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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.
“There are a lot of basic things that a
Master Franchise should do to support its
franchisees that haven’t been happening.
Things like having a PR agency to get the
brand out there and increase awareness;
having a promotional plan; having a
marketing plan to identify vertical markets;
driving more online sales. These weren’t in
place before,” he explained.
Cartridge World is also updating its
store design, with a new colour scheme
and lay-out. “We already have our first
store with this new format and it’s a lot
more like an Apple store. It’s really clean
and uncluttered, with modern lighting, LCD
screens, coffee machines and illuminated
pods for displaying products.”
Callow believes that getting these
basics right will create a solid platform in
support of Cartridge World’s ambitious
growth plans.
Hardware sales
Another key short-term goal is to increase
sales of printers and OEM supplies by
offering more choice and holding more
machines in stock so that a customer can
go into a store and walk out with a new
printer, rather than having to wait for next-
day delivery.
In 2015 hardware sales made up 10%
of turnover and Callow would like to raise
this to 20%. He would also like to increase
sales of OEM supplies, so that in future
years the ratio of OEM to Cartridge World-
branded supplies is 50:50 compared to
40:60 today.
“We can do a really good job for major
vendors,” he said. “We’ve got 75 stores
completely focused on print, unlike Staples
or PC World, which sell lots of other stuff.
And because stores are independent
franchisees they have the freedom and
ability to negotiate with any customer. If
someone walks into a store and says ’I
print 300 pages a month and if you give
me that machine for free, I will buy all
of my ink from you’, a franchisee could
say ‘Yes, no problem; I’ll just draw up the
papers for you to sign’. That is a huge
benefit when you are talking to small
businesses and professional home users.
Staples can’t do that.”
Stronger relationships
Since taking over, Callow has been working
hard to strengthen relationships with key
vendors, including Canon, Samsung, UTAX
and HP (via one of its partners). They have
responded by offering increased support,
better pricing and better margins, which
Callow says is already having a positive
impact on sales of printers and OEM
supplies.
As an example, he cites Cartridge
World’s relationship with Canon. “Canon
has given us fantastic support. They
have given display stands to the stores,
advantageous pricing on the hardware
through distribution, and they’ve put
incentives in place for the franchisees, like
a box bonus. Out of our own marketing
budget, we have funded end user cash-
back promotions. In July and August, which
are traditionally quiet months, our average
sales of Canon printers went up from 120
units a month to just over 400 units per
month. A 300% increase in sales to just
short of 900 machines, just from having
cash-back and having products available
in-store for a customer to buy.
“And the best thing is that because
everyone claimed cash back, we know
who every customer is, what device they
bought, when they bought it and we have
their contact details, so all the stores are
now following up and saying ‘Would you
like to buy some Canon cartridges?’. We’ve
given customers a discount code for online
sales and stores are giving them 20% off
if they go back to the store. It’s brilliant
for the customer, brilliant for Canon and
brilliant for the stores because of the
annuity revenue.”
Focus on B2B
This level of vendor engagement supports
Callow’s long-term goal for Cartridge
World, which is to increase business-to-
business sales.
To this end, in January he is launching
a B2B-only franchise model designed
to be run from an office, with online
and telesales and shipments direct from
distribution.
“We will grant rights to use the
Cartridge World Business brand; deliver a
website that we can update and manage
centrally; and deliver a marketing plan.
Someone could acquire the franchise for
a particular area and expand the B2B
business there. We’ve negotiated some
fantastic prices with people like Beta
Distribution and Exertis, so payment terms
and the prices the franchisee gets for OEM
product, hardware and consumables are
way beyond what they would be able to
negotiate on their own. And they’ve got
Cartridge World-branded supplies from
INTERVIEW
We already
have our first
store with the
new format
and it’s a lot
more like an
Apple store.
It’s really
clean and
uncluttered,
with modern
lighting, LCD
screens, coffee
machines and
illuminated
pods for
displaying
products
Continued...
