A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Bill Express fall out continues

I have been told that a company called Loyalty Direct Pty Ltd terminated the services of 35 employees on Friday of last week without redundancy or accrued benefits paid. I have also been told that another group of Loyalty Direct employees were terminated and immediately offered contracts with a business called Payroll Express which provides the same services as Loyalty Direct.

Loyalty Direct is registered at the Eaglemont address of Bill Express’ Head Office. An ASIC search shows that Loyalty Direct is under “external administration and/or controller appointed. My understanding is that Loyalty Direct is a private company delivering some services to On Q and or Bill Express. I am not able to verify the location and ownership of Payroll Express.

I note the irony of the Loyalty Direct name.

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Bill Express

Party goods

partygoods.JPGWe decided to have another crack at party goods brought in the range from Alpen just over a month ago. We’ve placed this display behind our main newspaper stand, next to our card department. Sales are good, generating a good return on the space and sock investment.

The only downside about the move is Alpen themselves. They have refused a direct account saying they want newsagents to go through a wholesaler. This is after we agreed to their minimum order value and we explained that we wanted more of their range than we could easily get through a wholesaler. Their refusal to grant a direct relationship hs us looking elsewhere for party goods.

Retail is tough. We need to cut costs out of the supply chain. This is why direct relationships are important to newsagents – they provide us the best opportunity of reward for effort.

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Stationery

Pricing the business

We have decided to put a price on the Forest Hill business.  After a few months of it being listed we have found that people are reluctant to look at the numbers and make an offer.  They prefer a price as a starting point.  This says something about how newsagencies are purchased.  It also says something about tradition I guess.

I am considering the acquisition of a software company (not in the newsagency space) and in my research I found that many software companies for sale were not listed with a sale price.  Prospective purchasers are expected to review the numbers and make an offer.  This is the approach I expetced to follow for the newsagency, to let the market find its level

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Newsagency challenges

Comments down

I apologise that posting comments is a challenge at the moment.  This is a consequence of the malicious attack on our server this week.  They should be back up Monday by the latest.

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About us

Zoo Weekly tops 500,000 readers

zoo_papers.JPGZoo Weekly has posted stellar readership figures – 500,000. ACP says it’s Australia’s most widely read men’s magazine.

We have found Zoo Weekly works well from the stand next to our main newspaper display, as shown in the photo. While also we have it around with our mens and sports magazines, the newspaper location works best.

With the title posting an 8.5% year on year circulation rise, we (newsagents) need to take more care with Zoo. Leveraging off its above average growth ought to make further growth easy for us.

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magazines

Big boys toys magazine promotion

The team at or Frankston store have gone wild in creating their BIG BOYS TOYS magazine display. Surrounding the stand with Street Machine, Motor, Wheels and other magazines, they have stuck on models of toys – cars, motor bikes, boats … all manner of big boys toys.

boys_toys.JPG

Our approach to this type of display is evolving – we’re chasing as much fun in creating the display as we are aiming for from the customer reaction.

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magazines

Landlords price themselves out

I am aware of four new or extended (major) shopping centres which do not have a newsagency. I am sure there are more than these four. In each case, the landlord has offered the space to a cast of prospective newsagent tenants and each has said no. In two cases, the newsagent prospects went back and said no to a traditional newsagency but yes to a hybrid model which pursued a higher than the usual newsagency GP.

Landlords need to be flexible with the definition of a newsagency otherwise they will find their centres left without any reasonable representation of a newsagency. The days of the traditional newspapers, magazines, cards, stationery and lottery offer are fading. Like all good retail, our model is changing. Now if only landlords would allow that to happen.

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Newsagency challenges

New stationery supplier link for newsagents

Wilson Stationery and Tower Systems are proud to announce the a significant development for newsagents in the stationery category in decades.

Thanks to the new embedded link between the Wilson Stationery IT platform and Tower Systems’ software, Tower Newsagents will soon have access to a stationery supply model which saves time and cuts business costs.

The new Wilson / Tower software interface facilitates more efficient placing of orders, receiving invoices, filling back orders and managing stationery overall.

James Golden, Managing Director Wilson Stationery said “Cutting the cost of managing stationery inventory is crucial in today’s competitive marketplace.  This new link provides our retail customers genuine time saving and ensures greater data integrity.”

Mark Fletcher, Managing Director of Tower Systems said “As a newsagent myself I know that stationery is a tough category.  What we are announcing today is more than a new IT link, it is a new way to manage stationery in a newsagency.  Newsagents can expect to sell more stationery and make more from it.”

The Wilson Stationery/Tower initiative has passed comprehensive acceptance testing and is now being rolled out to selected newsagencies for live use.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:  Mark Fletcher (Tower Systems) 0418 321 338; James Golden (Wilson Stationery) 0408 55 3333.

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newsagent software

New sales benchmark study released

Click here for a copy of the latest benchmark study I’ve done looking at sales data for newspapers, magazines, stationery and cards in 89 newsagencies in the eight months to January 2008 compared to the same eight months a year earlier. The results of the benchmark study shows:

  • Newspaper sales fall 4.8% in the city and 3.51% in the country.
  • Magazine sales fall 7.5% in the city and rise 1.2% in the country.
  • Card sales increase 3.9% in the city and 4.8% in the country.
  • Stationery down 6.3% in the city, strong in the country – up 5.2%.

The benchmark study, the third and most comprehensive conducted by Tower Systems, is a possible indicator of consumers migrating from traditional paper based news and information sources to online. There were indications of this in previous studies but the one month period was not enough. This study, covering an eight month period shows an established fall in sales.

The purpose of the benchmark study is to inform newsagents about trends across their channel so that they may make more informed business decisions about future product mix, floor space allocation and the viability of some supplier relationships.

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Newsagency challenges

Competing with ourselves

I’ve been reading the latest Tattersalls rankings with interest.  While it is good to compare your sales with others around you, it’s better to compare against your previous rankings.  I think of most business people as competitive and these regular sales rankings, benchmarks really, fuel that competitive streak.

Now if only there was a stretch component to this, bonus revenue for above average performance.  This would make the additional promotions, displays and other over and above activity which gets lottery outlets performing above average.  Sure there is additional commission made from additional sales but this does not make us see the additional sales as something to work significantly harder for.

We are a sales channel.  rewarding us as a sales channel would see more newsagents going the extra mile and competition heat up on the regular rankings reports.

The more newsagents are treated as business people and only as bsiness people the more we will act the part.

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Lotteries

The theatre of car magazines

car_disp.jpgThe photo shows the latest magazine category promotion at Forest Hill. 

This display is brilliant retail theatre.  The red and blue lights on top of the display of car magazines flash.  In the detail around the side are iconic images which connect with cars and those who love them. You notice it from the moment you enter the shop.

Jason and the team conceived and executed this display in-house.  There is some competition emerging between Forest Hill and Frankston on these in-house displays.

The only downside is the battery use of the lights – they’re not the most efficient in the world but at $2.95 a light what can you expect?

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magazines

The single title magazine display

hello_display.JPGI saw plenty of these metal display stands in London.  They are provided by publishers for their title.  Less than half the time they had the right title in the right display.  Outside of this compliance issue, I do question the efficiency of breaking one title out of the pack long term as one has to for these stands.    While this serves the publisher, I question whether it serves the retailer.  The stands I saw weren’t that retail friendly.  None of the frills we see in Australia in single title magazine displays.

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magazines

Jewish Living in Frankston

jewish_living.JPGWe have started carrying Jewish Living magazine in our Frankston newsagency. This may seem an odd choice for the Frankston demographic. We took the view that if represent ourselves as magazine specialists then titles like this are important to us. So, we now carry Jewish Living. We will watch with interest to see if it works over the next few issues.  The only challenge is – where to locate the title.

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magazines

Newsagency vacancy in Frankston

We’re looking for someone to join our Frankston team to help manage the magazine arrival work Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The total hours each week will be around twenty.  I you know someone who is reliable and looking for a long term (i.e. more than two months!) role please have them email simonf@towersystems.com.au.

It is frustrating when you find someone good and they move on just when they get the hang of the intricacies of magazines.  While you cannot make someone stay if they have a better offer elsewhere, the labour laws are quite one sided in this regard. 

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About us

Paper vs. plastic for a magazine bag

marie_claire_plastic.JPGMarie Claire (UK) is getting in of the environmental act with this issue I saw at Heathrow airport.  The headline, This is not a plastic bag stood out, especially when near magazines which were in plastic bags.  It takes more to product an environmentally friendly magazine than using a paper bag to hold a magazine and promotional product than just a paper bag.  There’s the paper, ink and size to consider.  Twelve of the thirties copies on the shelf had rips in their paper bag.  It made the product look damaged.

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magazines

Displaying travel edition titles

glamour.JPGWith more magazines coming in travel edition size retailers and publishers need to work on better merchandising options. As the photo shows, even in the UK they are challenged by placing small format travel edition magazines into traditional fixturing. In store, most travel editions are displayed with the full size copies.

I’d prefer to try a travel edition display which supports the smaller size and is placed where the consumer interested in the offer is more likely to look.

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magazines

Ryman the stationers

ryman_uk.JPGIf you’re ever in the UK, be sure to check out a Ryman the stationers store.  This stationery chain has an excellent local small-store format.  As I have blogged here before, the stores feel local, independent right down to the handmade (using a rubber stamp) business cards they have at the counter (very clever).  It is only when you visit several in a day that you can see the corporate foundation of the business.

I understand the difference in retail in the UK to Australia, especially in comparing London to Melbourne or Sydney.  Back home we have space and tend to drive more to shop hence the proliferation of larger format stores in the stationery space – Officeworks, Ofis. 

The Ryman offer is fascinating, partly because of the stock they fit into a small space.  On first glance the stores feel cramped and therefore difficult to shop.  Soon, you feel so surrounded that there must be something here to buy.  I like the cramped feel.  It oozes range.  I’ve certainly some away from today with some ideas. 

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retail

A new way to display ink in-store

kinkos_sell.JPGThe photo shows how they sell ink at FedEx Kinkos in London. You choose the ink you want, take the tag to the counter and they get the product from the stock room.

The staff member I spoke with said they did this because of theft and to cut the time it takes to manage the ink stock. It makes sense, no one is going to steal a worthless tag. On the labour cost, keeping the stock in the back room reduces display time and space.

I am not sure I would go with this in a newsagency. There is something to be said for customers being able to see, touch and feel the products for themselves. Sure, theft will be higher but there are ways to manage for that.

Having the product on display in-store makes for a more impressive display than the tags you can see in the Kinkos display.

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Stationery

Music with your newspaper

moby_cd.JPGThere is irony in musicians using newspapers to distribute free copies of their work. Both channels (print and packaged music) are in transition as they face considerable disruption from new models. The Sunday Times today in London comes with a CD with 13 music tracks and bonus video. For Moby it’s a way of promoting his new CD, last night, and for the newspaper it continues their addiction on Sundays to giveaways.

Unlike in Australia, the CD is in the newspaper. It’s inside a sealed plastic bag packed with a magazines and brochures. There there is a second plastic bag with other parts of the newspaper. In all, The Sunday Times is made up of seventeen inserted items. This must be an awful problem for newsagents and other retailers as well as those delivering these over-sized products.

The Sunday Times is not the only oversized Sunday newspaper here in London. Most are as bloated. It is as if they are fighting relevance by being fat, thinking that size equates to value. Even before I saw a Sunday paper today I had more up to date news on my phone and from surfing a couple of news websites. The stories in print were out of date.

While a Moby CD is nice, I doubt it is enough to get enough people to buy a newspaper. The long term solution to that can be found in core content alone.

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Media disruption
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