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INTERVIEW
Paul Callow,
CEO
Cartridge World
It would be an exaggeration to
describe 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 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 properly targeted
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.
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. The
fact that our new Chinese owners have
developed that for us gives us something
really new to offer existing franchisees and
to attract new ones,” 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 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 still
flying, but in UK and France it’s not?’. And
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.
Making his mark
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 the 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
Despite
limited
support,
franchisees
were going
out and
developing
close
relationships
with local
businesses
