News in the Channel - October 2022

RISING COSTS

Konica Minolta bizhub ECO

“We must try and work in collaboration. We do that at Advantia - we talk to dealers in the group, we pass that valuable information to Exertis and our other supply partners and we put things in place to try and help them.” Control the controllables One way that businesses are trying to cut costs is by reducing the number of deliveries they are making. “We have so many 48-hour deliveries going through now and one of the reasons for that is it can help businesses to manage costs – if you are ordering products from other suppliers that are going to come in in the following day, you can put them in the van and do one trip. The last thing you want from a logistics point of view is going out with four out of five lines, then going out to the same place with the fifth line two days later – it all adds to the cost to serve and we have to make sure in that we maximise what we have available to us. “You can only control the controllables. Do you want that van going out half empty? It needs a minimum of 30 orders per day to make it work. You can’t have 25 new orders and five back orders and make it 30 because it isn’t. We have to try and work through the supply chain and work together, rather than against each other and put things in place to try and minimise the expenditure we have got. I have no control over raw material or energy costs, but what I can do is help our dealers to try and maximise what is available to them to minimise their outlay. “You make sure you are working through the chain.

We talk with Exertis daily and say: ‘can we do this?’ ’Is there a better way to do this?’ I feed into them, they feed into me, and we work on projects together.” Steve adds that collaborative working should be encouraged across dealers that are part of a dealer group – perhaps by taking on deliveries or jobs that are outside one dealer’s usual geographic area. Other ways to help include using and selling ranges with sustainable functionalities and technologies as standard, such as those from Konica Minolta, that can help mitigate these rising prices, Mark adds. This includes its bizhub ECO offering, which can help the customer enhance the efficiency of the printing processes but also save valuable resources. “bizhub ECO offers customers an all- in-one service for sustainable printing,” says Mark. “There are many benefits to the customer including reducing energy and resources consumption due to utilising the eco settings.” There are many other products on the market that are energy efficient and use less power than older models, which can help customers to save energy and provide an effective sales route for dealers. While there are tough economic times ahead for businesses in the channel, as the past three years have demonstrated, they are resilient and can adapt quickly when faced with testing market conditions – and with supportive dealer groups, suppliers and manufacturers then the hope is that many businesses will make it through to more favourable times when optimism can reign again.

You can only control the controllables “ ”