Tony Edwards, General Manager of Ovato Retail Distributon

Thursday March 19

Firstly, with the unprecedented demand (aka panic buying) in supermarkets, Ovato have redirected more merchandising hours to  help the stores get magazines on the shelves. We know the stores are prioritising food and essential items replenishment, and that could mean that magazines aren’t making it to the shelves. We have instructed the merchandisers to focus on getting the magazines. This has been greatly received by both supermarket groups.

Supermarkets

Firstly, with the unprecedented demand (a.k.a. panic buying) occurring in Supermarkets, Ovato have redirected more merchandising hours to the Supermarkets to help support the stores getting magazines on the shelves. We know the stores are prioritising food and essential items replenishment, and that could mean that magazines aren’t making it to the shelves. We have instructed the merchandisers to focus on getting the magazines out rather than their usual tasks. This has been greatly received by both supermarket groups.

We still don’t have enough scan data to determine the impact on sales in supermarkets, but some anecdotal feedback from one buyer shows total magazines are performing slightly better than the same week last year. Once I have enough hard data I will share with you the results.

Countdown have told us that they will not consider any new title sell-ins for the foreseeable future., and I suspect the other chains will follow soon.

Bookstores

The general feedback is that the bookstores trade is up. I spoke with the CEO of PaperPlus Group and he told me magazine sales are up 1% this week (vs normally down 5-7%).

Travel

Relay is the most impacted magazine retailer with domestic and international travel significantly reduced. We have been asked to reduce our magazine allocations by 50 per cent effective immediately. We will try and redirect these copies to other retailers, but we may have to hold more ‘overs’. Your account manager will share the details with you.

Team:

We have had a successful trial run of people working from home. Therefore, to help with the social distancing need, from tomorrow we will be operating with 50-60 per cent of the team working from home at any one time. This shouldn’t impact how we work with you as everyone will be online and available by telephone.