Four wise men

Four experienced industry heads gave their perspective on the current state of the office supplies sector and its future at the recent Dealer Support Live event

The concluding session at Dealer Support Live featured four well-known and experienced names in the office supplies sector; Steve Howorth, group CEO, EVO Group, Mark Wilkinson, vice president of ACCO, Steve Bilton, managing director of FusionPlus Data and Martin Shaw, managing director of D3 Office Group. They gave their opinions on some of the biggest issues affecting the sector.

Questions were posed by industry veteran Steve Harrop who opened the session by asking how cost increases, shortages of materials, and wage inflation were affecting day-to-day operations. Steve Howorth said that the industry must be realistic and pragmatic about it. “There is no hiding away from it,” he said. “There are many different challenges – supply chain, cost of goods, cost of operations, all those macroeconomic factors…

“It would be easy to be downbeat about all this but, if you look at the past 18 months, I am amazed by all the stories of what dealers have done. They have pivoted, done different things, changed, built things they have never built before, operated in different places.

“So, as much as it is a perfect storm of negativity there is also huge opportunity. When I look at the power of what we have in terms of how we approach the market as a community – we have immense power as disrupters in terms of the dynamics, the local touch, the potential for change, the scale and mass support we have when needed. There will be opportunities but, unfortunately, it is bloody hard work to find those opportunities and you have to be on the front foot…but there is good business there to be done.”

Mark drew attention to issues relating to price. “Price inflation isn’t going away, and you can’t stick your head in the sand, you have to pass these prices on. Our cost of goods has gone up dramatically; this is going to be a problem for a lot of vendors and distributors that will translate into price rises for dealers and end users. You have to price your products to get you through this period and accept that this is the reality. It’s difficult, and uncomfortable, but that’s what you have to do.”

With difficult times potentially ahead, dealers need to do everything they can to maximise their sales potential, and this includes using all the tools and services available to them – which many don’t do, according to Steve Bilton. “Wholesalers and dealer groups have awesome programs, and software houses have unbelievable functionality,” he said. “One of the actions I would do as a dealer is to pick up the ‘phone and speak to your wholesalers, dealer groups and software houses and find out what they have got that you are not using now. You might surprise yourself and find something in there that will help you sell a different range of products, or make your whole operation more efficient.

“I don’t think you guys realise how advanced and well-organised this supply chain is. You have it handed on a plate compared to other industries we work with, particularly in the States. You have industry-specific software, data providers, dedicated wholesalers and dealer groups all coming up with fabulous services.”

Time management

The conversation then moved on to what issues dealers should be focusing on, and Martin emphasised the importance of time management. “I discussed it with our team and said we need to get into a zone where we are doing things that are important but not urgent because, if we don’t, they get into the category of being important and urgent and it becomes frantic. You can’t operate easily in that zone for long,” he says. “We have probably all been in that zone for the past 18 months, but we now need to take a step back and have this time management discussion.”

Martin added that looking at ways to improve time management, possibly through reviewing systems and processes, which can stop things going into the urgent zone, can really improve how the business works.

Steve Howorth agreed, saying dealers should make time to work out, and understand, what problems they are solving for customers. “In the past 18 months we have learnt that products are broadly irrelevant; it’s all about the value you are adding to the customer,” he says. “If we can understand that better, then we have a chance of focusing on doing more of that to help our businesses into the future – that goes for manufacturers as much as wholesalers and service providers.”

Hybrid working

The next question concerned hybrid working. While Mark noted that it presents opportunities for dealers – selling products for home workers and those in the office – Steve Howorth questioned the term itself.

“I am a huge fan of flexible working; I do not believe in hybrid working,” he said. “It is a nonsense to prescribe to people when they can or can’t be in the office, or to have policies that apply only to a small number of mid-managers, or clerical workers, and don’t apply to the bulk of the workforce. We need to wake up as an industry and stop talking about it.

“Flexible working is brilliant. Give people the scope to work where they want to, to be the most productive they can be on any given day. It doesn’t need new legislation; it is already in place – people can ask for flexible working.

“Allow people to be productive, to get on the front foot and have respect for all those people who, throughout the pandemic, had no choice but to go into work – those minimum wage warehouse workers and drivers. I can’t look in the mirror every day, think of them and work from home three days a week. We are back on the road and in the office, but we respect people’s wishes to work flexibly.”

Sustainability

Sustainability is also coming to the fore again for dealers, and this was the next issue addressed. Martin admitted that, over the past 18 months, it hasn’t been a priority for many dealers, who have been focused mostly on survival. However, it’s a priority now and D3 is keeping a record of what the company is doing to reduce its environmental impact. “There’s a programme through Office Friendly – I’m sure there are others out there – that is superb at taking you through a process. At the end it’s not about getting a badge but about taking the actions that you can then tell your customers to explain what you’ve been doing,” he said.

Steve Howorth felt strongly about this. “It is directly and indirectly affecting people’s buying decisions day-by-day. We are seeing it is becoming a bigger part of decisions people make – either specifically, or as one of those expected factors that has to be there and be correct. Post-COP26 there are going to be some significant government commitments that will be followed up; there will be legislation. Whether we like it or not, it’s here to stay, and we won’t be able to get away with greenwashing.

“A lot of what we already do around consolidating supply, delivery, single sourcing, a slick de-duplicated supply chain is great, but we have never packaged it in a way that tells the story strongly, and we can definitely do a better job of that both individually and as an industry.”

Mark added that the industry needs to take the opportunity to sell products that are genuinely recyclable and have recycled content in them. “There is more that can be done, of course, but there are a lot of products out there – we need to do a better job of making them available to the end user so that salespeople can go out and sell them.”