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21 Apr 19

Updated: 22 Apr 19

Death of Indie
dealers greatly 

exaggerated?

Market trends turn against
impersonal, cold bigboxes

Does size matter? The office market over the past 35yrs has been dominated by bigboxes & Amazon's lead in business supplies, points to a continuation. But emerging trends show the big guys are declining fast & Amazon peaking. The rise of progressive resellers providing 'personalised productivity services' embracing mobile technology, can & will succeed.. Tomorrow

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20 Apr 19

Updated: 22 Apr 19

'Industry Week'
plan quashed 

Plan B? Go for IDC
'Biz Productivity' show

The Business Supplies Association (BSA) plan to rationalise vendors' heavy schedule of 20+pa shows & create an 'Industry Week' has been quashed. Understandably, leading wholesalers & resellers wouldn't cooperate. Great idea, so what's Plan B?  We feel consideration be given to a more customer centric 'Business Productivity Show'  for the IDC. We spoke w/BSA pres Barry Lane... Monday

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19 Apr 19

Updated: 20 Apr 19

'Fakebook' fraud?
FTC focus...Zuck

CEO wilfully broke privacy
Firewall, faces $23Bn+ fine

FTC regulators investigating Facebook for mishandling/selling users’ personal information have set their sights on CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, exploring his past statements on privacy; seeking new, heightened oversight of his leadership & record busting penalties 

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19 Apr 19

Updated: 20 Apr 19

Do Workplace
W e l l n e s s
programs work?

Changing behavior; gains
in motivation prove tough

Company workplace wellness programs — efforts to get workers to lose weight, eat better, stress less and sleep more — are an $8 billion industry in the U.S. Recent research reports heathier behaviour, but not necessarily healthier results? We discuss findings...

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19 Apr 19

Updated: 20 Apr 19

AOPD: Refreshed.
Engaged.Winning

The contract sales group's
double-digit growth drive

AOPD the original contract sales group, met in Carlsbad (CA) last month with members and vendor partners. We discussed plans and progress with executive director Mark Leazer....Tomorrow

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19 Apr 19

Updated: 20 Apr 19

User behaviour
bts demographics

Personalised marketing the 
new segmentation strategy

Marketing Week's Charlotte Rogers reports that research shows marketers are shifting away from classic demographics to find more accurate ways to segment users based on their behaviour and personal interests...Updated

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18 Apr 19

Updated: 18 Apr 19

Z o o m  IPO
launch Zooms

Video collaboration giants
outpaced by cloud upstart

Video collaboration specialist Zoom's (CEO Eric Yuan, pic left) successful IPO today represented a major milestone, but mostly an indictment on tech giants repeated disappointments, who failed to embrace cloud computing & caused too many meeting problems, writes ZDNet's Larry Dignan 

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18 Apr 19

Updated: 18 Apr 19

Sycamore Partnrs:
Beauty or BEAST?

Analysts: Is $1Bn loan hike
a road to ruin e.g.ToysRUs?

Vulture capitalist Sycamore Partners owner of Staples & Essendant recently hiked the former's debt load by $1Bn to $5.2Bn, with estimated interest payments of $400m+ pa or c3%/sales. Many analysts ask: Is this a repeat of the ToysR Us bankruptcy situation; and Sycamore's Nine West demise? We discuss... Complete

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18 Apr 19

Updated: 18 Apr 19

SPRichards spring
back rate slows...

GPC: NAPA, Motion growth
steadies below 2018 rates

Genuine Parts Company (GPC) parent of NAPA, Motion and SPRichards reported slowing growth rates in Q1'19. CEO Paul Donahue commented that "progress continued in stabilizing the OP business"

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19 Apr 19

Updated: 19 Apr 19

A c m e  United
loses sharpness

Shifts focus to safety
tools & First-aid kits

Acme United today announced slower sales growth in Q1'19 financial results. Sales of core cutting tools slowed whilst moving successfully into safety products....

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17 Apr 19

Updated: 19 Apr 19

AMZN abandons
China market

Alibaba & JD.com control
82% home ecommerce

Amazon said it will shut its China webstore by July and divert its focus to marketing AWS cloud services and foreign imports directly in the world’s most populous nation.

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17 Apr 19

Updated: 18 Apr 19

Steelcase Flex
dynamic spaces

Extends leadership in
on-demand collaboration

Leading collaborative furnituremaker Steelcase launched Flex, an integrated collection of furniture designed to facilitate on-demandteamwork and drive increased productivity

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17 Apr 19

Updated: 17 Apr 19

Pepsi powers
#FaB growth...

Super snacks sales in
US, Euro & Americas

PepsiCo the giant food & beverages marketer to consumers and business with $64Bn in sales continued to outperform its rivals in excellence, innovative snacks & ethical trading in Q1'19

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17 Apr 19

Updated: 17 Apr 19

Bunzl build up
slows down

Acquires Dutch packaging
supplier to supermarkets

Bunzl, the international business supplies distributor today announced its trading statement for the Q1'19 to 31 Mar'18. Both the rate or organic growth and acquisitions has slowed down consderably over the past year

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16 Apr 19

Updated: 17 Apr 19

IBM strategic
imperatives
improbable?

Sales resume 7 yr slide
Cloud/tech services sink

International Business Machines (IBM) resumed its 7 years revenue slide in Q1'19. Can CEO Ginni Rometty survive the continuing downward pressure after years of tryting to transform the old tech giant?

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16 Apr 19

Updated: 16 Apr 19

Paper price hikes
halt; demand dips

Paper& packaging market
cap falls as inventories rise

Paper and packaging public company market capitalisations fell today on weak industry demand data. The 20% price hikes over the past year have suppressed demand even more and analysts expect the latest price increase proposals to be reversed...

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