News

Lyreco makes Nordics acquisition

Lyreco has agreed to buy Lomax, the second-largest reseller of office products in Denmark.

Lomax was founded in 1962 and operated for many years as a mail order company. In more recent times, it underwent a major transformation into an e-commerce business – and was so successful that it earned Lomax the Reseller of the Year prize at the 2020 European Office Products Awards.

The company has annual sales estimated at €124 million ($130 million), making it the largest e-commerce reseller of business products in Denmark. The transaction will now be subject to a favourable decision from the Danish Competition and Consumers Authority.

Speaking to OPI, Lyreco CEO Greg Liénard called this a “normal” process, but the deal is not expected to close until as late as March 2023. However, he noted that Lyreco and Lomax have very little customer crossover, so he is not expecting much disruption from an end-user perspective in Denmark.

Providing some more background to OPI, Liénard said the decision to acquire Lomax was based on both geographical and customer criteria. There are a lot of businesses in Europe with 1-5 white collar employees, but Lyreco has not been targeting these types of companies because of the relatively high cost to serve using its account management model.

But they are the sweet spot for Lomax’s pure online model. This will enable Lyreco – initially in Denmark – to cover the full client spectrum, from one person right up to large multinationals.

To what extent this is then rolled out into Lyreco’s other markets will depend on the learnings following the acquisition. While due diligence has been performed, the full picture of Lomax’s capabilities will only be known after the deal is done. That said, the intention is to subsequently target very small businesses in other countries and to improve the online user experience for Lyreco’s customers.

Liénard added that Lyreco would adopt a cautious approach post-acquisition, with no commercial integration planned until at least January 2024. “We will learn from each other and see what works best for our respective customers,” he stated.

Customer expansion is one of the targets of Lyreco’s GREAT 2026 strategy to counteract the 1-2% secular annual decline per customer in the purchase of traditional office products. This also includes growing into adjacent categories, notably PPE following the acquisition of Intersafe, and developing a sustainable products marketplace. This marketplace initiative was launched in Italy at the beginning of July and will go fully live in the coming weeks before being rolled out into other countries beginning in 2023.

Kokuyo buys HNI business

HON brand owner HNI has sold its Greater China Lamex office furniture business to leading Japanese group Kokuyo for $75 million.

HNI acquired Lamex in 2006 as part of a strategy to grow in the Chinese and Asian markets, but now wants to focus on its core geographies. Kokuyo said the acquisition comes as it continues to expand its client base in China among non-Japanese firms and looks to grow outside of its home market in countries such as China, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Founded in 1977, Lamex in 2021 reported sales of approximately ¥12.5 billion ($93 million) and operating profit of ¥362 million ($2.7 million).

The ODP Corporation will shortly alter the way it reports earnings to be in line with its new divisional structure. Currently, the company has two reportable divisions in North America – the Business Solutions Division (BSD) and Retail. That is now set to change in time for its Q3 2022 earnings report, which will probably be published at the end of October.

Going forward, results will be broken out according to the new four-division structure under the ODP holding company umbrella: Office Depot, ODP Business Solutions, Veyer and Varis (for more details, see Analysis, OPI July/August 2022, page 6).

In the recent Q2 earnings call, ODP CEO Gerry Smith said the move to this new reporting structure was taking place earlier than anticipated. One key change is that all e-commerce results from the officedepot.com website will come under the Office Depot (retail/consumer) division, having previously been part of BSD (except for buy online, pick up in store click-and-collect orders, which are already booked as retail sales).

The new business unit reporting set-up – with each division having its own standalone P&L – will provide more clarity and visibility into the constituent parts of ODP’s operations. That will include the keenly awaited Varis B2B marketplace platform, which has been under development for some time now under the leadership of Prentis Wilson, the former head of Amazon Business, and other senior ex-Amazonians.

ODP said a private preview launch of Varis had taken place recently and that feedback from this was being incorporated into the platform. Varis is still set to launch this year and more details will be provided at an Investor Day. The date for this event has not yet been confirmed, but it could well be before Q3 earnings are released.

Australia’s COS acquires

Belinda Leading Australian independent Lyone dealer COS has strengthened its position in the country’s education vertical. The company has confirmed the purchase of the business of JI Office & Education, a regional supplier based north of Melbourne. COS took over the servicing of all JI customers at the beginning of August. “Blending the COS and JI Office & Education businesses and teams will offer JI customers great value,” said COS co-CEO Belinda Lyone. “They will be delighted that COS is a clear Australian-owned and operated company with significant buying influence to deliver competitive prices, a larger product range, a world-class website, and a leadership team that is passionate about service excellence.”

This is COS’ second acquisition in the education market following the 2019 purchase of Vital Office. Over the past four years, COS has also acquired Lyreco Australia and independent dealer QCA.

New owner for Sheaffer

AT Cross has sold its Sheaffer pen and accessories brand to Indian firm William Penn for an undisclosed sum.

William Penn, a Bengaluru-based retailer of high-end stationery and writing instruments, has acquired Sheaffer’s complete product portfolio and licences – including premium pens, journals and gift sets. It has been the exclusive distributor for Sheaffer in India since 2003 and the brand has a market share there of around 15% in the premium writing segment.

“We will now design, manufacture and market the brand out of India,” said William Penn founder and Managing Director Nikhil Ranjan.

In 2016, William Penn – which was established in 2002 – acquired British brand Lapis Bard as it diversified out of the writing category and into men’s luxury accessories such as leather belts and wallets.

The transaction marks another chapter in the history of Sheaffer, which has changed hands several times since it ceased to be a family business in 1966. Former owners include Textron, Gefinor and BIC.

Aussie groups collaborate for 2023 event

Office Brands has joined fellow dealer group Office Choice and distributor GNS Wholesale for the OPIX 2023 Australian office products industry expo in an effort to reduce duplication and costs in the independent reseller channel.

Scheduled to be held in Melbourne in September 2023, the event will consist of a full-day supplier exhibition for members of both dealer groups and GNS’s customers, followed by a gala awards night. Office Choice and Office Brands will also hold their annual dealer conferences during OPIX.

Co-hosted by Office Choice and GNS Wholesale, OPIX 2022 took place in mid-August. At the event, it was announced that Office Brands would participate from next year, bringing the independent office products industry in Australia together under one roof for the first time.

Invitations to participate in OPIX 2023 are also being extended to the Nextra and Lucky Charm newsagent groups, alongside existing OPIX partners Newspower and NewsXpress, and non-aligned newsagents. In addition, independent dealer groups ASA Australia and Office Products Depot New Zealand are in the early stages of discussing their potential participation.

BIC to acquire French tech start-up

Following its acquisition of reusable notebook maker Rocketbook at the end of 2020, BIC is again looking to grow in what it calls the ‘digital expression’ market. It has signed an agreement to purchase the share capital of Advanced Magnetic Interaction (AMI) for an – as yet – undisclosed sum.

AMI (originally called ISKN) was established in 2014 as a spin-off from the French government-funded research institute CEA-Leti, located in Grenoble. Its technology is based on magnetostatics which enables accurate 3D tracking of a magnet. In 2019, it launched the Repaper digital writing product in partnership with Faber-Castell. This allows writings on paper, using a traditional pen or pencil, to be captured digitally.

BIC said the acquisition – which is expected to close shortly – strengthens its R&D capabilities in digital expression, one of the pillars of the company’s Horizon strategic plan. It aims to accelerate the deployment of AMI’s patented technology, notably through B2B activity in digital creative and consumer electronics applications.

Steve Bandrowczak

Xerox confirms new CEO

Xerox appointed Steve Bandrowczak as its permanent CEO at the beginning of August.

Bandrowczak stepped into the CEO role on an interim basis at the end of June following the death of John Visentin. On 3 August, Xerox’s board of directors confirmed the company’s former COO as its new full-time CEO.

Office Brands names procurement and merchandise chief

Australian business products dealer group Office Brands has appointed experienced retail exec Craig Matthews as its Head of Procurement and Merchandise, effective 15 August.

Matthews has a strong background in procurement, merchandising and marketing with (non-OP) dealer groups and licensees. Most recently, he ran his own business called Stock Box, which was a B2B e-commerce venture focused on small retailers. He has previous experience in merchandising and marketing with Metcash, BP, British American Tobacco and Coles.

AFFLINK makes supply chain appointment

US jan/san marketing and supply chain group AFFLINK has appointed Dana Duckworth as VP of Supply Chain Solutions.

In her new role, Duckworth will focus on leveraging relationships within the supplier and distributor community to foster growth among new as well as existing B2B customers.

Craig Matthews

Dana Duckworth

The Supply Room buys jan/san specialist

US independent dealer The Supply Room has acquired Beach Chemical and Paper, a Virginia-based distributor of janitorial products.

Beach, a veteran-owned reseller that was founded in 1970, will become a division of The Supply Room, with its former owners set to retire following a transition period.

Bang & Olufsen targets enterprise market

High-end consumer audio brand Bang & Olufsen has said that the enterprise market is a strategic focus area. The Denmark-based company has already partnered with the likes of Cisco and HP to cater to the growing audio needs of hybrid workers.

In addition, it announced that a number of its products are to be certified by Microsoft Teams and Zoom in the coming months.

“Hybrid workers are moving towards multifunctional high-end audio products that can be used for both work and leisure – and they want to do that without compromising on quality and design,” said John Howard, Head of Enterprise at Bang & Olufsen.

According to Howard, the company is “uniquely placed” to fill a void in the market and it is seeing interest in its products from companies around the world. Bang & Olufsen expects to grow its B2B business significantly over the next couple of years as it expands its enterprise portfolio with new products and partnerships.

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Mark Heath

Heath to join Office Power

Former Bluefish Office Products dealer principal Mark Heath has been named as Managing Director of Office Power.

Heath joins the UK technology and services provider in this newly created role in September, three years after Bluefish was acquired by independent dealer roll-up Complete.

Office Power CEO Simon Drakeford said the organisation had reached a size that requires “a full-time, dedicated and experienced leader”.

Tatham leaves Westcoast

Alex Tatham, the long-serving Managing Director of successful UK distributor Westcoast, left the firm at the end of July.

Tatham, who spent 14 years at the £3 billion ($3.6 billion) wholesaler, will join one of its customers, IT services and consulting firm NSC at the end of September. He takes up the position of Global Head of Clients and Marketing.

Unite adds to executive board

Christel Constant has joined European B2B marketplace platform Unite in July as an executive board member in charge of the marketing, sales and customer success functions. Her career includes 15 years at B2B financial services platform Edenred and a spell as VP of Sales (EMEA) at digital workplace platform Beekeeper.

Following the appointment, former sales and marketing board member Bernd Schönwälder has assumed responsibility for platform, IT and operations – these were previously overseen by founder Sebastian Wieser. It will allow Wieser to fully focus on his role as Unite’s CEO.

New Managing Director at ABL

Office furniture accessories and ergonomic products supplier ABL has appointed its long-standing Production Director Sreten Savkovic as Group Managing Director.

Savkovic has been with ABL – formerly known as Accessory Bits – for more than 16 years. He helped the company’s founders set up the manufacturing unit in Serbia and was named Production Director in 2007. Eight years later, Savkovic led a management buyout in partnership with now-retired Managing Director Paul Stotesbury.

Alex Tatham

Christel Constant

Sreten Savkovic