Proficiency Index
Top Performers
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Proficiency Index
Annual Productivity Review – 2008

Euroffice the threepeat

productivity champion

Race hotting up: 6 dealers over $500,000/head

4 Jun 08 The Proficiency Index 3rd Annual Productivity Review was completed yesterday. The top 20 resellers in the USA and UK the most productive markets in the world of OP showed a marked improvement on last year with performances of the Top 20 best practice average  up 6% to $499,000. See Table below: Proficiency Index - Top 20 Productivity Performers - 2008
Position	Reseller	Location	Sales $m	Employees	Productivity  - $000 sales/ee
#
1	Euroffice*	Vauxhall, London, UK	46.0	58	793
2	Phase*	Chertsey, UK	20.0	26	769
3	Net Stationers*	London NW3, UK	28.0	46	609
4	Anglo Office Group	Forest Hill, London, UK	12.0	20	600
5	Buy Online Now*	Rochester, MN, USA	29.5	51	578
6	Bluefish Office Products	Northampton, UK	32.0	63	508
7	Weeks Lerman	Maspeth, NY, USA	95.0	200	475
8	Garveys Office Products	Niles, Chicago, USA	30.0	64	469
9	Staples Delivery	Boston, MA, USA	8384.0	18000	466
10	COS Online	Chattanooga, TN, USA	20.0	43	465
11	Corporate Express	Amsterdam, Netherlands	7660.0	16550	463
12	W.B.Mason	Brockton, MA, USA	756.0	1660	455
13	Fenn	Stoke, UK	19.0	42	452
14	Office Gold	Guildford, UK	14.0	32	438
15	Impact Office Products	Washington DC, USA	60.0	140	429
16	Innovative Office Solutions	Minneapolis, MN, USA	16.0	39	410
17	S&T Office	St. Paul, MN, USA	50.0	122	410
18	My Office Products	Nashville, TN, USA	100.0	250	400
19	Millers, Office Products	Lorton, VA, USA	44.0	110	400
20	Commercial Group	Cheltenham, UK	50.0	130	385
	Proficiency Index - 4 June08
	Qualifying Sales minimum $10m in 2007
	* Denotes adjusted to add in 1 truck driver per $2m in sales Congratulations go to euroffice of London. the #1 productivity champion for the 3rd year running. The pure internet player averaged $793,000/employee after adjustment – adding back truck drivers at 1 driver/$2m sales the best practice average. Euroffice work with wholesaler Spicers to fulfil their $46m sales up 15% on 2007.   UK stockless dealers Phase, Net Stationers and Anglo maintained their high positions and rapid growth into 2008. A rising star in the US this year has been the search marketing star Buy Online Now from Rochester, Minnesota. BON increased sales by 47% to $29.5m with  just 51 people inc drivers recording $578,000/ee.   More analysis and comment to follow later today. _____________________________________________

Top 20 Marketers – Countdown

Models of excellence or intimacy…who wins?

Most top dealers offer single source…but, to what degree of range and personalisation?

12 Apr 08

Relatively speaking many dealers in the USA and Europe talk about single source supply systems across a wide range of products and services, but few practice it. Moreover, the majority of dealers over $5m in sales talk about personal service with attentive sales representation, but few practice it.

The majority of the top 20 nominations for the Proficiency Index Marketer of the Year scored highly on single source supply systems. This is the key strength of dealers offer going forward especially in slower economic times, plus the megatrend to conserve energy resources, waste less and cut carbon emissions.

So what are the key differences that make one offer better than another? We reckon it's a question of the width of range offered and the degree of personalisation involved. Let's expand on these factors:

Product Range

Most dealers now offer IT supplies, furniture and basic FM supplies e.g. jansan and catering, business gifts and print. Most offerings though tend to be a commodity service rather than a genuine value added service tailored to suit clients. Ranges are restricted understandably to wholesaler catalog offerings.

Now that's great if the wholesalers are proactive by teaming up with progressive dealers, but not so good if wholesalers are static, causiung dealers to seek specialist lines of supply and diluting their stock less models

Progressive dealers are now offering hardware and  IT supplies; interiors service and furniture; real and Fairtrade coffee services, not just tins of Nescafe; corporate clothing not just basic cleaning products; and document and print management services.

So who are the champion dealers that have developed single source services with a difference:

In the UK, Commercial Group of Cheltenham have been exemplary innovators. They have lead and been supported by wholesaler Kingfield in their relentless drive to expand their service and gain more share of their customers potential spend. Holders of the leading edge broadcaster BSkyB's account, Commercial have formed a strong business partnership which has sparked a raft of new services.

Commercial provides a complete office productivity solution which includes network solutions and technology monitoring service. A new control centre provides a technology monitoring service branded Bluecare. Here systems installations by Commercial, plus customers own systems are continuously checked (see pic right) to avoid downtime, identify faults, with remotely controlled remedial action. A true innovation which has enhanced customer's confidence in Commercial way beyond the supply of paperclips.

Other European operators that excel in single source systems are Oyez Straker, where range is enhanced by legal services, storage and document management services. Using a far more intimate model personalised to the client is Anglo Office Productivity (CEO Glenn  Doyle pic below) in London who focus on fewer more valuable customers to great effect.

In the USA, the outstanding operators in single source supply are The Phillips Group, Guernsey Office, Forms &Supply, S&T Office Products and Innovative Office Solutions (CEO Jennifer Smith pic above). Amazingly with many of these leaders it is not obvious when looking at their websites that a single source supply system is a mainstream feature. The emphasis is still on product only rather than a cost reduction, total supply service.

This is not the case with S&T and Innovative who make it very clear at the welcome stage that you are entering a one stop shopping solution for a wide range of office related services.

In fact, Commercial, Anglo in the UK; Innovative and S&T in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area of the US all demonstrate the influence of women in their marketing programmes. All are champions of eco-productivity programmes…all committed to not only green products, but greener processes via their carbon neutral drives.

On a global scale, we again give credit to Staples who not only provide a full range offering at retail level but to SMB and contract customers. They too are committed to carbon neutral and ethical processes, supporting local communities and much more via their Soul programme.

Personalisation

Most dealers believe they provide personal service. But, It is all a question of definition and degree. If the service is personal, but the offering remains static and doesn't extend into a full tange of office productivity services that clients need…is it personal? It is certainly not personalised…which comes from getting closer to the client and acting accordingly…the customer intimacy model.

Clients may not ask for extensions, but a progressive dealer will observe closely and offer the new  service, backed by a specialist wholesaler or partner provider. Not only is this good partnership business it keeps out specialist niche providers. Profitability is enhanced for the dealer whilst the client gains productivity from a single local source.

Excellence models:
Lyreco, Staples, Kaut Bullinger, Langstane Press. These operators focus on established product ranges and execute brilliantly. Innovation and personalisation are not their core strength, but they all deliver what they offer and are fast followers.

Customer Intimacy Models:

These are the providers of office productivity solutions who get intimate with customers and deliver personalised value added services. They create  workplaceswhich are showcases of what they sell i.e living laboratories of office productivity. They welcome clients into their offices as partners and work together to save time money and space. Moreover, they are first to work with clients on eco-productivity and carbon cutting programmes.

The best practice examples here are: Commercial, Bluefish and Penketh's in the UK; Innovative, S&T, Garveys  of Chicago, WBMason and Guernsey in the US; Mills in Vancouver, Canada.

All of the above resellers scored high in the areas of single source supply systems, eco-productivity (in some cases) and strong sales force representation. The next  focus will be to review CRM, emarketing, webstore and advertising capability…to be reported on Monday.

Counting down to the award for the Top Marketing Resellers in the USA and Europe adjudged by the Proficiency Group. The winner will be announced at the BREAKTHROUGH Marketing Conference on Thursday 17 April 2008 (click here to view programme). We will be running  separate BREAKTHROUGH awards in the UK for the top manufacturer marketer, top dealer marketer and  top dealer marketing manager. Watch this space for the countdown….

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Proficiency Index 2007

Top 25 office suppliers

US and UK comparative lists 2007 and 1980's
Where are they now? Are you listed?

27 Dec 07

Last week (19 Dec Frost Bites) we speculated on who were the Top 25 dealers 25 years ago and today...in alphabetical order. We received tremendous  interest and help in compiling the following lists. My OP historian contacts really dug deep into their archives or fading memories. We are very grateful for their help.

Rather than take 1982 as a specific year in the rise of the superdealer, we've decided to use the peak year in the 1980's as our reference, We have also indicated where that dealer is today…in many cases as you will see dealers have been acquired by one the current Big Box players.

The Eighties was  a golden era for the rise and rise of the superdealer and we feel strongly that era is repeating itself albeit with a different types of operating model. As I said on 19 Dec

'Yes, I believe we are seeing a new wave of superdealers emerging. The wave is at its early stages, but it's there alright. Moreover, what is uncanny is that the basic ingredients of today's resurgents are the same as the 1980's….salespeople, stocking less and marketing more aided this time by affordable technology…emarketing systems and webstores.'

USA Top 25 Lists

Let's take a look a results from our US survey first. No surprise to see WBMason (chief Leo Meehan pic above) soaring ahead at the top of the league. There follows another 12 dealers with sales over $50m. In the 80's there were 17 dealers over $50m but of course there  were some very large operators specialising in contract supply e.g. the AOPD group members e.g NJOS/Eastman or Mail Order e.g Quill, Viking and Reliable.

Those old enough to remember will recall with affection the legendary personalities involved: Bill Pitchler (Eastman) Gerry Wiener (NJOS) Nate Gold (Publix) Jed Casey (MSGinn) Henry Epstein (Spectrum), Mr. Enthusiasm himself Jim Miller (Millers), Irwin Helford (Viking) and Jack Miller (Quill, See pic right). A truly remarkable bunch of people and great marketers all.

2007 USA SuperDealers	Sales est	Stockless
WBMason, Brockton, MA	620	Yes
My Office Products, Nashville, TN	100	Yes
Weeks-Lerman, Maspeth, NY	90	No
Forms & Supply, Charlotte, NC	85	No
The Phillips Group, Harrisburg, PA	65	No
Village Office Supply, Somerset, NJ	65	Yes
Shoplet.com, NY	60	Yes
Smith Office & CS, Hollywood, FL	60	No
Guernsey, Chantilly, VA	55	No
Royal OP, Burr Ridge, IL	50	Yes
S&T Office, St Paul, MN	50	No
The Supply Room, Ashland, VA	50	No
Warehouse Direct, Mt Prospect, IL	50	No
Eakes Office Plus, Nebraska	35	No
New England OS, Braintree, MA	35	No
Stephens OS, Houston, TX	35	No
Brown & Saenger, S Dakota	30	No
Bulldog OP, Pittsburgh, PA	30	No
All State Legal, Cranford, NJ	30	No
A-Z Office Resource, Columbia, TN	30	No
Garveys OP, Niles, IL	30	No
Jones & Cook, McAllen, TX	30	No
Millers OP, Springfield, VA	30	No
Arctic OP, Anchorage, AL	25	No
Eaton Office, Amherst, NY	25	No
Proficiency Index - 27 Dec 07

Today we reckon there are at least 5 of the Top US dealers who operate the stockless model with their chosen wholesaler. This compared with 8 of the leading dealers in the UK. Stockless dealers have tended to fly below rthe radar of the industry observers…they don't buy from manufacturers, so the vendors in many cases don't identify with them and as a result ignore their rapid progress.

Where are they now?

As you will note most of the top operators were unknowingly at the time ripening themselves for the glut of public money that was to invade this growth market initially via the superstore route. Almost all were absorbed by one of the Big Box players.

1980's USA SuperDealers	80's Peak Sales est $m	Where are they now?
Quill, Chicago *	400	Staples
Boise Cascade, Chicago	400	OfficeMax
Viking, LA *	300	Office Depot
New Jersey Office Supplies, NJ	300	Office Depot
Eastmans, LA	300	Office Depot
National OS, Secaucus, NJ	120	Staples
Millers BS, Dallas	120	CXP
Publix, Chicago	100	CXP
MSGinn, Washington, DC	100	CXP
Reliable, Chicago *	80	OfficeMax via Boise
Philadelphia Stationers, Pa	80	Staples
Munroe, Newton, MA	80	Staples
Spectrum, Rochester, NY	70	Staples
Summit, NY	60	CXP
LE Muran, Boston,. MA	60	CXP
Ivan Allen, Atlanta, GA	60	Staples
Lucas Brothers, Baltimore	50	CXP
HS Crocker, SF, CA	50	OD via Eastman
McIsaac, NE	40	CXP
Longs, Miami, FL	40	Office Depot
St.Paul Book & Stationery, St.Paul	35	CXP
Hartford OS, Hartford, CT	35	Staples
Yorkship, Philadelphia	30	Staples?
Mile High, Denver	30	CXP
Redwood Stnrs, San Jose	25	CXP
Proficiency Index - 27 Dec 07
* Mail Order Houses

Pictured Left: Weeks-Lerman chiefs Albert Benalloul (left) and Sid Lerman (right) the fast growing New York based dealer currently in 3rd spot in the USA
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Pictured Right: Frank Tschida the chief at S&T of St.Paul, Minnesota in 11th slot. Minneapolis/St.Paul is a thriving area for progressive dealers with the upcoming Bertelson and Innovative Business Solutions growing fast.
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Pictured Below. The Phillips Group management team of Harrisburg, PA in 5th position.

UK Top 25 Lists

The most remarkable feature about the 2007 list has been the successful consolidation of the Oyez Straker Group (CEO Jeff Whiteway pic left) a roll up of dealers that were prominent in the 80's plus many others along the way. Apart from OSG all the other 80's dealers have been absorbed

Also notable has been the growth of the pure internet players e.g euroffice and Net Stationers similar to Shoplet in NY.

2007 UK Superdealers
	Sales est £m	Sales $m	Stockless
Oyez Straker, Croydon	200	400	No
CCS, Chesterfield	48	96	No
Commercial, Cheltenham	25	50	Yes
Euroffice, London	22	44	Yes
Langstane Press, Aberdeen	22	44	No
Red Box, London	22	44	No
Halcyon Comp, Northampton	15	30	No
BlueFish Office, Northampton	15	30	No
Martin Luck, Plymouth, Devon	15	30	No
SET Office Sup, Cardiff	15	30	No
Garner Bennett, Stoke	14	28	Yes
Jenkinsons, Liverpool	15	30	No
Net Stationers,	14	28	Yes
PADS, Hertford	12	24	Yes
Egan Reid, Stockport	11	22	No
Penketh's, Liverpool	11	22	No
Bennett- Sykes, Nottingham	10	20	No
Complete Office, Wakefield	10	20	No
Fenn, Stoke	10	20	Yes
Winstonmead, Basildon	10	20	No
Accord Office, Swindon	9	18	No
Irongate, Derby	9	18	No
Phase, Chertsey	9	18	Yes
UKOS, Hemel	9	18	No
Office Zone, Weybridge	9	18	Yes
Proficiency Index - 27 Dec 07

Lyreco, the French owned, largest independent office reseller in the world at $2.8Bn in sales, acquired Office International in the early 90's as a springboard for growth and has has achieved just that…growing from £25m to over £300m in 15 years, in the main, organically.

Eric Bigeard (pic left), the chief sales and marketing force at Lyreco. They were known as Gaspard in the 80's and the #2 office supplier in France. Today Lyreco are the largest privately owned (by George Gaspard) office supplier in the world with salers of $2.8Bn and they serve Europe-wide, Canada, Far East an d have strategic partnerships with Staples in USA, Waltons in SA and Pragmatic in Russia.
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Mark Heath (pic right) is the chief at BlueFish in Northampton, UK. They have grown rapidly since inception in 2000 and now have sales of $30m (£15m) with exemplary productivity  levels of $508,000 sales/employee. His father Peter Heath founded Arkle one of the Top 20 UK dealers in the 80's.

1980's UK SuperDealers	80's Peak Sales £m est	Where are they now?
Office Intnl Telford	25	Lyreco
Cartwright Brice, SE London	25	OD via Guilbert
Universal, Birmingham	20	CXP
Pentagon, Basingstoke	20	OD via Guilbert
Oyez, Central London	20	Oyez Straker
Ofrex, Manchester	20	OD via Guilbert
Dudley, Bow, E London	20	USOP closed
Copygraphic, Chiswick,	17	CXP
Chapmans, Ledbury	16	OD via Guilbert
Sandhurst, Horsham	15	OD via Guilbert
Stat-Plus, South London	12	Oyez Straker
Frank Groome, Nottingham	12	RMartin/CXP
Sussex Stationers, Brighton	10	Independent
Straker, Croydon, London	10	Oyez Straker
Satex Danford, N London	10	OD via Guilbert
Ronald Martin, Manchester	10	CXP
Lawton's, Liverpool	10	OD via Ofrex
Creasey's, Hertford	10	Closed
Caldwells, Manchester	10	CXP
Arkle, Northampton	10	OD via Ofrex
Heydon, N London	9	OD via Guilbert
Stanford & Mann, B'ham	8	Closed
Stephen Cox,  SE London	7	Oyez Straker
Chisholms, Cranleigh	7	CXP
Fenn, Stoke	6	Independent
Proficiency Index - 27 Dec 07

We feel refined and genuine marketing power will determine success in the future not crude and pseudo mass customisation systems.

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Proficiency Index

2007 Half Year Productivity Review

Mid-Market momentum

Stockless models lead the way…new star Phase

10 Sep 07

Mid-sized dealers with sales over $10m were the fastest growing category in 2007 showing a 3.3% improvement; large dealers over $40m were also strong at 2.5%. The power channel players showed mixed results with Staples blazing a trail. but Office Depot and Corporate Express declining.

Back In 2004 94 dealers in the US and Europe submitted their numbers. Today, there were 241 dealers contributing information on Key Performance Indicators and particularly the Productivity Ratio measured as Sales/Employee for 2006/7

Average Best Practice performances reported were as follows:

Table 1
Proficiency Index - 2007 Half Year Productivity Survey
Dealer Size		2007 Sales $ 000/ee	Growth v 2006	2006 sales $000/ee	Growth v 2005
	Participants
Sales > $5Bn	4	348	1.50%	343	6.90%
Sales > $40m	15	328	2.50%	320	-2.90%
Sales > $10m	75	347	3.30%	336	1.40%
Sales < $10m	147	303	1.00%	300	3.50%
All resellers	241	319	1.73%	314
Table 2
Top Productivity Dealers	2007 Sales $M	Employees	Sales/Employee $000
euroffice, London UK	40.0	40	1000
Phase Office, Chertsey UK	19.0	23	826
Anglo Office, London , UK	12.0	20	600
Bluefish OP, Northampton, UK	30.0	59	508
Garveys, Chicago, US	25.0	54	463
WBMason, Brockton, US	630.0	1400	450
Office Gold, Guildford, UK	14.0	32	438
S&T, St.Paul, USA	50.0	120	417
Acorn Office Sol, Guildford, UK	5.0	12	416
Office2office, Norwich, UK	176	850	414

Star performers in the mid sized dealer category (See Table 2) were familiar names to readers: euroffice (CEO George Karabian pic top) the pure internet, stockless dealer based in London with sales of $40m and 20 people…we have adjusted numbers for fair comparison purposes by adding in drivers at a rate of 1;$2m sales; Bluefish, Garveys, the relentless W.B.Mason (CEO Leo Meehan pic below) and S&T.

New entrants were: the remarkable Phase Office (CEO Alan Sames pic above right) from Chertsey who produce $19m in sales with just 23 people working in conjunction with Oyez Straker…see Proficiency Profiles; Hot growth company, the lean and lively Anglo Office Group (Glenn Doyle CEO pic left) from South East London, who recorded a $600,000 productivity score…again discover their winning ways in Proficiency Profiles.

The Power Channel players have slowed significantly in recent quarters…excluding Staples of course at $372,000. Office Depot's delivery business has taken some big hits recently…growth was only 1% in Q2'07 after disruption of takeovers and poor execution. Similarly, CXP went backwards nearly 8% in a buoyant business market and as a result productivity ratios, although OK overall, suffered down to $367,000.

If your productivity ratios match or better these, we'd love to hear from you. Likewise, if you want your business to achieve strong growth and best practice profitability call Peter Frost on +44 1932 784887 or email peter@proficiencypost.com

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