Presentations from the European Forum 2023:
09.00 The state of the European Business Supplies industry
The recently published OPI State of the Industry Report is an invaluable insight into the current state of the business supplies market. Using this resource the presentation will explore the market size of core business supplies, volume, value changes and margin trends. It examines the top performing and the most declining product categories as well as reviewing the distribution channels that have increased and decreased the most. This snapshot of the market will offer a great foundation for the rest of the Forum and insights that are invaluable to your business.
Chris Exner, Chief Commercial Officer, OPI
09.15 State of the industry panel
The opening session will set the scene and examine the current state of the industry following several tumultuous years of challenge and change. It will comprise short, focused interviews with key leaders from a range of channels who will share their thoughts on the opportunities over the coming months.
Speakers:
Christian Horn, Chief Product and Supply Chain Officer, RS Group
Alain Josse, Managing Director, Office Supplies Europe, Raja Group
Christian Langvad, VP Operations, Schäfer Shop Group
Lee Mellor, VP Europe, SC Johnson Professional
Cezary Mońko, President, ACCO Brands EMEA
10.15 Is the office still relevant?
Hybrid working is now working. The office today is a place primarily for social interactions, and they need to be redesigned and organised to reflect this change. Workers also need to be engaged to keep productivity levels high and employers will need to manage this as they cope with economic pressures and lease arrangements. The good news is that all this means increased spend in office equipment! Join Mick Heys as he discusses the office of the future.
– The emergence of hub & spoke
– How companies are investing in redesign
– Impact on technology sales
Mick Heys, VP, Imaging & Future of WorkSpace Practice Lead, IDC
11.30 How the right team can solve your biggest challenges
In January 2023, PwC published a comprehensive review of what is challenging CEOs in the world of work. At the same time, Edelman’s now pivotal Trust Barometer for 2023 presents the issues we are facing around purposeful, people-centric approaches to doing business. With a seemingly endless stack of complex challenges, how can we make sense of the truly turbulent world we’re operating in?
Join us to hear from Perry Timms, ranked the No 1 Most Influential Thinker in HR in 2022, who will distil all of this into a winning formula of decisive leadership with pragmatic and impactful people, culture and learning activities. Be prepared for not just Web 3.0, but for HR 3.0.
Perry Timms, founder & Chief Energy Officer, People and Transformational HR
13.30 Managing price in an inflationary market
James Brown and Juriaan Deumer will explore how best-in-class companies are managing price in today’s high inflation market. They will set the context, looking at both the drivers behind the price rises we are seeing as well as the capability gap that exists across industries when it comes to navigating this environment.
They will then share select case examples and a nine-step programme for boosting the likelihood of successfully implementing price increases.
James Brown, Senior Partner, Managing Director UK, Simon-Kucher & Partners
Juriaan Deumer, Partner, Simon-Kucher & Partners
16.50 How everywhere commerce can drive sales and loyalty
Gaining visibility and driving long-term consumer engagement in an increasingly complex digital world is a challenge. The available touchpoints are vast in number, and ensuring they are knitted together to achieve your strategic goals and optimise ROI is time-consuming and can be expensive and resource intensive. Overreliance on Amazon is problematic, as is the disintermediation of the actual ‘end user’ from the seller. During this presentation, Gordon Christiansen will outline many of the levers available to brands across the digital landscape and provide practical examples of how they can build plans that carry consumers through the modern sales funnel.
Gordon Christiansen, Partner, Highlands
09.05 Hygiene as the foundation for a healthier business
In 2023, businesses are facing new challenges to create clean and healthy environments for their employees and customers. Both are now hyper-aware of hygiene in the wake of the pandemic. With unprecedented levels of transferable illnesses (cold & flu, strep A, RSV), resulting in 145 million workdays lost each year, the need to maintain hygiene in the workplace has never been greater. This is why Dettol Pro Solutions believes “Hygiene is the Foundation of Healthier Business”.
This session will cover key trends impacting the cleaning and hygiene market. How manufacturers and office supplies companies can partner together to create clean and hygienic spaces, saving time and reducing costs with less absenteeism and improved productivity, to give end customer businesses a competitive advantage, using Dettol Pro Solutions as a case study.
Jonathan Weiss, Commercial Director B2B Europe, Australia & New Zealand, Reckitt
09.45 From order-taking tool to selling machine: The consumerisation of B2B e-commerce
For a long time, B2B websites just had to work – no one expected them to be beautiful. However, the online world does not stand still for long and COVID accelerated everything. The pandemic sent business users online, even those who had never considered it before. A lot of websites were launched that just performed the basic functions and saw companies through that challenging time.
However, the post-COVID landscape is now evolving with online B2B users becoming more sophisticated and, with Amazon and others raising the bar, these customers now expect a more consumer-style experience from a website. Not only should B2B sites be beautiful, they should be seamless too, integrating all parts of the business to give the user a smooth and unified experience.
This session will discuss what the consumer expects and how you can achieve a best-in-class website experience to drive sales and customer satisfaction.
Patrick Donnelly, Managing Director, ES Tech Group
11.00 How to stop Amazon eating your lunch: the secret to competitor pricing intelligence with four key takeaways for success
With online growth continuing to outpace expectations in a turbulent global polycrisis, retailers are looking for innovative strategies to stay competitive. This presentation delves into why competitor pricing intelligence matters and how it can be used effectively as a secret weapon by business product suppliers. You’ll gain a solid understanding of how competitive pricing intelligence gives you the edge, with actionable insights on how to leverage data and make better-informed pricing decisions to lift volumes, revenue and margins.
Andrew Senior, founder, Skuuudle
11.45 Stories from the coalface
Independent expert Robert Baldrey has been in the industry for almost 40 years, working for Spicers, EVO, Staples Solutions and Office Depot Europe among others.
In this session, he will look back on his turnaround and restructuring experience, highlighting common pitfalls and problems that typically prevent profitable growth and value creation. Some of this may be common sense, but Robert will undoubtedly provide delegates with helpful and entertaining food for thought for their own businesses.
Robert Baldrey, independent industry expert
