Page 27 - HW FEB 2021

sales agents
Looking ahead, on top of the international supply chain woes, Stephen Edlin reckons freight disruption will be an ongoing issue locally too and laments the fact that “a lot of deals in this country die at Cook Strait.
“The increase in costs with shipping and containers have been quite horrendous, making some deals no longer cost-effective. The freight content really kills it.”
Being contracted to the supplier, Derek van der Vossen says VRM communicates as much as it can with suppliers and stores – provided it’s productive.
“We don’t communicate every single challenge because it’s simply not useful. It’s not often that every supplier has everything in stock all of the time. Even in normal business trading, warehouses and production go in and out of stock.
“That’s not what a retailer wants to hear but it is the reality. With the pipeline being upset for the past three or four months, [suppliers] just haven’t been able to get a consistent flow.
“We want to make sure the store can hold as much stock as possible without it being overstocked. Different channels ask for out-of-stock lists but what they’re really asking is ‘When is it coming?’.
“There’s no point supplying an out-of-stock list if you don’t know when stock is arriving. We have customers for whom a normal turnaround from their supply line might be a month but they’re up to three or four months out now.
“In the stores they can see we’re trying to do the best that we can, but we do feel a little bit like the meat in the sandwich!”
“When you have this lumpy pipeline, the mental work that you have to do is so much harder. Our team has had to consistently make guesstimates based on very little information. It’s been very challenging indeed”
WEATHERING THE STORM
From VRM’s perspective, Derek van der Vossen insists team experience really shone through during the most trying periods last year.
Still, as with most other stressed businesses in the last year- plus, looking after one’s team, however experienced they may be, has been among the highest priorities.
Derek concurs: “Our driver was to make sure all of our team was okay. If they’re okay, and safe, then we know that our customers will be well looked after because it’s easier for our team to execute what our customers want.
“But, when you have this lumpy pipeline, the mental work that you have to do is so much harder.
“The last few months have been really hard on our team as they’ve had to consistently make guesstimates based on very little information. It’s been very challenging indeed.”
Angie Samuel says what gave Storelink an upper hand during
MORE AT www.facebook.com/nzhardwarejournal
FEBRUARY 2021 | NZHJ 25