversary • Krug & Priester – IDEAL Shredders: Quality • Krug & Priester – IDEAL Shredders: Simplicity • Newell Brands – InkJoy Gel TV Campaign • VOW Europe – ‘It’s on the Way’

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Wholesaler of the Year • Exertis Supplies • JGBM • Quantore • VOW Europe

Initiative of the Year • Integra – Education Essentials Campaign • Integra – The Local Community Initiative • International Paper – HP Office ‘Pink Ream’ social campaign supporting breast cancer awareness • VOW Europe – Reviva Marketing Campaign of the Year • BIC – #BICTEMPTATIONS • Fellowes – Actively Working Well with the Sit-Stand Movement • Newell Brands – Sharpie Campaign in France • Pilot Pen France – Pilot Lens on Snapchat • WPC – Obłędne Dyktando Vendor of the Year • 3M • Bi-silque • Fellowes Europe • Newell Brands • Safescan

Reseller of the Year – revenues under €100 million • Codex • Commercial • Gerdmans • Officeday Reseller of the Year – revenues over €100 million • Amazon • Bureau Vallée • Büromarkt Böttcher • Lyreco Young Executive of the Year • Haley-mae Benton, Channel Sales Manager, Avery UK • Abdul Khamkar, EU Merchandising Manager, Office Depot • Steve Weston, Product Manager, Lyreco UK & Ireland Professional of the Year & Industry Achievement No shortlist – winners announced on the night

PRODUCT OF THE YEAR

Exertis Supplies Exertis Supplies excels at being a service-oriented, low-cost, no frills wholesale distributor with excellent vendor and dealer partnerships.

ACCO Brands – Leitz MyBox A range of modular, robust and dual-colour boxes in four colours that address the need for attractive storage solutions in the home as well as at work.

JGBM Highly skilled in and focused on all things e-commerce and digital, JGBM prides itself on its product expertise and on providing unrivalled value-added services to its dealer customers.

COLOP – ARSI Motivational Stamps In a historically very traditional category, COLOP adds a new dimension with its selection of augmented reality 3D motivational stamps.

Quantore A complete all-rounder working with extremely low margins. Quantore has an outstanding logistics infrastructure and excellent value-add service solutions.

VOW Europe VOW Europe is one of the UK’s broadline wholesalers with an ever-growing product and service proposition.

Particular emphasis is being put on the facilities supplies and furniture categories as well as on instant availability of stock through its Product Conveyor initiative.

EVENT EOPA

WHOLESALER OF THE YEAR

Fellowes Europe – Lotus Sit-Stand Workstation With the growing well-being trend in mind, the Lotus Sit-Stand Workstation offers an integrated and seamless solution. Featuring 22 different height settings, users can work in a wide variety of positions.

Floortex Europe – AFS-TEX 5000 Anti-Fatigue System Floortex’s flagship product within its new AFS-TEX range. The anti-fatigue system is designed to give ergonomic benefits to support the trend in stand-up working.

Logitech – Spotlight Logitech’s Spotlight combines minimalist design with advanced functionality and offers a new standard in presentation control.

INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR

VIDEO OF THE YEAR

Integra – Education Essentials Campaign This initiative set out to enable Integra members to approach and enter the education market with the right tools as well as the expertise to win new business.

Dams – 50th Anniversary Dams produced two videos to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company. It first charts Dams’ history since 1967 and then focuses on all current aspects of the business.

Integra – The Local Community Initiative Highlighting one of dealers’ core USPs – the personal touch – this initiative offered a chance to support the local community while also promoting dealers’ own businesses.

International Paper – HP Office ‘Pink Ream’ This initiative sought to raise awareness of and funds for a breast cancer organisation and highlight the use of brands to create social awareness.

VOW Europe – Reviva Reviva is a range of CPO phones with a lower price and reduced environmental impact.

MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR BIC – #BICTEMPTATIONS A contemporary, European campaign that explored new ways of creating video content via crowdsourcing, with the aim to create brand awareness for BIC’s 4 Colours pen.

Fellowes – Actively Working Well with the Sit-Stand Movement With the aim of launching Fellowes’ sit-stand category in Europe, the campaign sought to establish Fellowes as a thought leader and credible adviser in the wellness space.

Newell Brands – Sharpie Campaign in France A very consumer-focused campaign that aimed to educate users about permanent marker usage and build awareness of the Sharpie brand in the French market.

WPC – Obłędne Dyktando Translated as ‘Fabulous Dictation’, this campaign in Poland combined an educational focus with the desire to engage teenagers in the joy of writing.

Krug & Priester – IDEAL Shredders: Simplicity Presented in a humorous but impactful way, this video demonstrates the ease of use of IDEAL shredders.

Newell Brands – InkJoy Gel TV Campaign The objective of Newell Brands’ InkJoy Gel TV Campaign was to create brand awareness and association, communicate product benefits and encourage viewers to purchase.

VOW Europe – ‘It’s on the Way’ VOW Europe’s video tracks the journey of an order from placement to delivery. It highlights the significant behind-the-scenes work and illustrates the value of wholesale partnerships to independent dealers.

February 2018

Pilot Pen France – Pilot Lens on Snapchat Pilot Pen’s campaign on Snapchat was specifically directed at school children in order to boost brand awareness of its FriXion range.

Krug & Priester – IDEAL Shredders: Quality Often regarded as an uninspiring category, Krug & Priester with this video aimed to appeal to a wider and younger audience and highlight the quality – and very low return rate – of its shredders.

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EOPA EVENT

VENDOR OF THE YEAR 3M A perennially impressive vendor with persistently innovative and high-quality products, outstanding brand strength and service-driven solutions.

Bi-silque Hailed as an excellent partner, Bi-silque has raised the bar in a very saturated category, winning numerous awards across the industry over the past year or so.

Fellowes Europe A regular previous award winner, Fellowes anticipates what’s happening in the market, constantly innovates and brings new products to the table.

Newell Brands Newell Brands is successful in growing a challenging category with its wholesale partners through innovative new products, projects and campaigns.

Safescan A niche company in our sector, but a leader in its category that has managed to successfully grow with its highly reactive approach to the market.

YOUNG EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR Haley-mae Benton, Channel Sales Manager, Avery UK Hayley-mae Benton is a keen learner who is fast moving through the ranks. A talented individual who is hugely passionate about the business supplies industry and the company she works for.

Abdul Khamkar, EU Merchandising Manager, Office Depot A dedicated individual who is well respected and highly valued within Office Depot as well as the vendor community. Abdul Khamkar is a real all-rounder who always puts the customer first.

Steve Weston, Product Manager, Lyreco UK & Ireland As Product Manager at Lyreco, Steve Weston is showing great emerging leadership skills, successfully balancing the needs of a UK and Irish customer base with the demands of a global operator.

RESELLER OF THE YEAR – REVENUES UNDER ¤100 MILLION

Codex A dynamic Irish business with a motivated team that successfully managed to rebuild itself from the brink after the 2007 financial crisis.

Commercial A UK operator with an outstanding social responsibility approach – excellent to work with and enjoying great partnerships with suppliers and customers alike.

Gerdmans Sweden-based Gerdmans is part of Takkt’s Business Equipment Group. Completely B2B-focused, it’s highly respected and on an excellent growth trajectory.

Officeday Officeday is the largest office supplies chain in the Baltic region, providing best-in-class products and services to its customer base in ever-evolving categories.

RESELLER OF THE YEAR – REVENUES OVER ¤100 MILLION

Amazon Highly disruptive and setting the bar for procuring business supplies, Amazon’s biggest initiative of 2017 was the launch of Amazon Business in a number of markets. High double-digit growth and finally profitable.

Bureau Vallée A France-based franchise chain with good expansion in a challenging home retail market and emerging growth in other regions.

Büromarkt Böttcher Büromarkt Böttcher continues to post impressive growth. Always on the lookout for new categories and services, with an intelligent and forward-thinking approach.

Lyreco This operator manages to successfully marry a local approach with global resources and partnerships. Expansive product range and services.

INDUSTRY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD No shortlist – winner announced on the night

PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR No shortlist – winner announced on the night

Presentation Dinner www.opi.net

Winners of the 17th annual EOPA will be announced at a glittering industry dinner on 6 March 2018 at the Hotel Okura, Amsterdam

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To book your seats or for more details,

visit www.opi.net/eopa2018 or email awards@opi.net

Please note that bookings for the EOPA are open to anyone, not just attendees of OPI Partnership which is now sold out.

5 MINUTES WITH...

Jolanda de Vries CAREER Q&A

What’s your life philosophy?

Be curious and positive.

Describe your current job.

Account Manager of the 3M Consumer Business Group Europe. With a team, I manage the European Office Accounts.

What do you do in your spare time?

Cooking, sports, and spending as much time as I can with family and friends.

What personal or practical items do you have on your desk?

A Karim Rashid-designed Post-it Z-Note and Scotch Magic Tape Dispenser.

Optimist or pessimist?

Definitively optimist. For me the glass is always half full.

Favourite author?

There are a few authors in different genres I like, but Gabriel García Márquez and his Love in the Time of Cholera is probably top of the list.

If you could trade places with someone – dead or alive – for a day, who would it be and why?

Pablo Picasso or Leonardo da Vinci.

Both extraordinary people and I would love to experience and breathe their air of creativity, inspiration and genius.

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What’s your favourite place to be in Germany and why?

I moved to West Berlin in 1984. I was fortunate to be in the city when the wall came down. Experiencing first-hand how this city has changed over the years and found its place in the world has been, and still is, extremely exciting.

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Early bird or night owl?

Early bird.

If you could have the answer to any question, what would you ask?

What’s next?

What’s your most prized possession?

A handwritten cookbook from my mum.

She is a great cook and wrote all her favourite recipes down for me.

If you weren’t doing your present job, what would you like to be doing?

As a child, I wanted to design gardens. I think it’s still something I would love to do.

What do you like best about the OP industry?

With all the major changes this industry is currently going through, it somehow manages to reinvent itself.

Change challenges us to leave behind old habits and forces us to think differently.

It requires us to leave our comfort zone.

Think outside the box. Explore new opportunities. It’s exhilarating.

The industry figures you most admire?

Arthur Fry and Spencer Silver for inventing a product nobody thought they needed until they did. And now for over 35 years, the Post-it brand has helped people be more productive, communicate better and express themselves in a number of creative ways

Winners of the 17th annual European Office Products Awards will be announced at a glittering industry dinner on 6th March 2018 at the Hotel Okura, Amsterdam

Presentation Dinner 6TH MARCH 2018

BOOK NOW

To book your seats at this unmissable networking event or for more details,

visit www.opi.net/eopa2018 or email awards@opi.net

FINAL WORD

The independent WIZARDS of Oz

A

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s a country with a population of just under 25 million people, Australia could be considered a minor player with a relatively small office products market in the great scheme of our industry. However, over the past year or two, the Australian OP sector has experienced as much disruption and activity as any other market globally.

The action, though slowed, has far from stopped and what will unfold ultimately sits with the boards and the management of the key players involved. I fear, however, that an element of complacency and a lack foresight, urgency and strategic capability from all industry participants will lead to further challenges.

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SHAKY CORPORATE SECTOR Let’s take a look at the B2B reseller network, in particular the corporate sector, for a start. The big global resellers, while securing large volumes and commanding great market share, have absorbed unfathomable trading losses that are quite simply unsustainable. Enter the saviour – albeit often short-term – of many a large operator: private equity firms. Platinum Equity marched in with what seemed, on the surface, to be a sensible approach. Buy Staples, rebrand it to Winc and then look to consolidate the two leading organisations in the country through the additional acquisition of OfficeMax. A good plan perhaps, but easier said than done, predominantly due to the regulators dragging out the review and approval process for months (see Analysis, page 8). What impact will this have? Is the deal and the companies in it salvageable?

The shining light in the big end of town remains Officeworks. Nearing A$2 billion (US$1.6 billion) in revenues, this operator continues to enjoy high single-digit growth and an ever increasing footprint.

That said, the bulk of its volume is in the B2C retail market. There’s no doubt that in retail, Officeworks is in formidable shape, but while not reported individually, industry intel suggests that the company continues to struggle in B2B. Lack of range, service, B2B expertise and credibility all contribute to that channel representing less than the rumoured 15% of Officeworks’ total business.

Is there anybody in the B2B space with a successful, profitable model? It is definitely not Lyreco, the remaining well-respected global player.

Like its counterparts, it continues to find profitability in Australia a challenge.

That leaves the independent channel which is quite diverse in itself, ranging from large, standalone family-owned enterprises to small operators that come together in the buying groups. The latter I can

speak about with some authority, having headed up one of Australia’s leading dealer groups – Office Choice – for the past five years.

Similar to the US, Canada and the UK, there has been a real resurgence in Australia’s independent space. Complete Office Supplies, a family-owned B2B specialist created quite the stir when it entered into the OfficeMax acquisition battle.

And why should this impressive, well-managed and successful business not be in the same conversation as Staples? Who says independents

Brad O’Brien, CEO, Office Choice

Issue The large global resellersSpecial […] have absorbed unfathomable trading losses that FACILITIES are quite simply unsustainable SUPPLIES cannot mix with the big boys? That has certainly been the focus and mantra of Office Choice and as a result we have steadily grown the business for Issue the past Special four years.

FACILITIES But while I’m confident about the future of Office SUPPLIES Choice thanks to our healthy balance sheet, 2020 strategic plan and recent dealer acquisitions, overall I feel the picture is a little more hazy.

THE NEED TO UP YOUR GAME In particular, I am concerned that small operators, most notably in the buying group space, are not open-minded enough and evolving fast enough.

With Amazon now finally on our shores too, further complacency is not an option.

The goal must be to future-proof our business.

And perhaps the supplier community is heading in the right direction in that sense. ACCO Brands Special Issue merging with Pelikan Artline, Australian Paper VENDOR buying out Edwards Dunlop and GNS acquiring SPECIAL state-based wholesalers V-Wholesale and Satex all demonstrate an appetite for progress and an awareness of a changing market.

The alternative? The recently announced wind-up of key industry publication Stationery News, the voluntary administration of long-term stationery supplier Bantex and the failure of many iconic independent dealers across the country speak volumes.

Wherever you’re positioned on the spectrum or in the channel, the message is simple: be progressive, open-minded, flexible and evolve – or risk becoming irrelevant!

Special Issue

FACILITIES SUPPLIES Special Issue

VENDOR SPECIAL NEXT ISSUE

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VENDOR SPECIAL

Big Interview Cezary Monko, EVP & President, ACCO Brands EMEA

Vendor Features l Vendor focus l Spotlight: Stabilo l Vendor profile: Hamelin Events l Paperworld review l City of Hope NBPI Tour