GNS has today announced details of a share offer designed to raise up to six million dollars in working capital. The funds will enable the business to repay debt, invest in operations and invest in expansion.
I was surprised to read in the prospectus that of GNS’ 5,000 customers, only 505 are shareholders.
The raising is a positive move for GNS and the newsagency channel more broadly. It is an opportunity for newsagents to invest in a key part of their own national infrastructure.
Given that they are not publically listed, how will we sell our shares?
Didn’t,t they do this not so long ago a year or 2 ago? I thought that was to bail them out and now they are going for another round . Are they in some financial trouble?
You can only sell your share once a year and they have to be approved at the AGM. I used my levy to buy about 6000 at $1 and they have increased quite a bit in value. I have not had a look at it this time but I assume they will let you convert your levy again but you will then have to build it up to $6000 again.
Where is this announcement?
No reason to ask that question Shaun.
Jenny – you’d need to get a copy from GNS.
I would have thought Shaun’s question was valid and it was only a question. Is staples, office works ect or the outdated sovereign lines hurting GNS. I like GNS as a supplier but it is not the only supplier we use.
Yeah I thought it was a fair question .before I invest in something I would want to know as much as possible .
The prospectus was emailed to me yesterday perhaps because I am already a shareholder.
valid and appropriate question Shauns
Maybe GNS can use the $6M to ensure that they have stock of core stationary products. This is something they seem to struggle with. And while they are at it, fix their online ordering system. It happens too often that they say they have real-time stock, then nothing turns up the next day….
i think the sovereign brand needs a major overhaul and the packaging made to look a lot sexier and trendy. im tending to carry more ‘branded” stock as it does not look so cheap.
its a worry that they have to go to the market for a cash top up, i would have thought the business was profitable enough to build up cash reserves.
have to admit i havent read the prospectus yet, and doubt i would take up any shares anyway. im using spare cash to pay down debt. things will continue to be rocky going forward in FNQ and i believe debt will be a major issue going forward as banks are pretty much looking to squeeze as much out of us as they can. business loan rates are arip off, id love the bank of japan to move in and give the local guys a rocket up the bum and bring some true competition to the market.
Talking of soverein brand(I didn’t change the topic) we hardly stoock any of it anymore , might have about 5 products at the most . Once we would carry calculators , pen refills etc but theyt would always come back so we no longer have them . . Pen refils i use the SCHMIidt brand and have never had a problem .
I’ve had my grumbles with GNS not using modern technology to communicate. Reps are outdated and no longer needed with modern technology they should be communicating regularly by email . For a while we were getting rep specials and updates but this had slowed to a trickle. I just order on line and have had to become very self sufficient. I think they still can’t handle how to communicate with Country Newagents but over all I am happy with them. I can pick up the phone and get good support at any time. I could have done with a lot more support when I started in the business and had to sink or swim – it was darn close to sink.
I can’t see why anyone would not use their levy to buy shares. I would have $6500 sitting in Gns as levy waiting for me to sell our eventually or I now have shares worth about $18000. I had to build my levy back up but its better investment than just leaving your levy sitting there. I do think they should have to pay us interest on our levy though.
Sorry for being a dill, but what are you saying? That we can somehow access this levy they charge us? How do I find out what we have built up and can it only be used for shares or is it accessible as cash?
Carol how many years did it take to tripple in value
You pathetic bunch of naysayers. GNS outlines its plans in the prospectus and make a gopod case for investment in the business, our business.
God help anyone who wants to help newsagents improve their businesses and you lot pull them down.
I have had my issues with GNS but the new management is much better and they are improving the busioness from what I see.
Vicki look at the prospectus. You can convert your levy to shares but not cash until you sell out. If you go on line to order there is a tab – I think it says my account and it has your levy amount there.
Shaun I don’t know how long it took to trebble my money but its a darn sight better than receiving only $6500 back after 12 years in business. You can’t go wrong.
David ., settle pettle we are just asking questions . To long in the office for you today .
GNS has got 2 really good things going for it. The ordering system is great. We order on line, print a picking slip and then go in and pick it ourselves. Often things that aren’t on our pickslip aren’t on the shelf but 99% of the time one of the staff can find it “out the back” for us. We spend about 1200 a week and the 220km round trip is definitely worth the effort. The other great thing is we only have to deal with one supplier. Supplier chain management is a huge drain on our time and we’d hate to have to source stationary from diverse suppliers.
On the down side we would like to have more sincere advice on our range and assortment. When dealing with reps there is always a sense that they’re just trying to jam us with whatver they can get away with. The other down side is the turnover EDIs. They tend not to separate the items in promo packages and this makes it tricky to upload individual stock items into our POS.
We’re happy to be a customer of GNS. We have shares in most of our other listed suppliers but would like to see the GNS prospectus.
kmc. I would think the cost of time out of your business and tavel expenses for a $1200 order it would be cheaper to have it delivered.
We find that picking up stock becomes viable for orders over $1k but I tend to place smaller orders more often to keep stock levels down a little. It’s also good to check out the warehouse to see stock items that are new or unusual that are worth stocking. Unfortunately I have not done this for some time.
Yes I would Only think that the majors eg BTS would be worth while picking up not that I do that even as delivery is just in my case a way better option. I do a lot of little top ups now. I use to use the fair to check out the wharehouse but if GNS dont change the way I recieve the fair invoicing I will not be there next year. And yes I support GNS 100% without then it will be us in trouble!
The delivery charge for my BTS is huge. I wish I could pick it up.
Carol we’ve done the sums. By the time we factor in discount for cash & carry plus the freight saving it’s well and truly worth it. There are other advantages as well. It has a positive effect on sales because customers appreciate that you will pick something up for them. You forget less because walking around the warehouse reminds you of other things you need. Plus on the same run we drop-off our magazine returns and this in itself is a $40-$50.00 saving.
We rent a self drive truck for big orders like Chistmas and BTS and it’s still worthwhile.
Does anyone know why GNS add an extra 10% onto the prices for delivery rather than charge 10% freight. I think we could claim the freight as a business expense for tax purpose. Now we can only recoup it by including it in our markup. My back to school has over $1000 delivery charge built into my purchase price.
I think that they would say they give a discount for pick up. As it stands Carol you not only recoup it by including in the stock cost but make a profit on it as well. Although you would claim freight on some stock a tax year earlier I don’t think we would be better off with a separate freight charge. Also you would then find that country outlets would probably have increased freight costs where as the current system gives us all the same wholesale price.
I’ve just read all of these comments and it still seems there are many of you out there who are quick to view your opinions but sadly most of these are based on a complete lack of understanding on what we (GNS) are doing now and in future to actually make your businesses more revenue and more profit!! What a bizarre concept! The more succesful you are the better off we are….simple really.
Rather than making broad based assumptions I think it would be a great idea to arrange some informal meetings in the New Year for those of you who would like to know about the share offer, levies and anything else about what we’re doing at GNS. You might even be surprised!
Please let us know and I’m happy to accommodate. Let’s start working together to make the industry stronger instead of assuming the worst.
Those who have been to any of my presentations hopefully would agree GNS is changing for the better and we have some really good ideas and plans to work WITH you.
The share offer will allow us to invest in these ideas and plans – to make us more viable and relevant to you.
If you disagree please do me the courtesy of picking up the phone and calling me. I’d love to dispel the many, many myths out there once and for all…..
David – thanks for your comments and support. It’s nice to see you get it!
Regards
Alex Stewart – GNS CEO
Sorry – just a quick note for Brett S’s post no 23.
I will NEVER allow Market Fair invoices to go out as they have in the past – as 1 line item. Complete waste of effort.
We are going to completely overhaul Market Fair’s this year and make them more enjoyable, more eventful with industry advice and information sessions on how to grow your business. Same Same no more…..stay tuned.
Hi Carol (#26),
Can you please get your GNS area manager to give me your details so we can discuss your comment in detail. You need to get clarity on this issue.
thanks
Alex has GNS thought about doing say a monthly letter letting us know what GNS plans are so the wrong assumptions are not there .
Alex thanks for being part of this conversation. Your contribution alone demonstrates that GNS today is different to GNS of a year or more ago. You show that you are listening to and engaging with your customers and that’s to be applauded.
Alex one more question then it’s off to bed , why is it we had to find out about the share offer on a blog ? This is something that should have been sent via email ,letter or at least our sales rep
Thanks Mark. Appreciate your feedback.
Shaun, we have a comprehensive timetable and methodology for communicating this offer. Let me clarify this and I’ll advise further. My ultimate intent was to minimise unecessary wastage and costs associated with traditional mail to customers or recipients who would simply throw it in the bin.
We also do a bi-monthly newsletter – via email and posted on the web that does communicate as much as possible. Please let me know if you don’t get this. My email is astewart@groupnews.com.au
What Alex needs to understand or get his head around is that a lot of newsagents cannot simply get up and go to meetings or fairs and area managers are not always the best people to ask what is going on.
People share their views on this blog because for most it is the only place they can talk with other newsagents and talk about what they are going through based on their experience with GNS.
To open his comment #28 in a condecending way does not do his position any favours in my opinion, if I am not mistaken we are the customers and if the customers are not happy or do not understand then it is the fault of the supplier for not explaining themselves well enough not the customers/shareholders.
GNS does not communicate well with its shareholder/customers in the new media and does not seem to understand many small business owners cannot get to meetings or trade fairs as they are struggling to make profits ( yes its simple really and even a bizare concept).
If we are to overhaul GNS then great as we are all in to make money, why else do we do this?
If you are to hold meetings then make these available online for people who cannot get to them and if you hold presentaions send an email about what the main points are so if your customers are interested they can look into it further.
Yes we are all in this together and as well as being customers most newsagents are also shareholders.
This is not to get Alex offside or get his back up but to explain where most of this frustration is coming from, if you want this behind closed doors then maybe as part of the GNS website could have a memebers blog?
Luke, 10 % of newsagents are shareholders, how do you turn this into “most”?
When I read that only 10% are share holders my first thought was how poor that figure is. Share have been made available to newsagents a number of times over the past ten years and I would have expected more newsagents to have converted at least some of their levy to shares and the proposition is no less attractive this offer.
As for communication, we constantly receive emails and new information is regularly made available on their website once we log in and there is nothing stopping any of us from picking up the phone when we feel the need to ask something.
sorry but gns do a poor job at communication. im in FNQ so maybe get to brisbane once a year. i have been hammering my rep for years about getting gns to email a regular newsletter out to update us on new products etc, the already email them to the reps so no extra work involved. they have the email data base already (thats how i get my inv/statements) i just cannot fathom why they dont send out a email to its customers showing new products in nice colour pics. before anyone jumps on me about reading the “new products’ on the web page, i find this contains some new stuff but also older stuff i think they are trying to clear out.
im a big user of gns, i just think they could use some of the new fangled gadgets like email a lot better
Rick, Log onto GNS and on the home page (I’m looking at it right now) there is a section
“News: What’s happening @ GNS December 2012” which does just what your querying.
Luke, In reference to Alex’s comment 28 have you rung Alex or emailed him with your concerns as he has invited us to do? GNS has visibly changed but Rome was not built in a day.
I am with you on this one Richard – I have been a critic of GNS in the past but they have improved a hell of a lot in the last few years.
Sure they still have issues with understanding the difference between inner and outer barcodes but generally I find them very easy to deal with and the quality of their customer service puts them right at the top of the list of any of my suppliers.
As it was explained to me, the difference between pick up and delivered pricing is made up of not only freight but also picking costs – with those two costs considered I don’t think the percentage difference is too bad and I find that achieving the margin we want on stationery stills puts us a long way in front of Officework$, $tationers et al at retail.
Hi All,
The comments made in this blog re communication are very valid. I think GNS, including myself have been poor at times, in the past, in successfully communicating with our customers. The sheer volume of communication to all of us every day makes it very difficult to determine what is worth spending time on, so we need to not only develop the most efficient way, but also ensure any communication to you is compelling enough & respectful of your time.
GNS on-line is one of the best mediums to use in this regard & we have made good inroads recently to improve our content & information to you, through our website. I encourage you all to login and see for yourself.
One of our biggest shortfalls in communication over the years was due to a fragmented approach for communication, as everything was state controlled. We recently created a National Communications role, where we now coordinate all National communication via one person. This means communication such as Share offer, Important news, promotion, product launches & general offers & online customer feedback surveys, will now be the same for all GNS customers Nationally.
I hope you are all seeing a change in our level & quality of communication in this regard and we hope you see this as a big step forward re GNS working better for your business.
Please never stop giving us your feedback .
Have a great Christmas
Where will we find the customer feedback survey? The website has a few issues for me when I am searching for stock?
Did not know you can scan a stock item into the search field and it will take you straight to the items. I only found this out a while ago lol but it is up there with sliced bread
Hi Luke #35,
My intent was not to be condescending. Too often comments are made in this forum which are individuals opinions – and everyone is entitled to one – that are made with little or no understanding of the issue or what is being done to resolve.
I have repeatedly and consistently offered to discuss personally, any issues or opinions voiced on this blog to try and reach a point of clarity for the individual offering their opinion, yet so far no-one has taken this offer up. That’s OK and despite that we will keep trying. As my colleague Jason posted any feedback is good feedback – and we will continue to open up any and all channels of communication to our customers address this legacy of the past.
In the absence of a physical meeting e can perhaps leverage available technology to facilitate this via the web. Stay tuned and we will also arrange this for those who are interested.
Best wishes,
Alex
Jason,
I know GNS is putting much more information up of their website than in the past, however websites are a huge barrier to regular consistent communication. Trying to communicate regularly via a website doesn’t work for any suppler (and there has been a lot who have tried … some are still trying). If newsagents had to log into a different website for every supplier to get updates they’d have to sit aside a whole day every week to undertake the task.
Email is checked much more frequently (for many it will be multiple times a day … if not a push feed to their desktop, tablet or phone) and will reach more retailers in a timely manner.
A weekly or bi-weekly email digest is probably sufficient. Send it out the day before GNS’s busiest day(s), that way the largest number of retailers have the most recent information just prior to placing their order. Make the email clear and concise. Use separate attachments (searchable PDF files only) to elaborate on the details of products, events. This way it’s easy for the reader to filter through the info without getting lost or overwhelmed with one giant block of content.
I agree Jarryd the website is only part of the communication tool as it only works if customers are logged in. The GNS front page is however our virtual shop window and is quite effective for quick reference when you are logged in.
We actually do back up most web communication via email with web links, and we are able to track data such as who opens the email and what is viewed. (Click rates) We are starting to feed this data back through our sales & customer service people to follow up if required.
We need everyone’s help though, as our email open rates at this stage are sill low as a percentage. I guess talking about this in forums such as this blog will help to get the message out for our customers to look for our regular email communications. I also agree weekly to bi-weekly email correspondence is enough, and we are being very careful we control the urge to bombard you all. Please look out for your next GNS email and let me know how we can improve the content further.
If any of you are not receiving GNS emails please let me know and I will check our data base to ensure we have your correct details.
Jason,
I’m not sure how you track who opens an email, but the two most common ways I’m aware of are both relatively ineffective and will never give anywhere close to accurate data.
The first is requesting a read receipt. Some people will have this automatically disabled so their client will never send the read receipt. Many others will simply click no when prompted if they would like to send a receipt.
The other, which I assume you are using, is via a tracking image. This won’t give you accurate data on who reads your emails for a number of reasons. It is probably the default on most email clients to block the tracking image, meaning people are still reading your emails but you won’t get any tracking data to indicate this. I believe some anti-virus software also blocks these. In some cases your emails may actually be going into the recipients spam folder because it recognises you are trying to track it and get a bit security paranoid.
I guarantee you that the email read rates are MUCH higher than the data indicates.
Talking about tracking lets get the conversation back on to it. Actually where can we go to get more info about the capital raising. What are they going to do with it. Whats the concept, why do they need that amount. How is the business going to change. What is it going to do to the balance sheet. How will it improve cashflow. Who have the asked about changes. How do they know what we need (we’ve never been asked) . So many questions, so much money, so little time.
Ricky – call GNS and ask them to email it to you. I could but it’s not my place to.
Jason – on communication. Here’s what we do at Tower: weekly email, print newsletter, company blog (towerblog.towersystems.com.au), RSS feed into the software, around 60 face to face group meetings around the country, more than 1,500 outbound follow up calls a year, four free live online training workshops a year, more than 40 fresh videos sharing training and management ideas, the offer of a free one (often two) hour consultation a year and the GNS trade shows.
Some channels work for some and others work for others. In today’s world, one or two routes to market do not cut it – especially to small businesses.
Ricky give Alex or myself a call as we would be more than willing to discuss any question you have.
Jarryd I do understand that issue with the data tracking so that’s why we pass it to our sales people to follow up, which gives them the opportunity to either correct a email address or discuss the content of the email further. The current tracking give us a start at the very least.
Mark the communication Tower Systems do to members is always of the highest level, good content & great range of mediums to reach. I think GNS could learn a lot of lessons form you and the team. Who can I meet with in the new year from Tower to explore this further?
jason i rarely get an email from gns (except inv and statements) i get the odd one from officesmart but apart from the odd one about closing times, stock takes etc nothing from GNS. I HAVE spoken to my rep about this issue numerous times and have been assured it is raised at meetings and the feedback is that its going to happen. It never does.
My main issue here is that i know the reps get sent email with info about new products as an attachment, why cant i get that same attachment sent to me? he shows me a printed copy anyway, so its not top secret. Then of course there is usually nil stock by the time i get to see the rep. The work has already been done, the attachment is sitting there, you have the email data base, put the 2 together and presto you have an email.
Jason shoot me an email after Christmas.
Rick please call me Monday morning so I can see why this has not been resolved. Best to call my direct number 03 9565 5001
Thanks
Jason
Rick is in the same area as me and I too would like to get rep specials emailed seeing I never see a rep. I am not a member of any group with in GNS and I also find this annoying that their are differant rules for differant people all buying form the one group and I am one of those 400 share holders whose money support the company.
carol
have a chat to jason mcleod, contact details #53 above, you will find him very accomodating and willing to help.
have already seen an improvement in email correspondence this week
Just had my GNS rep in and he mentioned that GNS will not be targeting LPO’s to supply stationary and other items to? Wilst it is a move to increase GNS sales and many Newsagents have an LPO within their bussiness, i do not, but right next door is an LPO.
We already have enough problems with the LPO stocking some stationary supplies we have carried for years let alone giftware where the owner tries to copy our range.
If GNS where approach the LPO next door I would be rather upset and question their business ethic?
Does anyone no more on this?
Gregg we have both . We would NEVER buy stationary from Austpost. Their attitude to LPO margins is abysmal. They’re only interested in getting us to sell stuff for them to make money out of.
If you have an LPO next door you can do better prices as FOR him than Austpost and still make money for yourself. (at GNS process) Why not see him as an opportunity rather than a threat.