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PRINT.IT
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INTERVIEW
This revelation
confirmed
what he
already knew –
that Cartridge
World was
doing a very
poor job of
promoting
itself in the UK
It would be an exaggeration to
describe printer supplies retailer
Cartridge World as a sleeping giant,
but there is little doubt that in the
last few years, it has lost impetus.
Think of Cartridge World and,
for many, the image that comes to
mind is of a small shop situated in
a secondary-High Street location,
serving a declining market of home
printer users and microbusinesses,
out of touch with developments in
printer procurement, from the rise
of e-commerce to the growth of
contractual arrangements, with an
appeal based entirely on driving
down costs and undercutting the
OEM vendors.
This perception is widespread
– and unfair. Even when the brand
appeared to be drifting, with regular
changes in ownership and a lack
of strategic direction, franchisees
were building relationships with local
businesses and expanding beyond
their core consumer market – a point
that was brought home to Cartridge
World CEO Paul Callow when his
team contacted franchisees about a
new promotional campaign.
“We emailed the franchisee
network and said ‘We want to
develop some marketing collateral
to pull in more business customers.
Could you let us know if there are
any major businesses you have dealt
with over the last 12 months’. When
the stores came back and told us
who their customers were, I was
amazed. McDonalds, Boots head
office, Amazon, universities, several
large clinical commissioning groups
(CCGs) with a huge amount of
surgeries in the Coventry area, 75%
of which use Cartridge World. All
these and many other major brands
are buying from our franchisees.”
For Callow, this revelation
confirmed what he already knew
– that Cartridge World was doing
a very poor job of promoting itself
in the UK; that despite limited
support, franchisees were going out
and developing close relationships
with local businesses; and that the
business-to-business (B2B) market
had enormous growth potential if it
was targeted properly.
So convinced is Callow of this
that over the next five years he
aims to increase group turnover
fourfold, from £12 million in 2015
to £50 million in 2020, largely by
addressing the B2B market.
New owner
Such an ambitious target is
testament to the confidence that
Callow has in Cartridge World’s
new owners, Suzhou Goldengreen
Technologies Ltd (SGT). The Chinese
OPC manufacturer acquired the
business in the middle of 2015 and
since then has invested significant
resources and expertise in
infrastructure and personnel.
A good example is the creation
of a new global procurement centre
(GPC) in Shenzhen to replace the
distribution and supply agreements
that Cartridge World Global used
to negotiate at a national level.
The GPC opened in November last
year and, according to Callow, will
strengthen the Cartridge World brand
by guaranteeing consistent quality,
packaging and branding.
“Now, the European distributors
from which our stores buy their
products can procure inkjet and laser
cartridges from the GPC. This gives
us a real advantage over competitors
that have to buy product from a
number of different sources at the
best price they can get. There’s not
necessarily anything inferior about
the product they sell, but it certainly
won’t be as consistently delivered
as ours – coming from one central
source in China,” he said.
Master Franchise
A second major change introduced
by the new owners is the
establishment of a Master Franchise
in the UK instead of the head office
function that existed previously.
“SGT looked at all the countries
in which Cartridge World was
performing really well and all those
A lot has been happening at Cartridge World in the six months since Cartridge
World CEO Paul Callow acquired the Master Franchise rights for the UK.
James Goulding finds out more about his plans for the business at a time of
declining consumer sales.
Rebooting Cartridge World
where it wasn’t, which included the
UK and France. They said ‘why is it
that we have countries like Australia,
India, areas of the Middle East
and Greece where Cartridge World
is flying, but in the UK and France
it’s not?’. And they quickly realised
that the countries in which it wasn’t
performing was where they had a
head office function rather than a
Master Franchise,” explained Callow.
SGT took the decision to find a
Master Franchise for the UK to sit
between the global Cartridge World
brand and the franchisees.
At about the same time,
Callow who was running his own
venture management company
had approached Cartridge World in
relation to another initiative. After
learning about his background in
the print industry, including sales
and marketing roles at Brother and
Lexmark, they asked him to put
together a proposal outlining how
Cartridge World could address key
challenges, notably online sales
and B2B revenue. So impressed
were they with his suggestions that
they asked him to be the Master
Franchise for the UK.
Negotiations started in October
last year; in March contracts were
signed; and on April 4, the UK’s new
Master Franchise, Cartridge World
UK, became operational.
The Master Franchise acquires
the rights to a country (or countries)
from the brand owner; sells
individual territories to franchisees
who pay a certain amount of money
to gain a global brand and identity;
and it negotiates with vendors and
distributors on behalf of franchisees
who as a result enjoy much better
pricing, promotions and payment
terms than they could negotiate on
their own.
“As a Master Franchise, you
don’t represent the head office or
the franchisee; you sit in the middle
as an independent entity with
everyone’s best interests at heart,”
explained Callow.
Doing the basics right
In the six months since the beginning
of April, Callow has been working
hard on maximising the potential of
existing franchisees and laying the
foundations for future growth.
Paul Callow,
CEO,
Cartridge World
