OPI TALK

Recently on the opi.net news service, we reported on the acquisition of leading US dealer Source Office & Technology by The Supply Room. OPI News Editor Andy Braithwaite caught up with Source founder John Givens and The Supply Room COO Yancey Jones Jr to learn more about the transaction and discuss The Supply Room’s growth strategy.   Episode produced by Andy Braithwaite Music by: Extreme Energy b...

In the first OPI Talk podcast of 2022, we speak with Marcelo Podesta, President of US-based National Business Furniture. Prior to the recent news that Marcelo Podesta is to lead two of the three new business units at international reseller Takkt following a restructuring, we had already arranged to speak with the former Officenet and Staples exec in his capacity as President of Takkt subsidiary Na...

In this final OPI Talk of 2021, OPI CEO Steve Hilleard and News Editor Andy Braithwaite discuss some of the main events and stories of the past year and look ahead to what we might expect in the business products industry in 2022.

When you look at what products and services businesses will need to function efficiently in a hybrid working environment, then a fit-for-purpose audio and video communications system surely makes the list. Demand in the videoconferencing market has surged in the past couple of years and looks set for a period of sustained growth. For resellers that describe themselves as ‘solutions providers’ and...

Desktop and surfaces cleaning specialist AF International believes that its longstanding commitment to the environment is its ‘best-kept secret’. In this episode of OPI Talk, Andy Braithwaite speaks to the manufacturer’s Paul Hardy to find out more. Paul also looks at some key trends in the cleaning market and the opportunities in the category for resellers.   Episode produced by Andy Braithwaite...

The third and final podcast from the recent Industry Week ’21 in Orlando focuses on two key figures from the event’s organiser, Independent Suppliers Group. Chairman Jordan Kudler and CEO Mike Gentile give their reaction to the first-ever Industry Week and discuss some of the key issues in the independent dealer channel with OPI CEO Steve Hilleard.   Episode produced by Andy Braithwaite Music by:...

There were several awards presentations at Industry Week '21 in Orlando. In addition to the North American Office Products Awards (NAOPA), Independent Suppliers Group (ISG) recognised its top suppliers, while the Business Solutions Association (BSA) held its annual awards. OPI CEO Steve Hilleard spoke to several of the awards winners: Christoph Skopek from COLOP, Yancey Jones Sr and Hunter Jordan,...

Welcome to the first of three episodes of OPI Talk featuring interviews conducted by OPI CEO Steve Hilleard at Industry Week ’21, powered by ISG. Steve managed to get on the first flight from London to Orlando following the easing of travel restrictions into the US on 8 November, meaning he was able to attend this highly anticipated event. During the vendor expo, he worked the show floor and recor...

Effective 1 October 2021, the Printing Papers division of International Paper became a standalone publicly traded company called Sylvamo. With a manufacturing presence on three continents, Sylvamo’s annual sales are more than $3 billion. OPI Talk spoke to Gerald Demets (Sales and Marketing Director) and Wim Dootselaere (Head of Marketing, Product Management and Development) from Sylvamo’s European...

Robert Baldrey featured in the pilot episode of OPI Talk that was recorded in July 2020. Now, 16 months later, he’s back for what is the 50th episode having recently completed his stint at Office Depot Europe following the sale of its remaining assets to RAJA – a deal that officially closed on 1 November . In this episode, Robert talks about the impact that Staples and Office Depot have had on the...

Commercial furniture mega show NeoCon was back as a live event at Chicago’s theMART at the beginning of October. One person who was there was George Ansier, Director of Sales for the US division of floor and desk protection specialist Floortex. In this episode of OPI Talk, George discusses some of the key trends he spotted at this year’s NeoCon. He also gives his thoughts on the state of the US bu...

Counterfeiting is big business and fake inkjet and toner cartridges – especially the latter – have long been lucrative products for criminals. At HP Inc, Glenn Jones heads the investigations team at the OEM’s Anti-counterfeit and Fraud (ACF) unit – which is responsible for millions of product seizures each year. In this episode of OPI Talk, Jones explains the workings of the ACF programme, provide...

OPI Talk heads to Sydney, Australia, to speak with Amie and Belinda Lyone, the new co-CEOs of leading independent dealer COS. Since 1 September 2021, Australia’s number one independent workplace supplies reseller COS has had a new CEO. Or more precisely, two. On this date, Amie and Belinda Lyone officially took over from their father Dominique, who founded the company in 1976, following a well-pla...

Cezary Monko, President of ACCO Brands EMEA, looks back at some of the key moments in his almost 30-year career and gives his take on the state of the industry today. One of Cezary Monko’s first jobs was when he was hired as Sales Manager for Esselte’s fledgling Polish operations at the start of 1992. Back then, he was pretty much a one-man band, criss-crossing the country in his car to grow the c...

Economic problems, social unrest, spiralling unemployment, corruption scandals, and then COVID. You might be forgiven for thinking that running a business supplies dealer group in South Africa was a thankless task. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Dealer marketing organisation Inovocom has come through the pandemic with the vast majority of its larger members still up and running and adapt...

OPI Talk speaks with Beth Langley, Out-of-Home Director for Nespresso Professional in the UK & Ireland. Beth Langley joined Nespresso Professional at the beginning of 2021 – certainly an ‘interesting’ time for the away-from-home coffee segment against the backdrop of COVID restrictions and office closures. The situation is gradually improving, but there are still concerns about the Delta variant w...

The Big Interview in the special 30th anniversary issue of OPI – which will be published shortly – is none other than Mike Gentile, CEO of Independent Suppliers Group (ISG), the US’s – and the world’s – largest cooperative for independent resellers in the business supplies community. In this episode of OPI Talk, you can listen to extracts from that Big Interview, which was conducted by OPI CEO Ste...

With 68 independent dealer members throughout the US, AOPD is an important player in the business products national accounts arena, both for the public and private sectors. In this episode of OPI Talk, the organisation’s Executive Director Mark Leazer explains how national accounts have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and how his members are now focused on growth as we get into the final st...

The Business Solutions Association in the US recently named TOPS Products’ Bill Cardone as this year’s recipient of its Lifetime Achievement award. Cardone has been involved in business products sales since 1987 and has seen a lot of changes over the decades. One thing that hasn’t changed in all that time is his passion for the industry and its people. In this episode of OPI Talk, Cardone looks ba...

With 2020’s important back-to-school (BTS) season hit by COVID restrictions and school closures, there are hopes that 2021 will see something of a return to normal. Whether that will now be the case – as the Delta variant spreads in the US – remains to be seen. Yet, as NPD analyst Leen Nsouli explains in this episode of OPI Talk, the numbers up until the middle of August have been encouraging. She...

With Paperworld set to return as a physical event in January 2022, OPI catches up with Messe Frankfurt’s Julia Uherek. You don’t need us to tell you that the business products events calendar has been turned on its head by COVID. One company that has been in the firing line is Messe Frankfurt, organiser of the Paperworld brand of shows around the world. However, after months of Zoom and Teams call...

Tune in to this episode of OPI Talk to hear the second part of our interview with Yancey Jones and Mike Maggio of US wholesaler S.P. Richards (SPR). Following on from the previous episode , Yancey and Mike talk about how SPR responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are encouraging more diversity at the company. They also give their thoughts on what a merger of the Office Depot and Staples r...

OPI Talk catches up with S.P. Richards’ Mike Maggio and Yancey Jones just over a year after they led the takeover of the US wholesaler. The first episode of this two-part podcast looks at the progress made on implementing their vision for SPR, the efforts made in moving from a catalogue-based wholesaler to a market-driven distributor and the recent brand refresh. Look out for part 2 next week.   E...

As this podcast goes out at the end of July 2021, we are right in the middle of the quarterly earnings reporting season. Many businesses are seeing strong improvements versus last year – when earnings were hit by COVID lockdowns – and one such company is ACCO Brands, where organic growth was more than 20% year on year, with the EMEA region growing by over 50%. About an hour after ACCO’s analyst co...

Stewart Superior Managing Director Geoff Betts shares his experiences of Brexit from a UK supplier’s point of view. In this episode of OPI Talk, hosted by OPI News Editor Andy Braithwaite, Geoff talks about the preparations the company made for the end of the Brexit transition period on 1 January 2021 and what the situation has been like over the past six months. He also refers to freight and ship...