INDUSTRY
DEALER INTERVIEW
VOW Wholesale:
Meeting challenges head on Dealer Support caught up with ADRIAN BUTLER MD at VOW Wholesale to see how the last few tumultuous months have been for them, and what the future might entail for the OP industry Then lockdown happened and we saw an overall volume drop of 42% pretty much overnight. We had to react quickly, as all businesses did. What followed was a review of all areas in the business and a scaling back to business-critical It would be great to start by getting a quick overview of
activities, including use of the government furlough scheme
how the last six months have been for VOW Wholesale?
where appropriate.
How we looked at the beginning of the year was completely
Sales are now starting to recover and we saw a 30%
shaped by what we did in the latter part of 2019. Our focus
increase YOY in June. It is worth stating that even pre-
was on sales growth and we put ourselves in the best position
COVID, 50% of what VOW sold was in non-traditional
to achieve this through offering over and above growth
categories. Traditional OP is still very important for us, but we
incentive schemes for dealers. In addition, we saw a number
have not been a ‘stationery’ wholesaler for some time. The
of dealers winning large end-user contract business, utilising
current environment is only accelerating the mix change.
our WRAPIDE direct delivery service. This really resonated with our overall strategy of being the ‘warehouse and
What do you think the lasting impact of COVID will be on
wheels’ for dealers, enabling them to take costs out of their
business supplies?
businesses through relying on VOW for stockholding and
I believe the way people work and the products that they
despatch to their own customers. Through Q1 2020, VOW was
need has changed, so moving forward the product range
in a position of growth and things were looking positive.
our customers can offer is going to be key. Resellers need to
[10] SUMMER 2020
www.dealersupport.co.uk
