Anthony Keyzer remembers Viking’s Irwin Helford.

 

Irwin Helford (pictured), one of the legends of the global office products industry, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 88.

 

The former CEO of Viking Office Products has been remembered as a brilliant businessman, a dedicated family man and one of the most generous philanthropists the industry has ever seen.

 

In 1984 Irwin joined Viking Office Products in Los Angeles, as president and CEO. Under Irwin’s leadership, Viking grew dramatically, becoming multinational with operations in the US, Europe and Australia. In 1998, Viking merged with Office Depot to form the world’s largest seller of office products, at that time.

 

Helford’s funeral service was live streamed and listened to by business leaders, friends and many other people from across the world he encountered during his lifetime. 

 

One Australian who had a close connection to Irwin was Anthony Keyzer (currently operations manager at Dymock’s) who told Office Products News:

 

“Irwin came to a small company Viking in California in the early 80’s and with his commitment and genius turned it into a direct marketing catalogue giant across the US, England, France, then Australia in 1993, and then after that, more than 13 other countries across Europe.  

 

“I was lucky enough to be director of merchandising with Alan Verey, who was general manager of Viking in Australia.  It was Alan who encouraged Irwin to invest in Australia back in that period.  We tweaked their model a little, to suit the

Australian landscape and grew it to over $100 million turnover in five-and-a-half years.  The warehouse we built in the mid-90’s in North Rocks still serves Officeworks well.

 

“Irwin was influential and inspirational in equal measure, with one business mantra, ‘The customer is always right.’  

 

“He was great leader and kind person in equal measure and a sad loss for the industry.”