Sales of our exclusive newsXpress calendar are strong. With this calendar offering we cut out a middleman, improved margin, delivered an excellent calendar for a lower price and setup marketing initiatives for 2007 – the calendar includes 24 coupons which customers will bring back to our shop (and other newsXpress outlets) through 2007 to redeem for offers. Being exclusive to newsXpress, means our stores have a valuable point of difference in our calendar offering – rather than relying of suppliers to trim margin, we have, as a unified group, negotiated commercially and with considerable success.
This is a new approach for newsagents – it’s what we MUST do for our future. We need to exert more control over our range, improve margin and branch out into new areas which provide the traffic necessary to deliver a bright future. Our existing suppliers are not going to deliver the growth and margin we need – certainly not with exclusive product. If we don’t want to become general stores we must control more of what we sell. Hence the welcome first steps this month by newsXpress.
Disclosure – I am a shareholder in and Director of newsXpress Pty Ltd