5 minutes with Wihan Oosthuizen
Describe what you do in fewer than 20 words:I look after our office furniture division, production of our catalogues and our national sales programme.What was your first full-time job?The South African Defence Force. In...
Editor’s Comment
Let's be flexibleIn developed economies, flexible working has become a hot topic; compressing working hours into a four-day week, taking extended holidays or working from home a few days a week are some examples....
Tesco targets Amazon model
In a move which is seen as its first steps to rival established online players such as Amazon and eBay, Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer – and the third global retailer behind Walmart and Carrefour...
French firms agree superstore partnership
There seems to be no stopping the growth of locally-owned office supplies superstores in France at the moment.At its annual members’ meeting in March, purchasing group Rouge Papier announced that it had signed a partnership...
School’s out for Depot and US Communities
Office Depot’s recently cancelled US Communities classroom supplies contract was achieving just over a quarter of the sales originally estimated.The RFP documents issued by the lead public agency Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) at the...
Plaisio: Managing the crisis
Increasing EBITDA by 22% and pre-tax profit by 75% is good in anyone’s book, but achieving that in the context of the Greek economy is impressive.But that’s what leading Greek IT and office supplies reseller...
Biella swoops for Falken
Swiss manufacturer Biella has become one of Europe’s leading players in the lever arch file (LAF) product category after acquiring Falken Office Products and its two subsidiaries from German vendor Herlitz at the beginning of April.The...
Category analysis: Antimicrobial
There are many facets to antimicrobial products and their credentials. Are they environmentally sound; do they give value for money; are they harmful; do they, quite simply, work? In March, a primary school in the UK...
Category analysis: Cut Paper
"The weak economic environment in Europe and slow economic growth in North America, along with an ongoing secular decline in paper consumption in most developed markets, are driving down demand."Judging by the above comments on...
Homing in: The state of the SOHO market
At the height of the worldwide financial crisis in 2008/9, statisticians in various guises couldn’t publish enough information on the number of people setting up their own small businesses (often as a result of their...
Big Interview: Steve Law
Lyreco has long been synonymous with consistency, so it must have been something of a shock to the system to see a new CEO come and go in the space of a mere eight months...
