GNS News
June 2013 New South Wales 10 Fairford Rd. Padstow Ph: 02 8708 3400 SALES FAX 02 9793 3611
Queensland 62 Pineapple St. Zillmere Ph: 07 3838 6400 SALES FAX 07 3263 8477
Victoria 80 – 84 Peters Ave. Mulgrave Ph: 03 9565 5000 SALES FAX 03 9574 9154 Victoria
Western Australia 192 Daly St. Belmont Ph: 08 6272 7900 SALES FAX 08 9277 7988
Inside this issue: GNS Re-Invention
1-3
GNS Levies
4
Creative Publishing 4 Are you Growing your Business
5
Merchandising
6-7
Officesmart
8
GNS Industry Expo 9 Current promotions 10 - 11
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” John F. Kennedy At GNS we are continuing on our path of Re-Invention. It’s a slow process but I am seeing some positive signs of improvement. We cannot continue to expect growth unless we do things differently - whatever that looks like. One of our biggest challenges is in the understanding of our areas for improvement and making sure that each and every person in the business that can influence change (which is everyone) has a level of awareness and accountability. It’s one thing to accept responsibility for a situation but it’s what you choose to do about it that counts. I have been talking with a lot of customers who (with thanks) give me honest and open feedback – both good and bad. As they say – any feedback is good feedback. The one positive from this feedback is that anything that has been positioned as a negative should not be that hard to address! The difficulty comes from all of the individuals who have the joint responsibility to effect the changes needed to achieve this outcome. Some of them lack the awareness of the problem because the “This is how we’ve always done it” legacy attitude kicks in. We must change this attitude and proceed with a sense of urgency. The market is tough, and our customers are looking for more and more ways to stay viable. We are committed to removing all of the past legacies that are holding us back. Part of that requires us to
change processes and policies that as such, may not be liked by our customers. An example of this is how we have reduced the number of days from when an account is due to when orders are placed on hold. Our trading terms have always been 30 days from month end. In the past it was a standard practice not to place orders on credit hold until Day 45, or in other words 15 days after payment is due. Despite our 30 day trading terms, we were receiving payments in excess of 45 days in many cases and this for all intents and purposes became the perceived “standard” GNS trading terms. If we were paying suppliers in this fashion we would not be able to trade as we simply would not have stock available to sell. To that extent we had to reduce the days before orders were held to better manage cash flow.
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GNS News
GNS Re-invention We do understand that this places additional burden for our customers however we couldn’t sustain what was happening. I am increasingly seeing customers closing the doors where we are exposed and in most cases this ends up as bad debt. Recently we had a customer close the doors who had over $50,000 in outstanding amounts. It is unlikely we will recover this and it takes a lot of sales to make up this loss. We have to manage our cash flow adequately to ensure we can deliver products and growth opportunities at every level.
We have also introduced a great range of business machines from Peach who are global players in this space. These include laminating and binding machines as well as personal deskside shredders and all associated consumables. They have very contemporary designs and will complement any home or office dĂŠcor.
On a brighter note, we are very excited about our Mid-Year Promotional campaign. We have introduced several new products based on feedback and they represent a great opportunity to increase sales. These include a complete range of chairs – yes chairs, that includes everything from base stacking chairs used for canteens and meeting rooms right through to Executive leather chairs for the discerning executives.
2 Laminating Machines in the range also Laminating Pouches
2 Binding Machines in the range
3 Shredders in the range
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GNS News
GNS Re-invention
“Gold Dust”
“Green Lips”
Speaking of bright, check out the chic and sleek new tape dispensers. We have introduced 3 designs in the “Lace”, “Bling” and “Glamour” High Heel Dispenser range. These will become highly sought after accessories for your desk. Our 2014 Diary campaign is now in the market and we have introduced some really inspiring new designs which we have carefully selected to introduce new concepts in this category. Our 4 “Themes” with 3 unique designs per theme brings a whole new dimension to this category and when you see them in the flesh you will have no doubts as to their value. Here are some examples across the 4 themes: These are available in limited quantities and are sold in 3 Packs with one of each design per theme in each pack. Make sure you get in fast as they will certainly not last long! We are also looking to leverage technology and social media more and more. This doesn’t mean we just have a Facebook page but we are looking at EVERY available technology medium to get our message across. After a considerable investment in TV for this year’s BTS program, I am looking to other mediums which I believe will have more impact, reach and acceptance than this alone. TV is a great channel to market but when we are faced with competitors with massive TV advertising budgets it turns out to be a proverbial “David and Goliath” situation. I have seen some really great ways of communicating our messages more effectively and to a broader market that use these mediums as part of their daily lives. Stay tuned…. Please feel free to give your feedback to us in any way you feel appropriate. Whilst we have a lot to do we can only change as much as we can control and as much as our key stakeholders can accept. I sincerely hope you are seeing some positive signs of change and I look forward to many more to come.
“Coco”
With Regards Alex Stewart
GNS Share Offer This is your last chance to purchase shares within GNS. Offer closes 30th June. Go to GNS Online for more information.
If you have levies, you can convert them into GNS shares. See next page for details.
“Cloey’s Catch”
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GNS News
Use your Levy to Purchase Shares What are Levies The levy is a security deposit and is charged at 2% on all purchases with GNS. The levies will continue to accumulate to a maximum of $6500 for non shareholders and $5000 for shareholders. Being a deposit, it is fully refundable on request when you no longer wish to be a customer of GNS.
How to use Levies to buy shares
Levies are fully refundable on request when you no longer wish to be a part of GNS.
Levies can be converted dollar for dollar to purchase shares. For example, the shares are currently valued at $2.71 and if you wish to purchase 1000 shares, your total cost would be $2,710. This can be paid with $2,710 of your levies or $2000 of your levies and balance of $710 by cash or cheque. All shares are purchased in lots of 1000.
Benefits of being a GNS Shareholder The benefits of being a GNS shareholder include:
To participate in the growth of GNS To ensure you have a wholesaler of stationery and associated products To enable GNS to continue sourcing quality valued products The ability to influence the decision of the company that may potentially affect the value of your shares The right to vote on the appointment of board members
For more information or queries please contact our Financial Controller Leigh Galloway on (02) 8708 3400 or email lgalloway@groupnews.com.au
Creative Publishing Spinner Deal
The GNS and Creative Publishing partnership is offering a complete children’s card, wrap and gift bag solution providing a “One Stop Shop” for your customers seeking licensed Disney products. These high turnover products feature Disney’s 20 hottest licences available across all featured products and include famous characters such as Barbie, Simpsons, Thomas the Tank, Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story and Spiderman to name a few. The integrated spinner ranges product with a RRP of $1 to $3 which offers the customer a complete result when needing any of these products whether for their children’s friends or those that are likely to stockpile. This simple and compact spinner will return a profit of $1146 on investment with a mark up of 102% and therefore presenting a high profit per square metre opportunity with very limited staff involvement. Replenishment stock will be available from the GNS warehouse. All the information is available on-line or by contacting your Area Manager or our friendly customer service team.
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GNS News
Are you Growing your Business Every one of us is in this business to prosper We all wish to grow and to do better than before every time we try something new, or participate in the many promotions on offer throughout the year. When asked if you’d like to grow further, the answer would be a resounding “YES!” So here’s the next question – what are you doing to ensure growth? With regard to Stationery and Gifting, there are several ways to ensure you are on your way to maximising your store’s potential.
Category Focus - Management What space do you require to ensure your Stationery and Gifting offer will satisfy the needs of your customers? Analyse what products you stock and how they are presented to your customers? i.e. the right products, in the right place, at the right time.
If you want to grow further, look at your store from your customer’s viewpoint and consider the opportunities
Promotional Activity How can you maximise the potential of the numerous promotional opportunities offered by GNS throughout the year? The major promotions are: Back to School Financial Year Diaries Mid-Year Office Supplies Calendar Year Diaries GNS Industry Expo Christmas Ensure your promotional displays are presented in an appealing way to your customers – well stocked, clearly ticketed, and visible from the front of your store. Promotional displays create interest, which lead to sales.
Supplying the needs of your local Schools and Businesses Don’t wait for the customers to come into your store, go out and get them! If you supplied a school at Back to School time, do they buy their day-to-day needs from you? If not, why not? Have you met with the decision makers of your surrounding businesses and quoted on supplying them with their Office requirements? Have you participated and networked at your local Chamber of Commerce (or similar) meetings?
What is everybody else doing?
GNS can assist with information and ideas, so the tool kit to make it work is available to you.
Have you gone for regular “inspections” of what’s happening in similar businesses either close to, or far away from your store, to see what other people are doing in their business? You can gain a fresh perspective and new ideas which you may be able to duplicate. If you’re happy with the way things are going, then that’s great. But, if you want to grow further, look at your store from your customer’s viewpoint and consider the opportunities, based on some of the points above. The Team at GNS can assist with information and ideas, so the tool kit to make it work is available to you. Good Selling!
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GNS News
Merchandising For Newsagencies going into 2014 & beyond For the owners of News Post Illawong NSW the most important issue for them was that they gave their customers the ability to see everything as they walk into the store, especially the stationery department. It needed a good design that is flexible for future change and also have a “wow� factor. The old days of just having a huge magazine isle that takes up 70% of floor space are gone.
Before
After
The return on 70% of floor space just for Newspapers and Magazines sales plus the labour involved in keeping it going for 4 days a week is not good enough anymore. Our new generation of customers are no longer interested.
Before
After
The new design allows us to introduce gifts in aisles opposite the birthday cards, with party ware gifts, wraps and bows allowing for impulse add on sales.
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GNS News
Merchandising Magazines and Newspapers together and a new stationery section with a waterfall slat wall off the counter categorised into Office, School, Art and Craft giving it a clean look and allow customers to find products easily.
After
After
Newsagent letter of testimony To whom it may concern, In 2006, Illawong Newsagency officially became Novak's News Post. We had never owned a Newsagency before so a convenient and functional floor plan was limited to a standard, non versatile design. We were stocking a minimal amount of stationery and an overwhelming amount of magazines. Being a small shopping village with no gift shops we saw an opportunity and followed our instincts. We purchased IKEA shelving which proved to be extremely efficient for gifts at the expense of our stationery, our customers however could not see beyond the tall IKEA shelving and therefore did not enter further into our shop. In August we attended the GNS Market Fair and met Bernie North, he asked us what we were hoping to achieve in our store. Judging by the amount of people that knew Bernie, we knew we were in the right place. Bernie came to our shop and spoke to us about his first impressions he noticed the shop was closed in, very boxy, neat but no flow etc. He drafted a few ideas and gave his constructive criticism which we agreed with and took on board. We agreed that construction would take place and in preparation we dismantled all the IKEA shelving and two magazine rows, our shop renovations began to officially take place. Bernie came in with one other staff member to make our gondolas. He was very efficient and very well organized. From Monday through to late Friday afternoon Bernie worked tirelessly and was very professional, he showed great skill in organisation and knew exactly what he wanted to achieve. He was polite and very friendly which always helps when working long and exhausting hours. He never lost momentum and kept a positive spin on future plans in our shop. Bernie offered us merchandising advice as well as ideas to further increase our sales. It has now been a while since we renovated and we can see an increase in sales. Our gift lines & stationery shelves are refilled daily and stock control is much easier to maintain. We have had an overwhelming response to our dramatic shop refit with regards to the space, organising, stock quantity and variety. We are extremely proud of the outcome and recommend Bernie North to anyone who seeks a change for the better. If we were to purchase another business in the future, Bernie would be our first port of call for his professional manner and expertise. One 'Bernie phrase' that stuck in our mind was that our shop is a showroom, not a store room! We sincerely thank Bernie for all his efforts‌ Regards Damien and Anna Novak
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GNS News
TAX TIME is fast approaching… This is a time that Officesmart agents can take advantage of; businesses and individuals will need ‘tax time’ products. Here are some ideas of products that you can offer for a ‘Tax Time Sale’ or ‘Tax Time Savings’:
Financial Year Diaries Wall Planners Cash Books Delivery & Docket Books Appointment Books Employee Cards Time & Wage Record Books Vehicle Log Books Suspension Files, Expanding Files, Index tabs Multifunction Printer / Scanner (receipts fade so scanning is a great option) Inkjet Cartridges Copy Paper Calculators just to name a few… You can send emails to your customers with your ‘Tax Time Sale’ products, create a feature and links on your Officesmart homepage to these products, do an in-store display, create some hype, this is a sales opportunity. I guarantee you that most retailers will be doing ‘tax time sales’ and the array of products that will be offered will range from stationery to electrical items to cars, you name it, it will be on ‘sale’.
Contact your Officesmart coordinator in your State for more information.
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GNS News
GNS invites you to be part of our Industry Expo At the conclusion of last year’s events we sent out a survey to find out how we could better present our Trade Shows. As a result we have restructured the Market Fair into the GNS Industry Expo and it is with great excitement that for this year’s events we are focusing on making your Expo experience as enjoyable and beneficial as possible.
Perth Sunday Aug 11 8:00am - 4:00pm Challenge Stadium Main Area Stephenson Ave Mount Claremont
Reasons why you should be attending this year’s event We will be featuring new Suppliers and working closely with all Exhibiting Suppliers to bring value to their offers and total sales & marketing solutions to you.
New GNS Electronic Expo Invoice
Exciting new first time Exhibitors
Value, Sales and Marketing Solutions
A comprehensive range of products & services
Dedicated Feature areas & seminars
Keep up-to-date with the industry news
A feature for this event will be the GNS Invoices, all deals purchased at the Expo will be broken down and itemised so that you will be able to load your electronic invoices directly in to your point of sale system – no more hassles. This is the place that has everything our industry has to offer, giving you the rare opportunity to discover a comprehensive range of products and services as well as the opportunity to network and learn from industry experts via a number of dedicated feature areas, seminars and workshops. The GNS Industry Expo is timed to coincide with a significant period in the retail buying cycle. As a trade only event it is open exclusively to GNS account holders and there is no charge for attending. This is an outstanding opportunity for any business involved in our trade to keep up-to-date within an industry that continues to change and expand. We will keep informing you with the latest developments through our e-newsletter about our 2013 event with information on who will be attending, exclusive product offers, new products seminars, workshops and feature areas. We look forward to you joining us at the exciting new GNS Industry Expo searching for the latest products and taking in some useful seminars.
Melbourne Saturday Aug 17 9:00am - 5:00pm Sunday Aug 18 9:00am - 4:00pm Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre South Wharf
Sydney Saturday Aug 24 9:00am - 5:00pm Sunday Aug 25 9:00am - 4:00pm Rosehill Racecourse James Ruse Drive Rosehill
Brisbane Saturday Sept 7 9:00am - 5:00pm Sunday Sept 8 9:00am - 4:00pm Exhibition Building ‘Upper Level’ RNA Showgrounds Cnr Gregory Tr & Costin St Bowen Hills Page 9
GNS News
GNS Promotions NEW MID YEAR BROCHURE DESIGN
The GNS promotions have been revamped to give a more modern look and feel, not only in the design of the brochure but also the products that feature in each event. Our major promotions are Mid Year, Christmas & Back to School. GNS have taken the stress and cost out of your Promotions by distributing your Brochures to homes in your local area informing your customers that you are a player in this very profitable promotional periods.
Brochure Distribution works
It will bring consumers looking for your advertised promotional products in to your store.
Let us do all the hard work
The greatest thing about our promotions is that all the hard work and expensive advertising costs have been taken care of, all you need to do is select the products that suit your market from our extensive range that we have carefully selected and priced for you. GNS have taken in to consideration everything that needs to be done to ensure that you have a successful promotion.
You can distribute your own Brochures or we can do it on your behalf Discounted prices on a wide range of products Exciting new product additions Point of Sale material Contracted pricing
There are Super Specials & Reduced Prices across the entire program plus lots of deals featuring bonus stock for you and the consumer that adds lots of value to any of the GNS Promotions.
Keep an eye out for the next big GNS Promotion Page 10
GNS News
Your Complete Diary Requirements for 2014 144 Diaries in the range featuring:Belmont Executive Management
Appointment Table Bookings Norwich
Vogue Lustre Jazz
Planners Organisers Day Planners
Kingsgrove
Vanessa
Vauxhall
Wall Planners
Knightsbridge Sterling
Designer SOHO
Silhouette Enviro
Desk Top Planners Desk Calendar Refills
Elite
Fashion
School Diaries
EsE-2c
We have launched our Diaries for 2014 ahead of schedule this year to give you the opportunity to get organised early. For 2014 we have held our prices from 2013 giving you the reliability your customers are demanding. We have 20 New Items this year from leading Diary manufacturers that complement our Diary Range for 2014
Stylish Croxley Designer Diaries & Notebooks exclusive to GNS customers Changeable Cover Diaries & new Soft PU Covers Earthcare Diaries made from recycled material & Executive Book Planners
So if you haven’t placed your order yet jump on to GNS Online for more details. Here are some of the new product images
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New South Wales Warehouse Address Phone Sales Fax
10 Fairford Road Padstow, NSW 2211 02 8708 3400 02 9793 3611
Queensland Warehouse Address Phone Sales Fax
62 Pineapple Street Zillmere, QLD 4034 07 3838 6400 07 3263 8477
Victoria Warehouse Address Phone Sales Fax
80 - 84 Peters Avenue Mulgrave, VIC 3170 03 9565 5000 03 9574 9154
Western Australia Warehouse Address Phone Sales Fax Online Ordering
192 Daly Street Belmont, WA 6104 08 6272 7900 08 9277 7988
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