Two years ago I lamented here about a disastrous year with calendars. Last year was good thanks to joining calendarXpress. This year is good too – again thanks to calendarXpress. The calendarXpress model is driving better range decisions and better margin and turning calendars into a valuable seasonal promotion – considerably more valuable in my Forest Hill store than back to school. This success is, in part, a commentary on the demographic and, in part, a commentary on the different labour and capital investments in calendars compared to stationery.
While I have been a shareholder in newsXpress since 2005 it was only last year that I embraced the calendarXpress side of the business having had a bad calendar experience a year or two earlier. What I am finding now is that the mistakes I made are eliminated and I am archiving a better margin than before. Plus new customers are being attracted to the business. This is because of the 140 or so calendarXpress locations – not all of which are newsXpress locations – and the benefits of negotiating as a group.
I don’t mean this to sound like an ad for calendarXpress because it’s not. People reading here over the last three years will know something of the journey I have been on with calendars at Forest Hill. Having stumbled taking a typical newsagent approach it is good to see the discipline of the calendarXpress approach work for the second year in a row.
I have been doing Calendars of both General subects (flowers and nature) and Cairns and the Suburbs, and have been doing quite well. I am looking to start selling down south and in the future paint those areas as I have here. Does anyone know of those newsagents interested? Please contact me if so. Thanks.