Publishers of The Saturday Paper, Winning Post, Best Bets and a bunch of other titles should listen to concerns raised by newsagents about the out of date data handling processes of Wrapaway, the new distributor of these titles following the closure of the IPS business.
Wrapaway does not provide electronic invoices. Indeed, they do not incline until the end of the month.
For close to 20 years newsagents have been receiving magazine inventory with electronic invoices. Electronic invoices save time, guide accuracy and facilitate stock inwards reconciliation.
The Wrapaway manual processes cost newsagents time, accuracy and the ability to reasonably manage incoming stock.
One newsagent told me last week that the move to Wrapaway has added at least 30 minutes additional work each week, morning work, which has to be covered in the roster. The actual cost is close to $15.00. That hurts when dealing with meagre margin products such as newspapers and magazines.
Another newsagent told me they no longer sell the titles as there’s not enough money to be made to warrant the extra work.
I raised the issue with the folks at The Saturday Paper in September when the move was first made public. Their circulation manager was disinterested in the issues raised. I outlined what newsagents expected from a magazine distributor: electronic invoices at the time product arrives, no physical returns etc. Yet, here we are approaching December, and newsagents are worse off.
I like The Saturday Paper, but I don’t like the extra cost I have not to carry it in my shop. This is something Schwartz Media and the other publishers now engaged with Wrapaway could have resolved – if they cares about local small b business newsagents.
we also no longer stock Winning Post, Best Bets , and The Saturday paper,
as Wrapaway were not able to provide us with acceptable trading terms and delivery arrangements ,
and no electronic invoicing .
even though sales of these publications were small, we would have preferred to stock them ,
having dealt with Wrapaway for some 30 + years , have previously found them easy to deal with .
I have up dealing with Wrapaway. The extra time cost and their poor customer service were too much of a waste of time.
John
I am also thinking of closing my wrapaway account. After not dealing with them for about 9 years i forgot they are in the dark ages. I ordered extra copies of Winning Post and Best bets for Melb Cup. So what did i get, less than what i would receive for a normal week. That caused a real headache with people ordering then me not being able to supply.
I don’t want to stop dealing with Wrapaway because I think The Saturday Paper is a good title to carry but it’s a joke what we have to do now. So frustrating.
Add Horse Deals magazine to the disrupted distribution situation
previously available from IPS ,
i believe , now only available direct from ACM to those with a direct account,
this situation will result in a decline in sales for a magazine that was already in decline ,
We are thinking of closing our wrap away account as well. They delivered all our stock to a bottle shop up the road for 2 months, even though our address is correct, before finally getting it sorted, even though I called them twice a week. It really isn’t worth the hassle for the 3 titles we get from them
It doesn’t make any sense to me that the publishers of these titles, especially The Saturday Paper, would go with Wrapaway. Dealing with Wrapaway is like dealing with a company stuck in the 1980s. So old school. They waste our time. So I too am considering not taking the titles as much as that pains me.
Yes, they will all suffer.
Wrapaway setup is a disgrace. I also understand that they are only giving newsagents 12.5% commission
The move to Wrapaway costs us more time and money. It is not worth having the costs increase for items from which we early meagre margin already. This is utterly disrespectful of our small business. I am done.
1. I checked a selection of titles I received on the last Wrapaway bill and the commission was still 25%.
2. However the lack of electronic data either through Xchangit or as a CSV data file as done by other suppliers is a real problem as either action provides easy and convenient checking of stock sent and charged to my business and importantly its actual arrival.
3. Wrapaway now holds the Horse gambling publication market in its hands rater like ACM, IPS before that Fairfax did.
If item 2 is not addressed shortly I will be cancelling at least 75% of the Titles I receive from Wrapaway as they will not be worth the effort of stocking
“John 23 Nov 2021
Horse Deals.”
Horse Deals is still an ACM publication and is from memory domiciled at Mt Gambier SA. It definitely has its own account at ACM like IPS and Rural Press did/do. Its own statements distribution, payment EFT numbers (hence as a individual supplier in my accounting system MYOB) and a returns system with tops posted to SA monthly with a manual returns form. Just as with Wrapaway there is no electronic invoices either Xchangit or a CSV file, a problem discussed above with Wrapaway.
Even more interestingly I was left with just under $1,000 returns credit with IPS (I will know for sure when I receive Novembers IPS Statement). I did ring ACM accounts who are based in the deepest darkest sub continent and they did agree I held accounts with IPS, Rural Press and Horse Deals. As to crediting those accounts from the IPS credits it has all become to hard and to date read Rural Press though Horse Deals was credited from the IPS credits. I will be again attempting to resolve this early December after my last IPS statement is received.
I kept NANA fully informed on the issues and they are most definitely addressing it. I believes it extends to a lot more business than just my own.
Reference to my two rants above. Today I checked my Electronic returns forms and there was another one week 46 from IPS well worth doing as it totaled about $360.