OPI TALK

Our guest in this episode of OPI Talk is Simon Drakeford, CEO of the UK’s EO Group. Simon has been at the helm of this multi-faceted but deeply technology-rooted company for about 14 years. Fiercely passionate about the business supplies industry, he also extends that involvement beyond EO Group with his current Chairmanship of UK trade federation BOSS.   OPI’s CEO Steve Hilleard recently caught u...

The latest office breakroom trends with Office Snax CEO Todd Elmers. Pre-COVID, breakroom had developed into a key category for many office supplies resellers. The bottom fell out of the market virtually overnight when the pandemic forced most offices to close. Now, as offices begin to reopen, resellers will be banking on a return to growth of the breakroom category. But will things be the same as...

This episode of OPI Talk takes us to the state of California, where we speak to Steve Danziger, the founder and CEO of AAA Business Supplies and Interiors, one of the US’s most successful business products dealers. Steve tells us about the impact that COVID-19 has had on his main customer base located in the San Francisco Bay area of California and how AAA had to come up with new solutions to mark...

Brother UK Managing Director Phil Jones explains how his organisation has been planning for a return to the office, why it is implementing a hybrid working policy going forward and what this means for the look and feel of the company’s headquarters near Manchester. He also issues a rallying cry to office products resellers, calling for them to ensure they are supplying the products and services cu...

The North American Office Products Awards are back! After a break in 2020, OPI is delighted to confirm that the 2021 North American Office Products Awards (NAOPA) will take place during Industry Week ’21 being held from 7-12 November in Orlando, Florida. OPI is now accepting entries and nominations for the nine NAOPA categories. What are the categories? Who can enter these awards? Why should I eve...

Discussing the importance of data with Lars Faustmann from HP Inc. In this episode of OPI Talk, OPI CEO Steve Hilleard speaks with Lars Faustmann, Digital Transformation Manager at HP Inc in Europe. The focus of their conversation is the role of data in driving the customer experience and what this means for HP and its channel partners. Lars also explains the rationale behind HP’s new Amplify part...

When UK wholesaler Spicers folded last year, it dramatically changed the balance of what had essentially been a duopoly in the market between Spicers and VOW. One consequence is that it has opened the door for another distributor, Exertis, to play a more prominent role. In this episode of OPI Talk, OPI News Editor Andy Braithwaite speaks with Exertis Supplies Commercial Director Raj Advani about r...

This week’s episode of OPI Talk features two guests: Greg Gibson, VP and General Manager, North American Papers at International Paper, and Matt Dodd, Senior Executive Director of Corporate Philanthropy at City of Hope. Gibson is this year’s National Business Products Industry’s Spirit of Life Honouree, spearheading the 2021 Sustain Hope campaign. NBPI has been supporting City of Hope for over 40...

Acme United had another record quarter at the start of 2021 as its revenue surged by more than 20% year on year. Yet, despite this, the company’s sales to key office products customer groups – superstores, wholesalers and independent dealers – were each down by more than 20%. Why was that? In this episode of OPI Talk, OPI News Editor Andy Braithwaite discusses these results with Acme CEO Walter Jo...

In this episode of OPI Talk, OPI CEO Steve Hilleard speaks to Mike Booth, Global Market Director for Air Treatment at Fellowes Brands. The conversation couldn’t be timelier as companies seek to figure out how to return to the office safely, following more than a year of dealing with COVID-19. As coronavirus is an airborne transmitted virus, the critical need for 'smart' air cleaners that use HEPA...

Our guest in this episode of OPI Talk is Darren Hayes, CEO of Quick Corporate Australia. Quick Corporate is the third largest B2B business supplies operator in the Australian market; it’s also the largest member of the Office Choice dealer group.  OPI’s Heike Dieckmann spoke to Darren for an interview in the forthcoming May/June issue of OPI. Topics, following an overview of Quick Corporate and th...

On 4 May 2021, US-based independent dealer Guernsey celebrates its 50th year in business. To help mark the occasion, OPI CEO Steve Hilleard talks to Guernsey founder and CEO David Guernsey, a man who has had an immense impact on the business supplies industry, not just in the US, but globally. In this episode of OPI Talk, Dave chats about the trials and tribulations of being an independent dealer...

In this episode of OPI Talk, OPI News Editor Andy Braithwaite catches up with two executives from Staples’ US Retail operations: Amy Lang, SVP Strategy & Insights, and Brian Coupland, SVP Retail Merchandising. Staples has approximately 1,000 outlets in the US and recently announced it was evolving its brand to Staples Connect, with a tagline of The Working and Learning Store. Topics discussed in t...

On 5-6 May, OPI will be holding its annual Global Forum, an interactive forum for key industry leaders in Europe, North America and beyond to debate and define the future of the OP sector. A virtual event this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Global Forum Online has been specially put together to help business leaders develop strategies to succeed in a post-pandemic world. In this episode of...

Independent Suppliers Group (ISG) CEO Mike Gentile looks ahead to Industry Week in November 2021. With the physical events calendar having been pretty much obliterated by COVID restrictions, everyone is looking forward – and that’s an understatement – to catching up with industry colleagues and friends again in person. A major business products event taking place in the US in November is Industry...

The guest on this episode of OPI Talk is Alex Dunn, Managing Director of UK dealer group Superstat. Superstat has just introduced an initiative called the Sales Academy, which aims to help sales professionals in the business products industry develop their selling strategies and skills. The conversation with Alex touches upon the Sales Academy, but is mainly focused on the challenges sales people...

How did the pandemic impact the US office supplies retail channel in 2020, and what are the opportunities for resellers in 2021? In this episode of OPI Talk, Leen Nsouli, the Industry Analyst for The NPD Group’s Office Supplies division, discusses results of the firm’s research into the retail channel in 2020. She also looks ahead to opportunities for the 2021 back-to-school season and highlights...

OPI speaks to Richard Scharmann, this year’s recipient of the Industry Achievement award at the 2021 European Office Products Awards . OPI News Editor Andy Braithwaite caught up with Richard shortly after he was presented with his award. They spoke about what the award meant to him, how PBS has navigated the COVID crisis, market trends and recent acquisitions. Richard also gave his views on the di...

For procurement departments, sustainability and corporate social responsibility criteria are increasingly playing an important role in supplier selection. Global business products reseller Lyreco has a strong track record in these areas, and last year launched its Circular Economy Pledge, a five-year project that aims to develop fully circular solutions for its customers. Following on from last No...

At the end of January, Fellowes Brands launched its New Way of Working survey to understand how employees cope with working from home. The survey questioned 7,000 employees across Europe to discover how lockdown has affected them and the consequences on their physical and mental health. In this final episode in the series, OPI CEO Steve Hilleard discusses the survey with leading expert and Fellowe...

In the second episode of OPI Talk with Fellowes Brands’ Head of European Marketing for Workplace Health Solutions Louise Shipley, the discussion revolves around hybrid working. The term ‘hybrid working’ is a relatively new phrase related to when employees will work in the office, home or elsewhere, and is widely believed to be the future of working post-COVID. In this conversation with OPI CEO Ste...

Early 2020 saw the unprecedented mass migration to homeworking due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As many offices and businesses remain closed, just what are the implications for those remote workers in terms of comfort, safety, and productivity? In this first of a series of three podcasts, OPI CEO Steve Hilleard talks to leading expert and Fellowes Head of European Marketing for Workplace Health Solut...

Our guest in this episode of OPI Talk is Greg Liénard, CEO of Lyreco. Greg – a long-standing company executive – has been at the helm of the global business supplies reseller since July 2019. During the past 18 months or so, he’s certainly had his work cut out, first continuing on the transformation path that his predecessor set out and then dealing with a global pandemic while at the same time pu...

OPI speaks to Mike Tucker about IOPFDA’s new relationship with cleaning association ISSA. Towards to the end of last year, it was confirmed that the Independent Office Products and Furniture Dealer Alliance (IOPFDA) – which includes NOPA – had merged with worldwide cleaning association ISSA . OPI News Editor Andy Braithwaite caught up with IOPFDA Executive Director Mike Tucker for more details of...

In this OPI Talk podcast, we feature part of an interview that OPI CEO Steve Hilleard and News Editor Andy Braithwaite conducted with Sean Shine, CEO of Ireland-based Paragon, and Steve Horne, CEO of OT Group, the entity created following Paragon’s acquisition of those SPOT assets. If, like many in the office products industry, you had never heard of Paragon until last year, this podcast will give...