I have been actively promoting ink in my newsagencies since 2004 as regular readers here would know. Today, ink accounts for 40% of stationery sales and continues to deliver excellent year on year sales growth. This year has also seen excellent margin percentage growth. These two points combined with the new traffic the ink flyers generate maake ink a financially rewarding category.
Underneath these top line numbers is another story about ink which is lost on some ignorant people who talk down the value ink can have on a newsagency.
Ink is an efficient category on several fronts. Managed well, without much time investment, it can easily deliver a stock turn of between seven and ten times a year, more in some newsagencies. It’s return on investment is considerably above most other departments in our stores.
But the measure which I really like is the sales efficiency, the frequency with which ink is in the shopping basket with more items. Sometimes this is where ink is the add-on item. More often, however, ink is the product which drew in the shopper and the other items are the cream.
I have two newsagencies with permanent ink refill and cheap generic ink cartridge competitors just a few metres away. I prefer the shoppers who value brands as I see these shoppers as more likely to be loyal to their brand of choice and the retailers who support the brand than shoppers who prefer cheap, and often inferior, product.
I’m with you Mark, ink is more important than general stationery here.