nickshanagher

There are two schools of thought about magazines and newspaper sales in the 21 st century and how they fit with a local convenience store. The one that is winning appears to be to stock a limited range of top sellers and get on with the day job. For a great many independent retailers, this makes good business sense. But in the rush to convenience, does this mean some retailers are missing a brilliant business opportunity? The answer is yes, according to Colin Mullins. Mr Mullins, who today heads the retail consultancy Fore, has a track record of building profitability for retailers through news sales. His current clients include Tesco, M&S, Asda, Spar and Nisa. He set up Fore in 2007 and sold to Menzies Distribution last year. One of the tasks he has been given is to breathe life into Superleague, the news sales club that Menzies set up in 1999 to get a piece of the “pay for display” action pioneered by WHSmith in its high street and travel outlets. The launch of Su...

Tyler Brûlé writes a column at the back of the FT every Saturday and talks about his hectic week shopping in Italy, partying in Tokyo, swimming in the Baltic, and so on. In other words his is a demographic most local shops will not have living near them... Even so, his advice to Stephen Clarke, the incoming chief executive of WHSmith, which used to dominate the UK magazine retailing market on its own, makes useful reading for a local retailer wanting to benchmark his business. Mr Brûlé's five point wish list is: print is not dead and you should broaden your range so that you are a place to discover new titles and not just to find the expected turn down the lighting a bit so your shops are warm and inviting add a bit of wood (oak or ash) experiment with a few smaller kiosks focussed on the best in print for high traffic sites better stationery please. If  Mr Clarke decides to pass on the ideas, perhaps you could make good use of them.