Interad Weston, a 20 year-old privately-held Canadian distributor of consumable products, plans to grow its business next year by way of partner expansion and niche market offerings.
Interad Weston’s general manager, Daniele Ponzi, said Axxess Logistics is the holding company and Interad Weston is the name the distributor uses to go to market.
Ponzi said the specialty distributor offers supplies such as ink cartridges, toner, CDs, DVDs, paper, and anything else that’s required once the hardware is purchased. He likens the business to being the “gas station of the industry.”
In addition to carrying some of the product lines such as HP, Lexmark, Epson, Samsung, and others, that many of the traditional broadline distributors stock, Interad Weston offers a more focused approach.
Interad’s business approach is to work with “small, independent and non-traditional shelf space” retail players and resellers instead of the traditional big box ones, Ponzi said. The distributor will also work closely with these shops to analyze things such as location and customer traffic in order to stock the most suitable skus and products.
“We’ll do the entire planogram to select which OEM (original equipment manufacturer) cartridges, for example, stores should carry based on our monitoring and observations,” Ponzi said. “Lots of retailers usually load up on products but no one actually monitors it and months later, they still have a lot of stock but by this time, it’s already past the return period for the manufacturer or distributor, so then it becomes an inventory issue.”
With a team of just 63 employees and a few satellite sales representatives, the distributor is able to service the entire country through its Vaughan, Ont. and Calgary-based distribution offices.
With its relatively small size, Ponzi said the distributor is able to offer its customers a more personal touch and can also be more “flexible” while working with them.
Having served the Canadian marketplace for the past 20 years, Ponzi said there’s still a lot of “potential” and room for steady growth here.
“We see a need for additional shelf and mind space within the market place to get to the end user,” he said. “For example, I may be a dollar store or a convenience store, but if I have SD cards on the shelves, I can sell it and make a pretty good margin on it. We encourage our partners to broaden their horizons so they can offer more to their customers.”
Unlike other technology areas which may have experienced a decline in sales due to the recession, the consumables space has been a “fairly stable” space, Ponzi said. Printing volumes have remained consistent across the board and more customers are utilizing digital storage, which illustrates a storage media device opportunity for partners.
To further grow its business, Ponzi said Interad’s focus will be on finding niche items to stock from “smaller manufacturers who are coming out with interesting accessories.”
“For example, we have a UK-based company called USBcell that makes AA batteries that let you pop the top off and reveals a USB port that you can recharge,” he said. “Because it’s a rechargeable battery, it’s a good product to have for use in things like cameras, toys and remote controls. It’s even suitable for business users. We feel by helping someone get into the business and showing them ways to additional revenue streams, we’re able to build and maintain that customer loyalty.”
Follow Maxine Cheung on Twitter: @MaxineCheungCDN.
