R e t a i l
The financial media e.g. CNBC, WSJ, FT has been rhetorical in promoting the 'strong consumer' during 2019, almost to the point of denial of the economic slowdown. Now facts are being reported from leading 'WATCH' retailers that confirm sales growth has stalled, hit by tariffs and economic uncertainty. We preview and analyse Q4'19 results. Updated
HP's hopeless
The absurd $33Bn bid by Xerox driven by Chainsaw Carl Icahn for the 6X larger HP Inc. should not be happening, HP's board is behaving like an underdog talking about an unconvincing "undervaluation" rather than dismissing the dinosaur copier giant, or more positively counterbidding and taking over Xerox's better equipped direct salesforce
Target's tumbling
Leading US retailer Target reported decelerating sales growth trends in recent quarters compared with 2018. Q4'19 sales, including the Christmas-Thanksgiving holiday, sales fell in organic terms for the first time in recent years
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Purell's pure
Effective 1 Jan GOJO Industries, the Purell hygiene brand maker, named Carey Jaros as CEO. We interview Carey about her plans to accelerate the growth of the 'Purell Solution', to holistically fight the spread of illness causing germs. Tomorrow
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2020 Predictions:
What will happen with Amazon, Apple, Staples, Essendant, SPR, Depot, WBMason, HP/Xerox, Uber, Imperial Dade, SPOT (Spicers-OfficeTeam), EVO/VOW, Westcoast, dealers, groups, wholesalers, manufacturers in 2020. Here are our predictions.... Complete
Most Responsible
Newsweek just published America's Most Responsible Companies 2020 Rankings. Together with Statista it lists Top 300 scores in Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility (CSR). Great to see 50 leading broadline business suppliers featured. We comment on their achievements
Pension fund sue
A Xerox Pension fund has sued legendary activist Carl 'Chainsaw' Icahn alleging he bought a HP stake knowing Xerox's bid plan. Of course he did, that was his plan all along to lever huge personal profits
Depot's dumb
Office Depot, OfficeMax mini TV commercials in past 2 years have always been cheesy, but the latest ads are just irrelevant. As an interested observer, I'm on the look out, but the double brand name call at the end completely misses the content message
Costco: consistent
Costco Wholesale, the $150Bn broadline consumer & business supplies reseller, reported slower, but strong growth rates in Q1'20,. It continues to work on its woeful webstore to match Amazon's experience... Updated for Q&A analyst's webcast
Pepsi v Coke war
PepsiCo is bringing its new coffee-cola beverage concoction to the U.S. market for a limited time in April. Meanwhile CocaCola plans to bring its Coke Plus to the US soon. How will Starbucks & Dunkin react?
Computacenter's
UK top tech reseller Computacenter’s UK MD Neil Hall (pic left) talked with CRN about topping 'TheTop VARs 2019' list; the strength of the IT market and why he never looks more than 2 years ahead
HD Supply hits
HD Supply, a leading US industrial distributor today reported much slower Q3'19 financial results, running at a fraction of 2018 growth rates. CEO Joe D'Angelo originally blamed weather earlier in the year but growth rates have tapered off dramatically since
Printing online
Retail Dive has published a report by 1010Reveal listing the Top 15 ink & toner online market leaders. We were surprised to see the prominence of secondary brands reflecting good marketing effects. We discuss results
C o n s u m e r
The "consumer is strong" rhetoric has driven the US stockmarket to an all time high. Meanwhile, leading consumer brandmaker and retailer CEO's take a less optimistic view. Reports show that real growth is running at half 2018 levels, tariffs hiking prices & consumer confidence on the slide. We analyse the conflicting views....
Compcenter calm
Leading $5Bn tech services reseller Computacenter's fiscal 2019 has been fueled by the recovery of its US business and the absence of the "negative impacts" that hampered its second half of last year. CEO Mike Norris is investing infrastructure and services development
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