Eurosafe
Personalised catalogues
Pindar has the answers for Eurosafe's catalogue challenges
Eurosafe is a leading association representing the best of independent safety equipment distributors in the UK and Ireland. With a group turnover of more than £60m, it serves a wide demographic, from self-employed tradesmen to national utilities providing local expertise with local customer contact.
Background ... During the 1980s many SMEs in the safety equipment marketplace were finding it increasingly difficult to compete with their larger competitors. When bidding for the more lucrative contracts that were needed for financial stability and some certainty for the future, they were often losing out. Subsequently the safety equipment marketplace has experienced a lengthy period of consolidation, seeing many smaller businesses merge with their larger counterparts.
Eurosafe was formed in 1988 by a group of business leaders determined to succeed as independents in spite of threatening market pressures. These businesses began to share best practice and ideas that might otherwise have been considered to be USPs, and it is these ethics that have become part of the Eurosafe culture today.
Its members can realise significant benefits from the strengthened buying power this association provides, where negotiations with common suppliers can make sizeable differences to a business's selling platform. Clear testimony to this practice is the number of successful high value tenders won by Eurosafe with organisations and utilities requiring national coverage for their safety supplies.
Eurosafe is the only buying group serving the safety industry. There are currently almost 400 employees across Eurosafe's 22 distribution points for safety equipment and clothing around the UK. Each is a separate financial business, and the number continues to grow.
The challenge - the need for the personal touch The catalogue challenge - page management and customised binders provide members with an individual and personalised catalogue. J&K Ross had been the first of the Eurosafe companies to publish a catalogue to help match the competition faced from larger businesses.
It was managing director Chris Ross who steered the plans for one common Eursosafe catalogue, although he knew this would not be an easy challenge. When Chris, son of the now retired Ken Ross, approached Pindar with the Eurosafe dilemma he was looking for some alternative thinking.
Our solution The many products sold across Eurosafe vary considerably. Some are common to all member companies, whilst some are unique to individual companies. Having done a great deal of listening, Pindar put forward a proposal to produce a series of individual product pages, which could then be gathered and collated for Eurosafe into its companies' individually-branded ring-binders.
Products are grouped onto pages, which enables individual companies to select only those product pages relevant for them. This effectively creates a personalised catalogue for each member, which has been warmly welcomed by Eurosafe. Product selection proved the biggest challenge. It was essential that each individual member was happy with the final product decisions, as costs for the catalogue production were to be shared.
The catalogue soon became a permanent fixture on the Eurosafe monthly committee meeting agenda, which sometimes took place at Pindar's own premises. Gone are the days when it was difficult to introduce new suppliers without incurring the high costs of reprinting entire catalogues. Eurosafe members now have a master product catalogue for their products that can be easily updated when new suppliers are introduced.
Fact file
- Page management and customised binders provide members with an individual and personalised catalogue.
