In an exclusive interview with PrintIT Reseller, Greig explains why Brother is actively recruiting new partners in the OA channel and how resellers can grow their managed print business.
He highlights Brother’s leadership in sustainability as the only OEM remanufacturing both inkjet and laser cartridges, expands on opportunities for resellers within the industrial labelling sector, and outlines current marketing priorities including promotions, designed to drive partners’ growth
Michelle Ryder (MR): Brother is actively onboarding new partners in the OA channel. Why now? What’s driving the channel recruitment initiative and how can Brother help resellers win more managed print business?
Greig Millar (GM): We have only just started to become more relevant to resellers within the OA space and traditional copier dealers. We’re seeing a shift in the marketplace where the requirement for a large departmental machine is becoming less and less, and customers are looking for a more distributed print environment for A4 workgroup.
And we’ve now got a relevant proposition for partners. We’re helping those partners by creating a brand new MPS business partner program. We’ve been really successful, to date, we’ve recruited 36 new partners and we’re offering them benefits such as a five-year warranty, exclusive products and exclusive consumables. So, we’ve really got a complete package, including rebates and promotions for the end customer and for partners as well.
MR: You have a comprehensive SoHo and office lineup across colour and mono A4, laser and inkjet. At the recent MPS partner event, the team spoke about balanced deployment, can you explain what you mean by this and how this approach can help partners to differentiate in competitive bids and better meets customers’ needs?
GM: When we’re talking balanced deployment, that is a really good opportunity for the OA channel and for partners sitting within that area. Because we’re seeing the shift from A3, balanced deployment allows end customers to put the machines where they’re needed, so they’re nearer to the end-users, and that improves the workflow.
It improves efficiency as well. Customers’ A3 devices aren’t getting clogged up with jobs, end- users can get their print jobs from where they need them, and we’re seeing cost efficiencies from that as well. This comes from our experience within retail and healthcare, and we’re able to introduce that balanced deployment model across other organisations and other industry sectors as well.
MR: So, Brother’s A4 lineup can actually complement a channel partner’s existing offering. If they’re offering another vendor’s A3 device they can bring in the Brother A4 products to create that balanced deployment that customers now need and demand?
GM: Yes, that’s where we’re really seeing the opportunity, and we’re hearing really positive feedback from the OA channel around that balanced deployment, and how that’s meaning that they are not leaving opportunity on the table. They’ve got those opportunities to do that balanced deployment, increase efficiency and cost savings for the end customer.
MR: Moving onto the industrial labelling sector, another area that Brother is very strong in. What’s the opportunity here for channel partners, and how can they leverage your broader offering to expand into new verticals or add value to existing customers?
GM: The adding value is really important. So, we’ve got our traditional partners and they may be supplying print to end customers in areas I’ve already mentioned such as retail and healthcare, but we’ve also got our Auto ID partners, and we’re having a really big push in there. Brother has always been known for labelling, for our electrical labellers and our network installing labellers, and we’ve got a really good proposition within that space.
We’re quite new to Auto ID, so we’re doing a big push to recruit more partners into that Auto ID space. Partners who are specifically looking at that world, and that includes things like industrial labellers. We’ve just launched new products our TJ-6 lineup, and that puts us into that 6-inch labelling for packaging market, for logistics packaging and logistics labelling. We’ve got a broad product lineup from industrial labelling through to receipt and labelling and all the way into office print. So, we’ve got a complete end-to-end solution.
So not only are there opportunities for partners within the Auto ID world, where we’re trying to recruit and build that channel, we’ve also got opportunities for our traditional partners within the IT reseller area, where they can expand their knowledge of our products, and expand that opportunity, where they may be providing print, but can also add additional labelling within those customers.
MR: So, there are cross-selling opportunities for both channels?
GM: That’s exactly it. We’ve alreadygot large high street customers that have retail stores, and we’re also now providing solutions for their warehousing and logistics. Also, within the food industry as well, we have food retail outlets, which are doing the same thing, but also labelling food.
MR: We talk a lot about sustainability and the circular economy in the print sector. Uniquely, Brother is the only OEM remanufacturing both inkjet and laser cartridges. What’s your sustainability message to the channel, and how does it strengthen your overall offering?
GM: We’ve spoken about this before, Michelle, we don’t stand on the rooftops and shout about our sustainability credentials. We are working on that and we’re improving our messaging around that. But as you’ve said, we have got award winning facilities within Slovakia and also in our establishment in Ruabon in north Wales, which are not only remanufacturing toners, but also ink cartridges and as you stated, we’re the only manufacturer to be currently doing that.
We’re also reinventing our packaging, all of our products will now be coming in a brown box, and we’ve also got a really innovative moulded pulp interior packaging now. So, we’ve done away with expanded polystyrene which is another really key point moving towards our sustainability goals. We’ve also won lots of global awards around our moulded pulp packaging.
We continue to develop our sustainability messaging to ensure that people understand that we are really at the forefront, and we need to get better at communicating that to the wider world, really. But that will continue to be really important for us.
We see bids and tenders come in from end customers and sustainability is very high on everybody’s agenda. The expectation is that we have those credentials and we need to better communicate that we do have them.
MR: You mentioned sustainability and environmental credentials form highly now on tenders and bids. Do you find out a lot of your partners are turning to you to help them communicate Brother’s sustainability credentials so that they can then differentiate?
GM: Yes, we’ve got sustainability officers within our business so we can make sure that when we get those bids and tenders, we would be there alongside our partners to ensure that they get the support they need to respond to those bids and tenders correctly.
MR: From a marketing perspective, what’s the current focus? You’ve touched on the fact that you’re communicating about sustainability and I know security is another key focus area for you. What are you doing in terms of promotions, helping partners to stay ahead and win?
GM: We’ve got lots of promotions on at the moment. We’ve got around 70 products currently on promotion. But backing all that we’ve got two really strong marketing campaigns. We have a Europe-wide inkjet marketing campaign, which is really cementing our reputation within that inkjet space and communicating about all the features and benefits of those products. But also, within the UK specifically, we have a big colour laser campaign called Long Live Colour, and that is backed up by promotions, some really rich margin opportunities for the resellers.
MR: Anything else you’d like to add?
GM: After this, I’m going across London to go to the PC Pro awards. We’ve actually been awarded Print Manufacturer of the Year for the 12th year running, which is incredible. What’s really important about that to us is the fact that it is voted for by end customers. That makes it a really special award.
