The Office Products industry has been in a dark place these last few months for a number of players, not the least of which is of course The Vasanta Group. Todays announcement comes as somewhat of a respite and is very welcome news, not only for it’s supporters – Customers and Suppliers alike, but also those employees who have survived the restructure and many changes over this period.
At Office Friendly we have, due to our solus status, been in a bit of a dilemna. We never thought that Vow would be in this position and we were confident that the model was a strong and potentially profitable business. We feel that the financial uncertainties of recent times placed a very heavy burden to deliver on the shoulders of the management team.
Guess what? It really starts from here and the chance is here to build a strong and supportive business NOT ONLY for shareholders, but ALL other stakeholders. We’ve no doubt that Endless will prove to be good partners – we remember with some positive feeling that they were the engineers and backers behind the pre Vasanta model, and we know they have some understanding and interest in the industry. However, let’s be very clear – they are in it to make money – lots of money if the model delivers.
The interest that we, the customers, have in this immense. The part we have to play is in our opinion, one of getting back to basics. Wholesaling isn’t rocket science!! We’re not going to the moon, although we do want Vow to aim for the stars (in service terms). Getting our customers goods when we want them, where we want them and at the right price with as little cost as possible should always be the mantra for any good distributor.
BUT – do you know what? We don’t want Good - We want Brilliance, and we want it with a bloody big pair of supportive arms around us keeping the BIG BOX wolves at bay. We want partnership and we want a steady hand on the ship.
Tons of potential there for mixing metaphors, but it boils down to one thing in our opinion. As one of your Key customers you need to listen to what we have to say and work alongside those closest to the frontline, because that’s the only way we can all deliver success. In the short/medium or long run, however many years the new VC is ‘IN’ the only way to that success is to listen and learn and not to go back to being insular.
So, please don’t
- try to impose a returns policy that has never worked before
- Make snap decisons on services without the full picture
- Put processes in place with no real understanding of how that effects your customers
- Squeeze on credit at a time when you’ve been ‘extending’ your credit lines whenever possible
- & finally fail to communicate simple key pieces of information that keeps everyone on board
So all I want for Christmas (part 2) – A sack of shiney new stock!!! (oops…did I mention the s word?)
all that and I didn’t mention the price of EOS…..
