November, 2008 | newsXpress Blog

newsXpress Orange radio ad campaign

Paul and Maureen Blunden at newsXpress Orange won a radio advertising package from Pacific Magazines at our recent National Conference. The radio ad will run during the Better Homes and Gardens radio program on local radio over several weeks. The ad is a terrific example of practical supplier support. It represents the Pacific Magazines product and promotes Paul and Maureen’s business and the many other products they sell at newsXpress Orange. Click here to download and hear the ad.

Supporting back to school in-store

newsXpress has supplied all members with Back To School marketing collateral for in-store use including a full pack of professionally printed and pre-perforated shelf talkers for each of the Back To School hero products. These professional materials help our stores present a compelling offer professionally in the Back To School season. This attention to detail is noticed by suppliers, landlords and consumer – key reasons newsXpress is happy to invest in our member’s businesses in this way.

Final member meeting for 2008

We held our final members meeting for the year yesterday in Brisbane. Even though our stores are well into Christmas it was a good opportunity to talk about the first quarter of 2009 and have an open forum with our Brisbane based members. We also outlined our activity around compliance behind the newsXpress brand and the importance of this for member businesses and our group as a whole.

Having a group which can commit nationally to suppliers and to deliver consistent marketing, in-store presence and ranging is a poi t of difference newsXpress cultivates.

Great Christmas gifts

newsXpress members are reporting good sales from offers the group has sourced. The Hannah Montana, Star Wars, High School Musical, Dora The Explorer and Disney puzzles are one of the early successes. Members tell us these are popular as stocking fillers. In most cases they appear to be purchased in addition to a newspaper, magazine or some other traditional newsagency sale. This is exactly what we hoped it offering this range to members – it is easily located in a space which will attract impulse purchase.

Building margin in a newsagency involves many small steps. This way, you are able to build something which is harder to break down. The more reliant a business is on single stream revenue the easier it is to break down. hence the newsXpress approach of sourcing many offers across a range of key categories from whcih our members can choose what is right for their circumstances.

newsXpress Glendale shines with gifts

Phil and Wendy Banks and the entire team at newsXpress Glendale have created an excellent business around gifts. At Christmas and all the year through they have grown from nothing in this department to a thriving business in two years. newsXpress is proud that they have achieved this as a newsXpress store. Their success is driving many of our newsXpress members to more completely embrace the gift offer. What Phil and Wendy have achieved in what used to be a traditional newsagency is nothing short of amazing.

newsXpress has a range of exclusive supplier relationships in the gift area. We back this with gift expertise in our National Merchandise team and through seasonal gift promotions. All of our gift offers are optional for newsXpress members.

Christmas nut pack

Having successfully introduced the Morish products to newsXpress stores and the newsagency channel more widely, newsXpress members are embracing the Morish Christmas offer. These gift packs are excellent value gifts for men and women. The packaging is typical stunning Morish design. The products themselves are even better – a great range of tastes and of excellent quality. We like the Morish gift packs because they work nicely in a newsagency in a gift department or on a gift table. They present a tremendous point of difference to the usual boxes of chocolates that supermarkets and other retailers carry this time of year.

newsXpress works hard to provide members with excellent product choices. Morish, like other products in our Christmas offer, is not a mandatory line. We present opportunities like this to members and leave it up to them to make the decision which is right for their store and circumstances.

New website launched

We quietly launched a test version of our new website today. This is early in stage one of a multi stage roll out of a new online presence for newsXpress.

Face to face with newsXpress members

Our team of Business Development Managers are travelling the country these next few weeks, completing our last round on in-store visits for 2008 with newsXpress members, working on group strategies and delivering training and other support to help our member businesses experience a great Christmas.

Over the next two weeks members of our team will visit with newsXpress newsagents in many cities including Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Mackay, Darwin, Devonport, Burnie, Bairnsdale, Yarram, Lismore, Armidale, Tamworth, Singleton – and these are just some of the regional centres we will cover.

These visits are a considerable point of difference for newsXpress and for our members. Newsagency suppliers like that we have a team which conducts these in-store visits. Suppliers tell us they are tired of negotiating deals for newsagents which are not backed by an association or marketing group to help the deal achieve the maximum potential for newsagents and for the supplier. Our BDM team and bring supplier offers and newsagent needs to a commercially rewarding union thanks to our store visitation program.

As one of our members said recently, it is like having your own personal business coach.

Not all newsagents are the same

2008 has seen the difference between newsagencies grow considerably. From traditional departments such as magazines and greeting cards to new departments such as gifts and art, newsagents are breaking with the past in pursuit of new opportunities.

newsXpress is leading treasure hunt for proactive entrepreneurial newsagents. We are able to do this thanks to a community of energetic and future focused newsagents, a back office team of experts who relentlessly search for new opportunities, landlords who like what we do and su0ppliers keen to be part of our growing group.

While we have support the broader newsagency channel in a variety of ways this year including national and state conference sponsorships, we reserve our prime focus for the growing newsXpress community. These are the newsagents who pay us to serve them. These are the newsagents actively investing in the growth of their businesses.

We expect to see considerable change in the newsagency channel in 2009. The gap between growing newsagents and others will widen. Here at newsXpress,new members are always welcome. It uis the individuals behind a business we treasure the most for we have seen the smallest of newsagencies grow dramatically outside their four walls once newsXpress opportunities are fully leveraged.

Flexibility for newsXpress members

newsXpress members get to choose which promotions and offers from the group they take up in their newsagencies. No promotion is mandatory. No product offer take-up is required. While many members embrace our offers, because of the traffic generated and or excellent margin, we do not force anyone.

We mention this here today because there is a bit of noise in the newsagency marketplace that we do force members to take up offers.

Better margins for newsXpress newsagents

newsXpress has secured another high-margin Christmas product offer for its members. This latest offer, in the fast moving social stationery / gift area, provides newsXpress newsagents with access to excellent quality branded product at extraordinary prices. Our members can expect to achieve margins of 70% and higher.

Representing more than 150 locations, newsXpress is able to deliver access to a network of proactive newsagents, making our group truly valuable to suppliers seeking to quit stock. Members taking up this latest offer can bank on thousands of dollars more than might have otherwise been available.

In today’s marketplace we anticipate seeing more opportunistic offers such as that just secured by newsXpress for its members. Our work in this area is another way we provide value of membership.

Greeting card workshop a winner in WA

Ron Thorpe, one of Australia’s foremost experts on greeting cards hosted a newsXpress greeting card workshop earlier this week in Perth. Ron’s workshop was the final leg in a national tour promoting smart management of and engagement with the greeting card category. It is training such as this which helps newsXpress stores drive above industry average same store year on year sales growth in the greeting card category.

Making Christmas gift packs

Alexandra Carey from newsXpress Deception Bay in Queensland has developed a unique gift idea for Christmas. By using small Christmas trees and adding themed items, Alexandra has created a range of gifts for customers.

The Toilet-tree has Christmas themed toilet paper, bubble bath, face washer and soap lollipop. The Secra-tree has a diary, a Zebra pen and a pack of post-it notes.

These packs make gift giving easy and add some fun to retail. Alexandra is making packs to order for customers. This is excellent innovation at a local store level!

newsXpress newsagents are innovative. They also share ideas for the greater good of the newsXpress community. Good things happen when like minded newsagents work together.

Excellent buying now for Boxing Day sales

newsXpress is helping its members set themselves up for bumper Boxing Day sales with another high margin offer. This time it is in the lucrative calendar category. newsXpress members have access to margins of 90% thanks to the work newsXpress has done on their behalf.

With exclusive first access to these deals, newsXpress members are better prepared to compete in the sales and art other times thanks to the national buying the group is able to leverage.

The newsXpress merchandise team relentlessly seeks out product offers such as the latest calendar deal on behalf of members as part of the service we offer.

newsXpress announces WA expansion

newsXpress yesterday introduced its Western Australian members to Jarrad Zanich, our new Business Development Manager working full time for newsXpress from mid January 2009. Jarrad is reluctantly leaving a successful role with Hallmark to join newsXpress. He will be responsible for growing our representation in Western Australia and helping our members derive greater success from their businesses. Here is the text of a press release issued today announcing Jarrad’s appointment.

NEWSXPRESS EXPANDS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA

newsXpress, the premier marketing group for Australian newsagents, has announced expansion in Western Australia with the appointment of Jarrad Zanich in a new role for the group as West Australian Business Development Manager.

Jarrad brings three years experience with Hallmark Cards as a successful Account Manager and prior to that, three years with Coca Cola Amatil as a Senior Business Development representative.

“Jarrad provides newsXpress with an excellent on-the-ground business development resource exclusive for our West Australian members.” said Graham Randall, founding Director of newsXpress. “his passion for newsagents and his proven business skills will help our business and the businesses of members excel”.

“I am excited to be joining the best newsagency marking group in Australia.” Jarrad Zanich commented. “To be able to walk into a newsagency and provide excellent business building resources is something is my passion.”

newsXpress Business Development Managers work very closely with newsXpress members in their businesses on newsXpress exclusive strategies. It is through this in-the-field connection with its members that newsXpress is able to outperform other marketing groups.

Jarrad will work with newsXpress full time covering all of Western Australia and assisted by others from the newsXpress national team.

The photo shows Jarrad with newsXpress founding Director Graham Randall.

Meeting members in Western Australia

We had an excellent members meeting in Perth yesterday where we reviewed 2008 and discussed plans for 2009. We shared details of several exclusive and valuable offers and discussed the details of forthcoming marketing initiatives. Western Australia is a strong market for newsXpress. Newsagents are welcoming our newsagency marketing group offer given the point of difference it provides.

Representing newsXpress yesterday was our National Sales Manager, Karen Sutton, our National Merchandise Manager, Ben Kay, our Card specialist Ron Thorpe and our Directors Graham Randall and Mark Fletcher. The depth of this team demonstrates our commitment to the West Australian marketplace.

Brisbane members meeting

We are hosting our last members meeting for the year in Brisbane on Thursday November 27. At this meeting we will cover our marketing plans for the first quarter of 2009 and share information of exclusive products offers available to newsXpress members. The meeting will be short so that our members are not kept from their businesses for too long in the lead up to Christmas.

We run this program of members meetings because networking is a key benefit for newsXpress newsagents. Over a few hours you get to mix with a group of proactive forward thinking newsagents. Every member every time leaves with new ideas for their business.

Newsagents considering joining a marketing group are welcome to contact us for an invitation to one of our members meetings. We gladly welcome prospective members to show off this important newsXpress point of difference.

Online members meeting

newsXpress is hosting an online members meeting for members unable to get to our current series of member meetings. Scheduled for Tuesday November 25 at 2pm, this meeting will include discussions on Back To School, Calendars, Diaries and our marketing and product plans for the first quarter of 2009. It will also include an open forum where members can provide input into our future plans. Dialogue such as this is a key newsXpress point of difference.

Our online member meeting strategy brings together members across state borders for a proactive business discussion. Our members tell us that the networking is genuinely valuable in building healthier businesses. When you put proactive newsagents together good things happen.

Member meetings, face to face and online, are a key part of the newsXpress offer. They supplement our in-store visits where we work one-on-one with members. This comprehensive business support is another newsXpress difference and a reason our stores perform so well across so many key newsagency categories.