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Henderson Greetings joins newsXpress as a preferred supplier

newsXpress welcomes Henderson Greetings as preferred supplier

MELBOURNE – July 7, 2009 — Newsagency marketing group newsXpress today welcomes Henderson Greetings as a preferred greeting card supplier to its group of 160 newsagencies.

The new strategic relationship between Henderson Greetings and newsXpress will see Henderson greeting cards represented in more newsXpress retail locations.

“We are thrilled to welcome Henderson Greetings to our preferred supplier group.” commented Graham Randall, Managing Director of newsXpress. “Their range of Australian made cards and our trading terms add value to the newsXpress greeting card offer.”

As a preferred supplier, Henderson Greetings will be given in-store preference by newsXpress and its members in the greeting card and related categories as well as access to newsXpress members at member meetings, Market Fairs and our National Conference in Melbourne in October.

“We have no doubt that your members will gain considerable benefit from our inclusion as a preferred supplier. We see our relationship with newsXpress as a perfect fit and look forward to our years working together.” said Tom Stevenson, Managing Director of Henderson Greetings.

Henderson account managers and newsXpress Business Development Managers will be confidentially communicating terms of the relationship with newsXpress members in the coming weeks.

Henderson Greetings has been operating in Australia for 13 years, having purchased the business of Henderson Publishers when it was retiring from business with a proud history of 50 years. A key factor in the company’s success is as Australian Licensee of Simon Elvin Ltd., England’s largest private manufacturer of cards and allied product. Simon Elvin is a significant player in the world market distributing to 70 countries throughout the world.

Excellent Mother’s Day at newsXpress Watergardens

Our corporate store, newsXpress Watergardens, had an excellent Mother’s Day season. The hero was our Hallmark Cards range. The feature was the free Sony camera one of our lucky customers will win. Sales have been exceptional. They are driving excellent results with gifts.

We created our corporate store as a place we can play as a business. This continues to work well for us as we try new products. It also works in providing the Directors with personal feedback on newsXpress strategies and supplier relationships.

newsXpress Watergardens is 100% Hallmark. Our range of cards is something our customers often comment about, especially around Mother’s Day when our display is so strong.

Renee and the newsXpress Watergardens team have done the newsXpress team proud this Mother’s Day.

The lucky charms which enhance newsagency sales

newsXpress members are enjoying success with the lucky charms in the photo and others of similar style. These are an ideal add on for a card purchase, a good way to extend the shopping basket. They are especiaally popular with women. newsXpress regularly works with suppliers on a range of basket extension opportunities. Products like the lucky charms are easy to try and locate within a busy shop. What can make them work well is the retail expertise newsXpress offers from being able to draw on the success of 160 stores.

Ron Thorpe guides newsXpress members on greeting cards

As National Business Development Manager for Hallmark Cards, Ron Thorpe developed an excellent reputation for his formidable knowledge about greeting cards and how newsagents can configure their businesses for optimum competition in this category. In his role with newsXpress, Ron guides the group on greeting card strategy. Our access to Ron’s insights and knowledge is a key point of difference in the newsXpress offer. Ron is also available as a resource to members on store-specific card issues.

newsXpress has assembled a team of experts to help in various parts of member businesses. Thanks to the expertise of Ron Thorpe and the rest of the team, newsXpress is able to help newsXpress newsagents lead the channel on year-on-year growth.

Sunbeam espresso machine prize for Valentine’s Day

Buy a Hallmark Valentine’s Day card at a participating newsXpress newsagency between now and February 14 and go in the draw to win a Sunbeam Espresso Machine. There is one Espresso machine on offer per participating newsXpress store – great odds for a great gift this Valentine’s Day. As the posters in-store say, Brew a little love … thanks to Hallmark and newsXpress.

newsXpress is proud to be part of this national campaign by Hallmark. Each store will conduct its own draw and call winners to let them know of their success with Hallmark and newsXpress.

Local prizes have been a successful marekting tool for our newsagency marketing group and are, in our view, a another reason our year on year (same store) greeting card sales growth is better than other newsagents.

Countdown to Christmas

The Hallmark Christmas countdown is a feature in newsXpress newsagencies across Australia. It is a bright beacon placed at the front of the shop drawing customers in for some good Christmas shopping.

Through the course of the year, newsXpress newsagencies receive considerable marketing collateral as part of the Hallmark relationship. This helps our stores outperform many other retailers in the greeting card and gift packaging categories.

At seasonal times and through the year, our merchandise team works closely with Hallmark to leverage the relationship for our members and our respective businesses. Core to this leverage is value, value to our brands and value to the consumer. Anyone can grab business today with a big discount. It takes strategy and commitment to build for the long term. This is the focus of the newsXpress / Hallmark relationship.

Setting up for a great Christmas

newsXpress Crows Nest have set themselves up for a great Christmas season with these impressive displays.

Daniel and the team have given some great merchandise treatment to greeting cards and gifts while paying attention to traditional themes with the accompanying decorations.

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.

Card workshop for Sydney

newsXpress is hosting a greeting card workshop in Sydney following its member’s meeting on November 13. This is a great opportunity for newsagents who want to grow their greeting card sales. Developed exclusively for newsXpress by Ron Thorpe, this workshop is packed with strategies you can use right away without spending more money. Based on years of experience and a good knowledge of strategies which are successful here in Australia and overseas, attendees are bound to leave ready to make some good moves in the card space.

newsXpress is a full service marketing group and this workshop is an excellent example of the company reinvesting in the newsagency channel to drive better business outcomes for newsagents.

Greeting card workshop adds value

Some of our Queensland newsXpress members participated in the Ron Thorpe led greeting card workshop yesterday – some traveling from as far north as Cairns for the half day workshop.

Training opportunities such as this are an important part of the newsXpress experience. Helping newsagents work on their businesses, developing a better shop layout, improving processes and driving better business decisions are key objectives we pitch when newsagents consider joining with us.

Newsagents can influence the success of the card department much more than they think possible and through this workshop and thanks to the experience of Ron Thorpe we are able to help our members achieve this.

newsXpress provides a host of training opportunities for newsagents and staff members. This commitment to continuous improvement is essential is a competitive retail environment.

Making Money from Greeting Cards

In another first for the newsagency channel, newsXpress hosted the first of a series of Greeting Card training workshops yesterday in Melbourne. The Making Money from Greeting Cards workshop was run by Ron Thorpe, one of the most experienced greeting card professionals in Australia. This workshop now moves to Brisbane later this week.

Packed with practical advice, this session provided attendees with a clear action-plan for greeting cards in their newsagencies. Part of this action-plan was developed through two interactive sessions with newsagents sharing ideas with others.

Too often, newsagents leave greeting cards to be managed by their card company. Over the course of half a day, Ron shared practical strategies which newsXpress members can use to work this category to greater commercial advantage. His advice was drawn from decades of experience with Hallmark and a thorough knowledge of worldwide best practice in greeting card retail.

newsXpress has developed this workshop as another way the group helps members achieve a better return from their businesses and thereby improve the sale value when it comes time to exit from the business.

newsXpress newsagents can expect to achieve more from the Greeting Card category than an average newsagency. This is, in part, thanks to having Ron Thorpe on our team and delivering training like the workshop yesterday.

Making money from Greeting Cards

newsXpress is proud to announce the launch of its first Workshop series: How to Make Money from Greeting Cards. Developed and run by Ron Thorpe, formerly a senior executive with Hallmark Cards, this four hour workshop (followed by lunch) will provide practical help for any newsagent wanting to grow greeting card sales. The workshop content will include:

How to see new retail sales opportunities
Planning for extra sales
How to increase the average sale
Why you need to embrace the greeting cards category

Too many newsagents treat greeting cards as a set-and-forget category. Our approach at newsXpress is to provide members with exclusive tools which help drive card sales and ensure that these are as valuable as possible. Click here for more details and a booking form for the Ron Thorpe workshop.

We know from sales data that newsXpress newsagents lead the newsagent channel in year on year card sales performance. This workshop is part of our strategy to help our stores to continue to lead the industry.

newsXpress will announce details of more workshops in the coming months.

Win a watch for Dad

newsXpress stores are each offering a watch for one lucky Dad this Father’s Day. Run in association with Hallmark, this competition is popular because it offers a prize at the store level. Newsagents tell us this is important, that one of their customers is guaranteed to win. The watch promotion is another way newsXpress newsagencies are playing in a different space to many others. While the watch is on offer to Hallmark Alliance Program newsagents, newsXpress members are part of the Alliance program for no cost – this is a key deliverable from joining newsXpress.

A typical newsXpress store, embracing all of the marketing and support in the greeting card space, will achieve same store year on year sales growth in the double digits without giving away margin. newsXpress offers a host of strategies which guide this outcome.

At our national conference later this month on the Gold Coast we will share some confidential insights into the greeting card market and seek to help our members power even further ahead in this important category.

GREETING CARD SALES GROWING AT SEYMOUR

Vaughan Lawrence and the team at newsXpress Seymour have grown card sales by 38% since switching to Hallmark Cards. Yes they made some changes by bringing the cards to the front of the store which has also helped, but the stunning growth is mainly attributed to the new range of cards. The added promotions from the Hallmark Alliance Program which is supplied have also been a key contributor to this stunning growth with the store recently giving away a Giant 36″ Forever Friends bear as a part of the promotion.

They cant wait to see the growth at Fathers Day!

Imagine the growth when newsXpress Seymour gets a shop fit which is planned for the future.

STELLAR GROWTH IN GREETING CARDS WITH HALLMARK

John Klemm at newsXpress Klemms Mildura has started trading with Hallmark as part of him joining newsXpress. The Hallmark strategic relationship has been extremely beneficial for all parties concerned and their strong and bold branding plus quality product have seen massive sales increases throughout the newsXpress network.

All John can say is that he is astounded with the growth in his greeting card sales. The pictures tell the story!

newsXpress Woden enjoy a well earned Interfit!

newsXpress Woden in the ACT have spent the last three weeks operating off trestle tables in their shopping centre due to a brand new shopfit being completed in their store.

Despite the tight time-lines interfit retail completed on schedule and Anthony and Nicole were able to open on time today!

The shop looks sensational, and team at newsXpress Woden are equally excited, tired, proud and motivated!!!

Promotion impact at newsXpress Beechworth

If you have visited newsXpress Beechworth in the last few weeks there can be no doubt that they are spreading the Care & Friendship message loud and proud!

Tracy, Vaughan and the team have done a fantastic job of both highlighting the consumer competition (win a giant 36″ Forever Friends Bear) but also merchandising their range of Forever Friends and Wellington product in a manner that makes it both enticing to prospective consumers and also maximises the opportunity for add on sales.

newsXpress Warrnambool embracing promotions

newsXpress Warrnambool wholeheartedly embraced the exclusive Hallmark Alliance Care & Friendship promotion with stunning results.

As a relatively new member to the group they have already implemented a number of our key strategies and business models which are proving a motivating force.

Adapting to suit changing needs of consumers

Brett and Alexandra Carey of newsXpress Deception Bay have done a magnificent job combining two very different promotions and also introducing a new ‘kid’s corner’ initiative.

The Care & Friendship Promotion exclusive to newsXpress through the Hallmark Alliance relationship builds sales by encouraging customers to purchase multiple products in the Forever Friends and Welloington Bear range – the prize a giant 36″ cuddly Forever Friends Bear!

The ABW Mid-Year Book promotion as seen in the photos has proved a great success throughout our network of stores.

And finally the introduction of a ‘kiddies corner’ which encourages greater duration of time shopping the store, while also providing a conscientious and creative local community service.