Feature

CHANGING of the GUARD

A phenomenal 22 personalities in the 2021 edition of our Top 100 are new entries, the highest figure since OPI started compiling the list 20 years ago – another anniversary incidentally. But this unprecedented churn might not be due to the most obvious reason – by Andy Braithwaite

For the past couple of years in our annual Top 100 introduction, we’ve been suggesting that it’s a ‘pivotal’ time for the business products industry – well before the word ‘pivot’ began to be used extensively as a COVID term. In 2019, this was mainly due to structural changes in the US while, in 2020, it seemed that coronavirus would have a profound impact across all channels.

It would certainly not be out of place to use the adjective again as we move into the final quarter of 2021. Second, third and even fourth waves of COVID-19 have meant a delay in many parts of the world to what was being touted as the ‘new normal’ in the workplace.

While some markets have seen a recovery in 2021, other regions have been hit by further lockdowns. And at the time of writing, there were still grave concerns about the consequences of the Delta variant which is casting further doubt on the timing of office re-openings.

All this is adding fuel to the fires that are the shift to e-commerce and the acceleration of digitisation. Speak to any well-known vendor and they will probably tell you Amazon is their fastest-growing customer account. Therefore, COVID must be behind the large number of new entries, right?

CHANGED LANDSCAPE IN EUROPE

Well, not entirely. While the pandemic is creating unique challenges for the business products industry, the leading resellers around the world are proving to be a pretty resilient bunch – down, but most definitely not out. What has had a big impact over the past 18 months are the divestment strategies of the now-former private equity owners of Office Depot and Staples Solutions in Europe.

The sell-offs of the two iconic brands have been completed and these pan-European entities are no longer part of the Top 100. In their place, we have some new ‘local champions’ emerge, such as Firmo (Portugal), OT Group (UK), Office Centre (Netherlands) and Office Depot Nordics.

All of these have acquired former big box assets and contribute to the changing reseller landscape in Europe (for more on the international rise and fall of the big boxes, see ‘Focus’, page 40).

On the other side of the Atlantic, huge changes could be just around the corner. Surely, it’s just a matter of time before Staples and Depot’s retail operations combine which, in turn, raises questions about the future of their B2B divisions.

We shall see, but we are still missing a name against Staples Inc following the departure of Sandy Douglas earlier this year.

BRING IN THE NEW GUARD

It’s good to see some younger faces making their first appearance on the list as family-owned companies successfully complete their transitions to the next generation of leadership. A shout-out here goes to Plate in Germany as Ingo Schmidt takes the helm and to Australia’s COS, where Belinda and Amie Lyone are now co-CEOs.

Take a look at the Directory section of opi.net, where you can read the updated profiles of all our 2021 Top 100 candidates. On the topic of remarkable individuals in our sector, also read our Spotlight in this special celebratory issue where we focus on the younger generation – the potential new guard (page 80). Who are the Top 30 under 30?

This year’s list of the Top 100 personalities in our industry, split into five geographic regions.

AMERICAS

Jaime Alverde Losada CEO, Office Depot de Mexico NEW David Boone CEO, Staples Canada José Mário & Thiago Britto Chairman & Managing Director, Inforshop Harry Dochelli President & CEO, Essendant Tony Ellison CEO, Shoplet.com Sean Fleming CEO, Distribution Management Alexandre Gagnon VP, Amazon Business Paulo Garcia Managing Director, Kalunga Mike Gentile CEO, Independent Suppliers Group John Givens CEO, Office Source & Technology David Guernsey CEO, Guernsey Matthew Hebert CEO, Office Partners Kevin Johnson CEO, Warehouse Direct Lauren Jones CEO, The Supply Room

Yancey Jones & Mike Maggio

Executive Chairman & CEO, S.P. Richards NEW John Kenworthy CEO, Storey Kenworthy NEW Ian Landy President, Basics Office Products Mark Leazer Executive Director, AOPD Sid Lerman President, The Weeks Lerman Group DG Macpherson CEO, Grainger Denis Mathieu CEO, Novexco Leo Meehan CEO, WB Mason Mike Motz CEO, Staples US Retail Gerry Smith CEO, The ODP Corporation Jennifer Smith CEO, Innovative Office Solutions Jason & Robert Tillis President & CEO, Imperial Dade NEW To be confirmed CEO, Staples Inc

AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST

Trevor Girnun Managing Director, Waltons Craig Noyle & Garry McCluskey Directors, Inovocom NEW Baderuddin Panakkat Category Head, Al Nabooda

ASIA

Xavier Etienne Managing Director, Lyreco Asia Shailesh Karwa & Sharad Dalmia Co-CEOs, WorkStore NEW Hidekuni Kuroda CEO, Kokuyo Akira Yoshioka CEO, Askul

AUSTRALASIA

NEW Nick Grayston Group CEO, The Warehouse Group Sarah Hunter Managing Director, Officeworks NEW Adam Joy CEO, Office Brands Peter Kelly CEO, Winc NEW Amie & Belinda Lyone Co-CEOs, COS Brad O’Brien CEO, Office Choice Grant Sheridan CEO, Office Products Depot Joe Taylor CEO, NXP Adriano Alessio General Manager, In Ufficio NEW Matthias Baumann CEO, MTH Retail Andrew Beaumont Managing Director, Exertis Supplies Tim Beaumont Managing Director, Nemo & Office Club Carlos & Rafael Benavides Managing Directors, Comercial del Sur NEW Laurent Bertrand CEO, Lacoste Dactyl Bureau & École NEW Peter Birks CEO, Ryman Sergey Bobrikov Founder, Komus Udo Böttcher Managing Director, Böttcher Robert Brech Group Managing Director, Kaut-Bullinger NEW Jeanette Bresitz Managing Director, Office Friendly NEW Rui Carvalho CEO, Firma Richard Coulson CEO, Complete Business Solutions Simon Drakeford CEO, EO Group NEW Frank Egholm CEO, Office Depot Nordics Dr Benedikt Erdmann Chairman, Soennecken NEW Dan Fati CEO, Dacris László Fehér Managing Director, Corwell George Gerardos CEO, Plaisio Gert Gerber Managing Director, Office Supplies Denmark Xavier Guichard CEO, Manutan Group Philippe Guillotin Managing Director, ADVEO Steve Haworth CEO, EVO Group of Companies Joe Hemani Chairman, Westcoast José Hernández Sanchez General Manager, Carlin Arthur & Simone Hindmarch Joint Managing Directors, Commercial Group NEW Andrew Jones CEO, OT Group Danièle Kapel-Marcovici CEO, Raja Group Alper Kisa Vice General Manager, Akçay Group Greg Liénard CEO, Lyreco Aidan McDonough Managing Director, Integra Business Solutions NEW Michael Müller SVP Printing, ALSO International Patrick Murphy CEO, Codex Paul Musgrove Managing Director, Nectere Niklas Norström CEO, AllOffice Bruno Peyroles CEO, Bureau Vallée Elina Pienimäki CEO, Wulff Group Nicolas Potier Managing Director, Bruneau Laurent Proy Managing Director, Alkor Group Ferdinando Rese President, Errebian NEW Ola Rosquist CEO, RKV Jörg Schäfers & Axel Hennemann Joint Managing Directors, Büroring Richard Scharmann CEO, PBS Holding Hans Schmid President, Printus NEW Ingo Schmidt Managing Director, Plate NEW Marc-Derek Schönberger CEO, Office Centre Jean-Yves Sebaoun Managing Director, Fiducial Office Solutions Miroslaw Szydlowski Managing Director, PBS Polska Arnold Theuws Managing Director, Quantore Igor Trifonov CEO, Samson Jan Van Belleghem Managing Director, Interaction Frank van Zanten CEO, Bunzl Thomas Veit Managing Director, soft-carrier Francesco Villa General Manager, Buffetti Group Dmitry Vinogradov CEO, Merlion Vaida Volkavicius CEO, Officeday Michael Voll CEO, Despec Nordics NEW Maria Zesch CEO, TAKKT