The newsagent-owned Ancol stationery warehouse in Adelaide has started a consignment stock trial. Newsagents can choose stationery and hold this on their shelves for up to 120 days without cost. Ultimately, they pay Ancol for what has sold.
This is an interesting move, maybe a response from Ancol to tough trading conditions.
Smart newsagents will embrace the opportunity and experiment with products they might otherwise have ignored. Hopefully such experimentation helps win more business for newsagents an Ancol.
If I was in South Australia I’d get to the Ancol warehouse and check out the opportunities.
I LIKE THE IDEA , any word on GNS doing this
We would jump at this offer if GNS came on board, it would allow us to look outside our comfort zone as far as stationery without having to pay within 30 days.
It would also give us time to showcase the products and allow customers time to decide on purchase. We are finding particularly new stock lines take a while before customers start buying ( they tend to come back 3 or 4 times before they make the first buy but after that they become more frequent). As a result we stick to our tried and tested lines and only dabble in new ranges, but this would allow us to test more products without risk.
GNS are the worst performing supplier in my shop and by a long way.
Why would they change they have a pseudo monoply with newsagents?
how can they be the worse performing supplier in your shop when you do the ordering ?
I would not like to think the prices we would be buying our stationery for without GNS.
Third biggest and third most profitable department. Second most profitable supplier, GNS is essential to my business.
Two reasons consignment stock may be attractive are 1) encourages us to try a larger range of product (good for all parties) 2) moves the storage of slower items to our businesses reducing storage costs for suppliers but increases costs for someone if lots of stock is returned.
However you look at it careful stock management is the key to any model in place.
Yesterday I met with Grant Eckert from Ancol and we discussed the consignement stock program at length. I think this is a great idea and am currently working with our management team to see how and when we can introduce this concept into GNS. I see this as a low risk way to introduce products into your business and for GNS to offer additional value to our customers.
Richard I’d be happy to discuss your comments as it concerns me you have this view. I joined GNS to introduce change and to see new ways where we can help you GROW your business on products we supply. It’s called Win-Win. The more you sell the better off we both are. Please don;t hesitate to contct me if you have any concerns, or better still, ideas that will help your business……
Alex , spoke to my gns rep just yesterday and he had not even heard of the ancol deal i gave him a copy of this blog post to show him . I would have thought something like this should have been a hot topic with the GNS crew
I am participating in the Ancol venture to
introduce consignment stock (in addition to my general ordering of course and not
for the agent who thinks he will ONLY order consignment stock and circumvent
the normal trading terms)
It has been in for a week and I chose items that I have NEVER had on my shelves before. I added different types of similar items e.g. staplers etc but all the stock I ordered on consignment was
new to my store.
Tower helped me to handle it through my
computer (it was very easy) and I have highlighted all the labels so that when I do stocktake I won’t include the consignment stock.
So far it is definitely a win/win but it could
be open to abuse and it needs goodwill on
both sides for it to work properly.
I applaud Ancol and Grant Eckert for putting this forward as a way for us to increase business.
I was finding that I was not ordering any extra stock because of cashflow problems
and I was of the opinion (as were Ancol)
that I was probably missing sales because
of this.
I urge newsagents to only use the consignment stock to increase your bottom line and to continue to do your normal ordering because it is the only way
that you will find out if you have increased
your sales.
It is my third largest core product in my
store and deserves the extra attention.
By the way it was not done to move old
stock at Ancol (I asked that question) but
I was able to choose each and every item that I wanted and I was not restricted in
how much I wanted to take.
I am gratified by the response so far and look forward to reporting how much of the
consignment stock I have to pay for at the
end of the consignment period (4 months)
Thanks Shaun. I’m not surprised (or concerned) that the GNS rep had not heard of this as yet. I’d like to be in a position to have a solution that we can take to market via our area managers before we talk too much about it (despite my blog posts!)
June your comments are great to hear and very encouraging.
June, the more stock you have to pay for the better as that is the result of increased sales
I support Gns and buy 90% of stocks from them and account about 30% of my business , but disappointed with the way they run their business which will effect all of us. not only ‘lazy products’ but not keep up with time to introduce choices, may be they learn from supermarket to encourage housebrand. god , I hate to see their xmas and back to school catalougue which make me think that we newsagency deserve to end like bookshops.
Brendan, not necessarily – take for instance the different staplers that I put in on consignment. Did the customer ignore the ones I usually have to buy a different one or did he like having more
choice.
This is a vexed question and one which I won’t be able to answer until the end of the consignment period. When the reporting says that my stationery is up (without the consignment stock included) I will be a happy camper.
Then there are the items that I didn’t have on my shelves at all which will lend themselves to being reordered.
I went to Officeworks on my way home from Ancol and I haven’t been there for a long time either but they are sourcing great product and they do make newsagents look like second class citizens in the choice stakes.
I would like to see good quality product (like Smiggle and Kikki K type product)
available to us through Ancol/GNS.
We have both of those stores in our vicinity and they do very well. We need to be able to compete with that and so far
we can’t. I don’t know the answer to that but I guess it comes down to the purchasing officers of the places concerned.
Do they go out and look at these new places and then do their buying when they see what is currently available or do they just buy the same old same old and expect that we can lift sales?
We all need to comment on this so that we
retain the core product that has been part
of our industry for so long, and not be intimidated by the Coles/officeworks approach to knock us over by capturing a percentage of our market with no fightback from us.
June, so long as we talking about stock on consignment then the more you are billed for the more sales must have been made. I would think that the best use of consignment stock would be to stock items that might not normally make it to your shelves thus increasing range of product as opposed to stocking another stapler of which there would already be several choices available. A greater range being items we currently do not stock, is what will hold us in better stead against office works etc. that and better service, attitude and knowledge of our stock.
Brendan the jury is still out on your comments. I have tried to put both sorts
of stock in – more of something and totally new to the store so it will be a very
interesting thing to test your thoughts and mine as to what is selling.
My husband agrees with you – different stock – but I think we also need to add to the immediate range.
its an interesting exercise, but my question is where do you put the extra stock? if i had more room i would already be getting more in to fill the gaps!!
I know we can all do a stock review and move out some old stock, but i try to keep on top of that so would not really be clearing out much shelf space to fit consignment stock in
Rick, in the past when we have had a special order I have purchased 1 extra for the shelf and some of these items have taken of, by way of example the Kwik Zip Refill Binders. This would give the opportunity to try just a few new lines here and there and stick to the ones that work.