Rob Henderson, our National Merchandise Manager, is supporting Movember with his Mo. Rob is doing this in support of The Eastfield cricket club with whom he plays and to raise awareness of prostate cancer during November. The majority of players are growing or have grown facial hair to raise the awareness of the campaign.
If you’d like to support Rob’s fundraising efforts, please click here.
The Singleton Argus has a good story in the latest issue about newsXpress Singleton Heights being announced co-winner of the newsXpress Retailer of the Year Award at our National Conference in Melbourne last month. In the article, Jarryd Moore, co-manager of the business, credited the team and explains what drives them evolve the business:
Our staff have been keeping up with the trends and without their willingness to embrace the new things we take on board, we could not deliver such a terrific customer service.
With such a large number of competitors, and not just newsagencies but other stationary suppliers, we have to maintain good prices and cater for everyone.
It’s about changing things up, introducing new things and trying things even if they sound a bit out there to begin with.
newsXpress presents many opportunities for members to drive better traffic and better margin in their businesses. Those who embrace these opportunities are doing very well in building healthier businesses. They show the newsXpress difference at work.
Photo credit: The Singleton Argus
newsXpress Leongatha has launched the environmentally friendly O’BON range. Following the newsXpress recommended planogram, they have an excellent range of sugar cane pulp journals and folders as well as pencils made from recycled newspapers. Through the O’BON planogram, newsXpress Leongatha is promoting a good environmental story, educating consumers, demonstrating a point of difference and driving good business as a result.
newsXpress gives its members the option of when they want their Back To School campaign kicks in. For some, that is about now. This is why we have provided back To School brochures and other collateral to these members. They are chasing orders for the 2010 year prior to the end of this year. Our Back To School catalogue continues the newsXpress commitment to brands with UHU, O’BON, Maped, Artline, uni, Post-it, Canson, Pentel and Crayola all well represented.
The newsXpress Back To School catalogue also offers twilight themed product – because we recognise that school is not all about work and no play.
Ranging the Obon green stationery products is easy for newsXpress members thanks to the work between Obon and our merchandise team on planograms for a variety of situations. Sales reported by members across the country tell us that the combined effort is working well. newsXpress is proud to have launched Obon in the newsagency channel.
newsXpress has put together a range of New Year offers for members wanting to make the most of this big party night. Thanks to support from several suppliers, we have created gift and party offers which work in a variety of situations. These offers were put to newsXpress members last week.
The sorted range from hiPP has been introduced by newsXpress Leongatha to extend their home office / organisational products range. newsXpress is proud to be working closely with hiPP on the introduction of this new range of products to the newsagency channel.
Our merchandise team saw early on the value leading newsXpress members into a new product niche. newsXpress Leongatha, terrific business innovators, did not take much convincing to embrace the sorted range.
newsXpress locations introducing sorted from hiPP are doing so following a planogram developed to professionally and efficiently represent the whole range.
newsXpress has delivered hundreds of thousands of catalogues to homes around newsXpress locations participating in our Merry Giftmas Christmas promotion.
In addition to catalogues, stores have been provided with A1 double sided colour posters and price tickets – promoting catalogue items.
The range of professional collateral provided by newsXpress is a further example of the care we take to help our members tell a complete story for key seasons such as Christmas. From the brochure in the letterbox to the price ticket in front of a promotional ietm, the visual connection is consistent and enticing.
newsXpress Pakenham made the pages of their local newspaper with a story about a great competition win for a customer. Melanie Smith won the full Harry Potter chess set valued at $462. Rowan and Dianne Higgon at newsXpress Pakenham put asise each issue of this special part series over months to create a prize. The competition was run as part of their recent relaunch following considerable modifications to their business. This is excellent business initiative.
Well done newsXpress Pakenham!
newsXpress has developed addditional Christmas marketing collateral for use by stores in promoting stocking stuffer gifts. This collateral has been provided to our members through our regular email communication.
This new collateral visually connects with the A1 Merry Giftmas posters we sent out a few weeks ago. It is designed specifically for displays of lower priced Christmas gift items – some of which featured in the catalogue distributed to homes around newsXpress stores a week ago.
newsXpress recognises the importance of refreshing offers through the Christmas season.
newsXpress Wetherill Park has won a supplier-funded award for their stunning merchandising display for product associated with the new Twilight movie, new moon. The display promotes new moon board game, new moon calendars, new moon jewellery and new moon themed magazines.
As this and other recent photos on this blog show, newsXpress members are committed to bold visual merchandising around strong licences which serve across multiple categories. This is especially true when the licence reaches into strong magazine traffic as it presents an opportunity to leverage this for higher margin business.
newsXpress members are banking excellent results from our licence product strategy. It offers an excellent example of the newsXpress difference in action.
Congratulations to newsXpress Wetherill Park for such great leadership.
newsXpress Forest Hill (Victoria) is using the newsXpress supplied calendar posters above their calendar display and diary posters above diary product. They are great signposts to the appropriate areas of the shop – making it easier for customers on a mission and to divert others who may have visited for another purpose.
newsXpress prints it’s posters in A1 size, in colour and on heavy duty stock. We understand the value of good quality marketing collateral. A1 posters for all major seasons and opportunities are provided free of charge to newsXpress members.
We love receiving photos from newsXpress members showing how they have used newsXpress provided marketing collateral. It is one thing for our creative team to develop the collateral and another entirely to see how it is used in-store.
Congratulations to newsXpress Maryborough (Victoria) on selling a first division winning ticket in Saturday’s lotto draw. This is their second first division winner in fourteen weeks!
In another first, newsXpress is pleased to be participating in the national launch of sorted, a range of home office organisation products from hiPP. Many months in the making, newsXpress has played a key role in bringing this product to market. Planogrammed to tell a bold brand-based story in newsXpress and selected other retailers, sorted places newsXpress into a new niche which straddles stationery, office products and gifts. As one customer said recently, this is Smiggle for adults.
Bringing sorted to market is another example of innovation from newsXpress and our proactive group of partner suppliers. The good margin range will drive new traffic and extend the basket of shoppers. It provides an excellent point of difference for newsXpress locations and newsXpress as a group.
newsXpress is demonstrating its commitment to brands and strategic merchandise moves with its Christmas gift offering. Our merchandise team has sourced gift product which connects with key magazine, partworks, greeting card and departments. By bringing in additional product under licences such as Ben 10, Twilight, Toy Story and In the Night Garden, the newsXpress merchandise team is providing our members with the ability to promote across departments and drive more effficient shopping baskets.
leveraging excellent traffic for more efficient and better margin business is another beenefit of newsXpress membership.
new moon calendars, the new moon board game, magazines and other products are in prime position in this excellent display at newsXpress Forest Hill in Victoria. Drawing attention to the product display is the A0 poster provided by newsXpress.
Interest in the new moon movie is huge, one only has to see the magazine coverage of the stars and the movie launch.
newsXpress has taken a leadership role in bringing to its members new moon products beyond traditional newsagency items and thereby helped our members achieve more efficient new moon focused shopping. This is a great example of the newsXpress difference in action and the value of using a core category such as magazines to drive sales elsewhere in the business.
The display at newsXpress Forest Hill looks stunning in person and captures the feel of Twilight in a high traffic area of the business.
The team at newsXpress Sarina has put together a good display supporting the newsXpress new moon movie marketing initiative. Their front of store display looks stunning – from the A0 poster to the table of new moon merchandise, they are making bold statement.
It would be hard for Twilight fans to go past the products in this display and not stop to shop.
newsXpress has sourced a range of new moon product including calendars, a board game, jewellery and other items. This is wonderfully augmented by new moon related magazines – of which there are plenty at the moment in our stores.
We received a good turnout at our Brisbane members meeting earlier this week and covered plenty of ground in the afternoon session. As is often the case, newsXpress members talking with each other and sharing ideas is the most important part of such gatherings. There were several business development ideas discussed yesterday which would be easy to implement with little or no capital investment.
Consistent small steps of progress across multiple categories combine to make for more successful businesses.
newsXpress will continue to facilitate regular member meetings to maintain conversation between our proactive members.
The new planograms from Crayola are rolling out to newsXpress locations. newsXpress Riverlink installed theirs and are very happy with the result. It looks good and is attracting customer interest.
The newsXpress planogram strategy is all about the professional representation of strong national brands in our stores across Australia and through them achieving better return on investment than the traditional local store look for this type of product.
Planograms like this offer from Crayola places newsXpress in a competitive and more visually appealing position than many other retailers. newsXpress members can bank the results.
newsXpress radio today has been taking time, Remembrance day 2009, to honour soldiers who have fallen in battle protecting Australia. We are pleased to have a growing network of stores offering newsXpress radio and thereby connecting our in-store retail experience with important days and events.