After gaining an excellent footprint in newsagencies, Bill Express has announced the signing of a heads of agreement with ETT which will see kiosks offering Bill Express products and services in McDonalds stores. (The ETT announcement has more detail.)
While Bill Express needs to do what is right for its shareholders, they went into newsagencies making certain promises on driving traffic to newsagencies and newsagents being their preferred retail network. The work with newsagents in nowhere near done yet they are developing the retail brand elsewhere. The announcement yesterday risks diluting the newsagent/Bill Express connection.
Newsagents have committed significant leases to fund the Bill Express equipment in their stores and many will be wondering about that investment in the context of the McDonalds move.
Bill Express will pitch that their move is about serving the consumer. I could be persuaded to agree with that. However, there is plenty of consumer satisfaction which could be achieved in the 3,500 or so newsagents offering Bill Express today and this should be the focus ahead of the McDonalds project. The easier it is to sell Bill Express products and services in newsagencies the greater the sales and the more suppliers who will be attracted to the network.
If the announcement is more about kiosk type operation then locating the kiosks in newsagencies might have been a better first step.
I hope this is not a case of independent small business retailers being beaten by a giant US corporation like McDonalds. Only time will tell.
Footnote to those precious souls who read my opinion here and mistake criticism here as an indication that I am against them and or their position on the topic under discussion. To make such an assumption would be wrong. I mention this because of recent comments from people representing businesses I have commented on. There is nothing to lose and plenty to gain from robust debate.