Someone at the GNS Market Fair in Perth yesterday drew a distinction between shopkeepers and retailers, commenting that there are too many newsagents who are shopkeepers.
The shopkeepers are those buying they products they used to buy (mainly), the way they used to buy them. Retailers are those with new departments in their businesses and buying for them in new ways.
Walking around the GNS Fair I couldn’t help thinking that suppliers to newsagents are not doing enough to lead them to being retailers operating best practice businesses. We have too many suppliers operating in the old school way, happy to serve shopkeepers.
The News Limited announcement should be a wake up call for all involved with newsagents.
The world has changed and all of us in the newsagency channel have to change with it. It could start on the floor of the GNS Market Fair … I’d love to see radical change driven by suppliers.
The thing is, based on what I have been seeing happen at gift fairs in recent years, retailer newsagents are moving and working those trade shows more than the traditional newsagency show.
I am not talking about GNS here – it’s the warehouse through which newsagents access products. No, I am talking mroe about the product manufacturers and developers themselves.
But it comes back to newsagents taking the initiative and leading in their businesses.
Look at newsagency software. It has changed dramatically over recent years yet the majority of newsagents are not using the new facilities. The tools are there to drive more efficient and competitive businesses, managing by best practice KPIs, working on business costs, reducing poor decisions. Yet too many newsagents prefer
I went to the GNS fair in my first year of business eight years ago and was dissappointed. I returned four years later to see if anything had changed. It has not. I will not be returning. I find it hard to get excited about glue sticks, staplers and sticker spinners. The gift fairs are on our calendar every year and now so is the toy fair.
I wondered if it was just me! I was initially surprised how old fashioned the feel of the GNS fair is. It all seems redundant when you could sit at your computer and sign up for the deals on the gluesticks Rowan. I want an event that will show me how to make some money, not save a few cents on existing product.
Gns is also very old school. All you have to do is look at their invoicing and pricing. Two prices delivery or collect. But deliver less than $150.00 and you pay a delivery charge as well so why have a delivery or collect price. Then we have a Capital Levy 2%. So what is your real unit cost and why am I paying a 2% levy. I just want a price not an accounting lesson.
Wally i think we pay the levy so that way we can get the great prices we get …NOT…or is it the buying power … i don’t know
The levy is so they build new warehouses in order to stock our competitors like office choice stores. I wonder if they pay it as well
For us the GNS fair is about 1) Christmas 2)Diaries 3) BTS. The actual GNS stand has had some good opportunities available over that past couple of years with suppliers such as Gibson being involved but the independent stall are very ho hum with little change. New suppliers from outside the traditional newsagency offering are required but these new suppliers would also want to be confident of support from the retailers to make it worth the cost and effort of attending. More suppliers like Gibsons would spark things up.
GNS fair should get more gift & toy supplier. Even GNS shop should get new innovative stationery like morning glory shop. Kids love more colourful things. However I go for few hrs every year as it’s not too far from my place and I can meet some people like Mark or Nathan and say Hello.
Some interesting, disappointing and yet justifiable responses to this post. I have yet to experience GNS Market Fairs myself. I unfortunately missed Perth last weekend as I was ill, however by all accounts and feedback it was the best fair Perth have had yet.
We are working very hard to change this business and become more viable to our customers, especially our Newsagent customers. It will take time, effort and a lot of work to change some of the not so great legacies of the past, and I hope we can achieve this as quickly as possible.
I would welcome and encourage any of you who have any negative comments or views about GNS to meet with me and I can discuss collectively or individually what we are doing to change this business – for the good.
I want GNS to become a true business partner to our Newsagent customers, but would also ask that you give us an opportunity to change and recognise our efforts in doing so.
Alex ,it has nothing to do with the topic but it was mentioned , could you tell us why we pay the levy ?
The point I was trying to make was about the suppliers at the fair and not GNS itself. GNS can only distribute what suppliers bring to the table.
In response to Luke, One of the reasons GNS and Office Choice became partners was to provide additional funds and turnover to GNS by Office Choice dealers purchasing through them instead of non- newsagency owned wholesalers like Dixons, General, V etc.
As traditional stationery is declining (down 3.2% in 2011 alone according to latest Penfold Research), why would GNS not want to gain additional revenue? The profit raised stays with the GNS members, not Office Choice. The main thing Office Choice gets is a national wholesaler for their non-Eastern seaboard branches. Office Choice dealers pay the same pricing you do, but without the benefits of ownership as they are purely a customer.
I have been going to GNS fairs for 6 years and look forward to them each year as it gives me a chance to catch up with all suppliers in one place, look at new lines and save money through deals, especially for BTS. I wish there was more of it.
Well said Aaron and thank-you for your comments.
Shaun, please send me your contact details (astewart@groupnews.com.au) and I’ll be more than happy to discuss this with you directly.
Aaron, we have still funded a competitor to gain an advantage over us, I understand it is a great deal for GNS and office choice but it hurts newsagents who are competing for stationery business with office choice stores.
What benefits do shareholders get over regular customers if we all pay the same prices?
Hi Luke,
I would like to give you this to think about….
Some of the benefits you (the newsagent customer) have includes:
-Participation in promotions that are exclusive to the Newsagents channel.
-GNS creating demand by targetting end user customers and driving them to your retail businesses
-Direct distribution of promotions to YOUR customers on your behalf
-Providing extended credit facilities during BTS promotions of up to 3 months funded by GNS
-Access to promotions via TV, print and Radio advertising that costs you nothing
-Exclusive product sampling campaigns
-Access to a FREE Visual Merchandising services, including relaying of stock that will grow sales in your retail store and increase your margin. I’m happy to give you real instances of customers who have taken advantage of this and have seen dramatic results.
-Access to FREE website services that you can leverage and sell product beyond the walls of your retail environment.
Can you still say you don’t have an advantage?
GNS is looking to grow our business with BOTH existing customers and new channels. Commercial is one opportunity and one we will continue to support. We are, and will continue to support our Newsagent channel in the ways, plus more, I have described above. GNS are committed to this channel and despite what you may think, this will continue. More than happy to discuss further.
Hi Shaun,
Please read the following extract from the GNS Information Booklet. It should help to answer your question re the Levy. Please also note that last sentence in particular…
What is the 2% levy all about?
The levy was originally introduced when we had to look after a thousand new customers overnight when Ancol, a NSW Wholesaler Cooperative, fell over.
We could have just increased prices and kept the profit but that would not have been in the best interests of our Newsagents.
The levy is a security deposit that also reduces our exposure to the banks and in turn, reduces overheads which helps us maintain lower prices for our members.
There is a ceiling of $5,000 for Shareholders or $6,500 for non-Shareholders.
Levy is fully refundable on request when you no longer have a use for GNS.
I took a trip to our local supplier of stationery in SA (Ancol) as I hadn’t been
there for some time and I ordered a whole
lot of stuff that I had never had before (they gave it to me on consignment and
I didn’t have to pay for 5 months).
It was a bold move by Ancol and I appreciated having the opportunity but on
the way home I stopped at Officeworks to see one of my sons who is the store manager there and he took me around
the store to show me some stock items and I was amazed (and appalled) at the
upward mobility of officeworks.
It was bright, cheerful, colourful and eminently saleable.
I then felt mean for such thoughts and still
went ahead with the consignment stock which worked quite well over the next few
months. The things that surprised me were the “having choice” articles. I usually only had one vehicle log book so I
put in another and the sales appeared to lift with “choice”. That is only one example but the above comments from other agents tell me that our suppliers are
not pursuing “other” products. We are
getting the same old same old.
Test pads, office books etc that are largely
outmoded today are still being flogged ad
nauseum.
We have to “encourage” our suppliers by
not purchasing their old style product and
letting them see the other sort of product
that we are getting so that they also might
be tempted to “change their modus operandi”. We don’t have much choice
here in SA and I do think that Ancol is trying hard but looking at Officeworks we
are millenia behind and we need to catch up.
We are hanging out for the Melbourne fair this weekend and are strong advocates for GNS and their service to newsagents. We do however tend to fly past most of the suppliers outside the actual GNS stall as there is rarely anything exciting about them. I think this is the crux of Marks post. These suppliers need to excite us with innovation that puts us at the pointy end of retail and very few do this. I would spend more time at the fair if they did so. The gift and toy wholesalers do this best and the more traditional suppliers need to take a leaf from their book. As for GNS, they are becoming more innovative each year but we need to support them, not discourage them as many posts here seem to be doing.
Thanks Alex for being so open and responding here. It’s a breath of fresh (and good) air.
Thankyou Alex for your reply .
Alex, my original point stands, newsagents paid the levy in order to build a strong GNS, then we let a competitor (office choice)use it to compete against us.
You say that this is FREE and This costs us nothing but it is all built into the price we pay for stock is it not, on top of that we have a minimum order cost, we pay a delivery fee as well as a levy that you yourself say was brought in at the start but has been left in place?
We have been in GNS from the very beginning and are not unappreciative of the work it does, but to give a rival a leg up when it is used to compete against me does not help.
Up until GNS made the deal with office choice we regular beat them for special order customers as we could beat them on delivery times as well as price , now we get delivered out of the same GNS warehouse at the same time.
Luke,
If you are a shareholder of GNS, you would be aware of the financial performance of GNS over the last few years. If you are not, I’d be more than happy to give you an insight.
Regardless, I think you and I need to have a discussion on your points here as I would like to benchmark all of what we offer to you (over and above product) against the pricing that is being offered by our competitors, and our suppliers to some extent, and see if you can then understand that you still maintain a competitive advantage.
In order to ensure this business remains viable we have had to seek and develop opportunities to grow. We were not getting that from our traditional channels therefore had to look elsewhere.
My intention is to provide more solutions to our traditional customers that will continue to deliver incremental growth opportunities to your business.
I also believe there are far worse threats out there to all of our businesses than what you are presenting.
Alex,
I have recently sold my business.
Based on your post #15, are you saying that I could request a refund of levies paid by me over the past 6 years?
Hi Jason,
That is correct.
If you provide us with the details we will investigate further and your levy amount would be refunded provided no other outstanding accounts etc would affect this.
Thanks Alex – will contact accounts dept directly.
Cheers.
I’ve been spending the day today at the GNS Melbourne Market Fair during setup for tomorrow and Sunday.
The depth and breadth of product – not just stationery lines, is excellent. We have industry representation and many new suppliers of non stationery lines.
If you were disappointed by past market fairs I would suggest you take the time and effort this weekend in Melbourne and come along. If you really want to add value and profit to your business you will not be disappointed. I look forward to meeting…..