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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.

New newsXpress website coming

newsXpress is close to releasing the first stage of our brand new website. This website will provide our group and our members with an even more competitive framework on several fronts. The new website was announced at our National Conference and is the result of considerable research and development effort – to create something of unique value.

Free calendar marketing collateral

Our marketing team has created new marketing collateral to help newsXpress stores promote the excellent range of calendars available this year. The A2 colour posters are provided to members free of charge, as part of our marketing commitment.

We see newsXpress stores which generate a gross profit contribution of upwards of $50,000 a year from calendars. In the high street and rural situations we see members generating well in excess of $10,000 gross profit contribution. This is growing year by year, ahead of many other departments in newsagencies. This excellent GP contribution and growth is achieved through the exclusive newsXpress calendar offer.

newsXpress leads the newsagency channel in calendars. Our members have access to:

Better range – providing an excellent point of difference.
Better pricing – you make more off each calendar.
Better in-store marketing collateral – posters, a catalogue and other materials..
Better product support from our in-house calendar expert – help with ordering, merchandising, pricing and consumer questions.
Smart branding – through promoting calendars under a collective sub brand, calendarXpress, and reaching more consumers than a traditional newsagency promotion would attract.

Excellent Christmas offer for newsXpress members

newsXpress has put an excellent offer offer of discounted premium Christmas stock to its members. This range of well-known branded items will sell for a margin of 80% and still be excellent value for customers. The products are a perfect fit for newsagencies. newsXpress is the only newsagency marketing group offering this stock to its members.

The products are ideal impulse lines and make for excellent Christmas gifts for neighbours, friends and family members. They represent a new category of item for many newsagents yet will sell very easily.

This is one of several offers being put to newsXpress members leading up to Christmas. It is part of our merchandise team’s commitment to source excellent value deals to help our members increase sales and achieve more valuable margins.

We are not about to publish the details of the offer here as it is exclusive to newsXpress members. It is another benefit of membership with our newsagency marketing group.

Brilliant calendar display at Indooroopilly

The team at newsXpress Indooroopilly has created a stunning calendar outpost at their centre in Brisbane. A visit to the outpost will show what a smart newsagent can do to compete with bigger retailers. This aerial photo shows how they have embraced newsXpress corporate style. The outpost is a world class consumer friendly brand focused calendar story.

The calendarXpress branding of the outpost is another sub brand of newsXpress, focused solely on the lucrative calendar offer.

newsXpress works with its members on strategies such as this outpost from design up. We have a range of outpost and hero product merchandising options available for group members to consider.

NSW members meeting

Our members meeting in NSW yesterday was very well attended. It is terrific so many newsagents could take time out of their busy Christmas season to network with fellow newsagents and soak up some newsXpress exclusive training. Meetings like offer an excellent networking opportunity for newsXpress members and prospective members. They are also a great sounding board for new initiatives being considered by the group.

Yesterday’s meeting included a good discussion about strategies for building financially healthier businesses – proactive newsagents talking and working with each other on a common goal. This is where the real value of being part of newsXpress lies.

Protecting the newsXpress brand

As newsXpress grows across Australia, more newsagents, suppliers and other stakeholders are relying on the broader newsXpress community to protect our brand. This is why we have standards for newsagencies trading under our brand. Newsagents who are unwilling to meet these minimum standards over a reasonable period of time are invited to find a home elsewhere for their business.

While this approach may seem harsh, there is no point in building and promoting a brand if it does not stand for something unique and valuable.

Christmas gift support

newsXpress has created innovative marketing collateral to support our range of Christmas gift offers. The collateral makes each hero product, well, a hero and helps our members pitch their newsagencies as great places to shop this Christmas.

Our merchandise team has negotiated good deals around a range of carefully selected gift and related products to help our stores make the most of the Christmas gift opportunity. These products help us position our group differently to the more traditional newsagency.

Our exclusive Christmas collateral is being provided without cost to all newsXpress member stores.

At our National Support Centre newsXpress has a team of people working on opportunities such as our Christmas offer. Each opportunity is carefully considered and weighed against the needs of our diverse member group. Member meetings such as those being run this week and next provide us with opportunities to gain member feedback on our offers and refine them as necessary.

Here at newsXpress we take our role of helping our members grow their businesses seriously – even for a fun season like Christmas.

Giving away 20 Nintendo Wii

newsXpress is giving away twenty Nintendo Wii as part of its in-store Back To School promotion. To enter, consumers will register following their purchase in a newsXpress newsagency at our new website.

We selected the Wii because it connects well with the target demographic for Back To School.

newsXpress has been able to deliver this valuable prize pool thanks to the generous support of the key brands featured in our Back To School catalogue and in our supporting advertising.

Get organised for 2009

Get organised for 2009 is the call to action in our marketing collateral around diaries and calendars this year. newsXpress is helping its members leverage excellent diary and calendar sales this year through marketing collateral like the A5 brochure in the photo. Many of our members are using this to draw shoppers in. The key brands focus as well as a strong environmental message are helping to drive success.

Thanks to excellent negotiation by newsXpress we have been able to deliver very competitive pricing to our members and thereby strengthened the economic value of the diary and calendar categories. Some new members find that their entire year’s membership fee is funded from the additional margin they make from one season of calendars.

Members meeting in Sydney

We are hosting a meeting with our NSW members on Thursday this week at the Ryde Paramatta Golf Club in West Ryde. This morning meeting will be followed by a lunch and then a workshop on making more from greeting cards conducted by Ron Thorpe.

Even though it is a busy time of year for newsagents we have excellent bookings from members keen to attend. We have a packed agenda with some excellent initiatives to share. We will also be seeking member feedback on several opportunities presented to our group.

newsXpress members know the value of networking as well as developing skills. These member meetings are a blend of both as well as an opportunity to discuss exclusive supplier offers.

newsXpress is glad to welcome prospective members to these meetings. For an invitation please make contact with us.

Record Back To School uptake

Our merchandise team is thrilled with the numbers for our newsXpress exclusive Back To School offer. More members have ordered more product than any other Back To School offer from the group. This support is very encouraging.

Our approach with Back To School this year has been to provide a campaign which can work in with the widely supported GNS offer. Our catalogue can run alongside or before or after the GNS Back To School offer. The product cross over is minimal. Members have told us that they like this synergy. We like it too. It seemed smart to us.

Lease help for newsagents

Negotiating a lease is a daunting task, one which often overwhelms newsagents as they navigate dealing with tough negotiators and are confronted with lease agreements which are burdened with legal jargon and unfair clauses which can, over the long term, devalue a newsagency.

To help newsXpress members navigate lease negotiations, newsXpress has a lease Consultant on our team. Chris Hicks has years of experience in lease negotiations with all of Australia’s major landlords as well as many small independent developers.

Chris liaises with the landlord, takes the emotion out of negotiation and leaves the newsagent to get on with building the business.

Chris Hicks’ service to newsXpress members sees him provide day to day help on lease issues which arise long after the lease is signed. Issues such as outposting, lease lines, shop-fits and other operational matters can be resolved thanks to Chris’ help.

Over the last two years, Chris has successfully negotiated fifty new leases for newsXpress members.

Lease advice and support is another benefit newsagents can access when they join newsXpress. It is part of a host of services we provide access to through our membership.

The customer focused newsagency marketing group

newsXpress continually looks for opportunities through which our members can enhance the customer experience and relationship. We do this knowing that to many consumers it is the relationship they have which determines their shopping loyalty. Through the year newsXpress offers a range of strategies and products through which our members can build stronger relationships with their customers.

This Christmas, we are offering our members exclusive access to personalised Things To Do pads as a customer gift. These pads will be put to good use by newsXpress newsagency customers and each time they are used there is a reminder of the business.

Newsagency marketing is more than the key and important seasons such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas and the like. No, it is about relentless attention to detail in pursuit of a truly valuable relationship with customers.

The newsXpress exclusive Things To Do pad strategy, while small in focus, demonstrates how we obsess about the relationships our members have with their customers.

Magazine headers drive sales growth

Magazines are included in, on average, half of all purchases made in newsagencies. While the category faces some challenges, we know from our private newsXpress same store year-on-year data analysis that growth can be achieved. newsXpress pursues magazine sales growth through a considered business management strategy. We work closely with our members on a multi-faceted strategy which helps newsXpress newsagents resolve supply issues efficiently, improves the shopper experience and rewards loyalty.

A small but important part of our approach to magazines is our use of newsXpress branded headers in-store. These are placed at the top of each column of magazines. Our magazine headers clearly identify categories, identify the MPA (Magazine Publishers of Australia) code and thereby make title placement by newsagent staff easier and more consistent and make the department look professional.

Shoppers react well to our newsXpress magazine headers – they can more easily find the category they want. We have received complimentary comments about how professional they make the magazine department look.

Magazine headers are part of the starter pack new newsXpress members receive when they join our group. They, along with other magazine elements in our starter pack, allow us to introduce newsXpress strategies to new members as they prepare to re-launch under the newsXpress brand.

The headers are part of the reason newsXpress newsagencies outperform other newsagencies in year-on-year same store magazine sales.