High Performance Imports is another example of the magazine supply model letting newsagents down. With a sell through of between 30% and 30% we are not cut back – even though the performance of the title is well below reasonable benchmarks. I suspect supply is not cut because of distributor commitments to circulate all stock supplied to them. None of that respects or helps my business. Labour and real estate are abuse by this supply. While Network, the distributor responsible for this title, have improved this year, they have a way to go – in the meantime newsagents lose money on titles like this. What makes matters worse is that if I early return stock, I still sometimes have to jump through time wasting hoops to make sure I get the credit this month.
The sooner Network manage supply closer to sales of these titles – outside the top 200 – then the better for all newsagents.