Speaking at the group's annual suppliers' evening last month, Office Brands CEO Gavin Ward said Office Brands is pro-actively investing in new systems to drive the business process, identify better practices to provide growth opportunities, communicate with suppliers the significant changes in the market and establishing ways to address those changes.
"The Office Brands' model is evolving, acknowledging the growing market shift from paper to online," he said. "The group is changing its model and working with key suppliers to mutually enhance the online offer.
"The digital environment means that we need to generate value-add offers or unique offers that create a point-of-difference for the group," Ward said.
Ward also announced details of a new integrated 'Business Intelligence' program, which combines data from three separate sources. This data, from both internal and external sources, has already assisted the group to identify opportunities for the business and the success of category-specific opportunities.
Other plans in the evolution of the group include enhancing the way in which it communicates with its members and continuing to offer a selection of membership categories to suit the way that differing members seek to go to market.
Ward emphasised that Office Brands sought to be "pro-active not reactive".
Ward told the gathering of around 30 suppliers that the group possessed "plenty of growth opportunities" despite the tough market conditions.
"We can already see that many of our members are still growing in this market. Changes to education and diversified offers in specialist categories are all providing good category growth," he said. "We are watching these achievements, supporting members and sharing the knowledge of this methodology with the broader group.
"When our members work together and are supported by the group, we will only enhance our opportunities for success. We look to the continuing partnership with our key suppliers to make the most of these opportunities," he said
Attendees received an overview of Office Brands' position in the market, which cited the recent Penfold
Research report highlighting its position as the third-largest player in the office products dealer channel and number one in the 'Net Promoter Score' index, which measures customer goodwill.
