Officeworks has revealed its strategic priorities during an annual briefing day of parent Wesfarmers held on 2 May.

 

Officeworks Managing Director Sarah Hunter (pictured) presented the company’s strategic priorities and then took part in a Q&A session with analysts. Below are the key takeaways:

 

B2B:

 

Officeworks wants to have a broad appeal across all customer groups and intends to grow in the B2B space, in particular with corporate and large education customers. It has been playing in this space since COVID, but now appears ready to ramp things up.

 

The company has been building B2B technology capabilities that will appeal to enterprise and public sector procurement managers. Hunter said Officeworks’ every channel model appeals to this customer set, who are “delighted” to have the option to purchase in store as opposed to the traditional online and catalogue offerings of established B2B players.

 

Officeworks has had some major contract awards in the government education sector and education would appear to be something of a ‘sweet spot’ for the reseller, but Hunter said that large private sector customers, such as retailers that have nationwide franchise networks, also find the multichannel offer appealing.

 

Over the past year, there has been a 60 per cent increase in customers that spend more than A$250,000 (US$163,000) annually at Officeworks, and a 40% increase in existing customers whose annual spend exceeds A$250,000. As Hunter stated: “More businesses, spending more with us, more often.”

 

New initiatives include an Officeworks for Business loyalty programme that will be introduced in FY25 (which starts on 1 July 2024) and a same-day print offering that will enable B2B clients to order products such as flyers, banners and business cards online and pick them up from a store the same day. Forty-five outlets are currently equipped with Konica Minolta devices in order to provide this service.

 

Private label and category expansion:

 

Looking at stationery, education and art, private label products represent 60 per cent of Officeworks’ units sold across these three categories. The company’s Born brand is now the largest arts and craft brand in Australia, with more than 1100 SKUs in the range, and its sales are up eight per cent year to date.

 

Officeworks’ furniture business is predominantly private label, and the offering is expanding into premium products such as sit-stand and gaming desks.

 

An exclusive arrangement to sell the Reflex brand of office paper is paying dividends. While the A4 market in Australia is declining by around five per cent a year, Officeworks’ paper sales (including Reflex and own brand) are growing at more than six per cent.

 

Technology products have grown to represent 59% of Officeworks’ total sales, which the reseller links to the acceleration of digitisation among its customer base. Near-term opportunities include selling mobile phone plans, AI-enabled PCs and more display devices.

 

To help customers fund these expensive purchases, Officeworks is teaming up with consumer financial services provider Latitude Financial to offer credit facilities.

 

For more global news from OPI, go to: https://www.opi.net/news/region/003-australasia/b2b-private-label-catego...