“We will increase our customer focus in order to become an even better supplier and our aim is to develop and grow together with our customers. The merger gives us enough scale and a good platform to do this” says Bong’s President and CEO Anders Davidsson, who will continue to lead the company after the merger. “After several years of close co-operation in our strategic alliance, we know the Hamelin organisation well and we complement each other in a good way. With the merger we are able to extend our product offering significantly and, furthermore, we widen our geographic coverage, especially with the units in France, Spain and Poland.”

“This merger will ensure a brighter future for our envelope division. I’m confident that our strategic investment into the new Bong company will bring us long-term success in the envelope business” says Hamelin’s president Stéphane Hamelin, who will join Bong’s board of directors following the transaction.

Following the merger, Bong will have a number of strong brands in its portfolio, e.g., Plus Fabric, New Guardian, Mailman, Posthorn and Postac and brand licenses for, e.g., Oxford and Basildon Bond. It also has the exclusive European license with DuPont to manufacture and sell Tyvek envelopes and packaging solutions. Furthermore, the company sees great opportunities to develop and spread Bong’s ProPac range (packaging solutions) into new markets after the merger with Hamelin.

Tags: Bong

A CCTV image of a man wanted in connection with thefts at a Mansfield office supplies store has been issued by police.

The man entered Staples in Portland Retail Park and took various ‘high value’ items before leaving without paying at around 6.45pm on 8th June.

He is described as white, mid-30s with a dark ponytail. He was wearing a dark hooded zip-up jumper and jeans.

Anyone who can identify the man in the still is asked to contact PC Rachel Andrews on 0300 3009999 ext 805 3466 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

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Nimans’ NEC Business Manager, Lynnette Smith says 2010 has been a great year for both companies, and their customers, as sales of the SV8100 and XN120 communication platforms continue to grow. She says increasing numbers of resellers are adding NEC to their product ranges.

“We want to open people’s eyes to the power of NEC and emphasise how impressive revenue benefits can be generated by introducing these competitively priced fully featured systems.”

Attendees will be able to learn more about the latest version of NEC’s acclaimed SV8100 system. In addition the ever-popular XN120, which recently smashed through the 200,000 sales barrier, also takes centre stage.

Lynnette concluded: “We also want to highlight how Nimans plays a crucial role in growing sales – with massive stock levels and guaranteed next day deliveries combined with the highest levels of technical support and flexible finance solutions as part of an award-winning service. These events represent the ideal first step into the world of NEC and identify why more end users are choosing NEC. My message to resellers is that if they are not supplying NEC, then someone else is.”

Tags: Nimans, NEC

Mawhinney, who will serve as chairman of the group, was most recently known for his role as chairman of the Football League and in 2004 oversaw a reorganisation of the league structure, renaming the former Division One as the Football League Championship.

He has also served as an MP, representing Peterborough from 1979 to 1997 and North West Cambridgeshire from 1997 to 2005. He also entered the Tory Cabinet in 1994 as secretary of state for transport and served as chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister Without Portfolio for two years from 1995 until the 1997 election. He then served as shadow home secretary under William Hague, before returning to the back benches in June 1998, stepping down from the House of Commons in 2005. He became a life peer in May 2005.

Joe Hemani, founder of the Kelido Group, said: “Brian has been a long-standing personal friend and I am delighted he has agreed to join our board of directors. This will give our group both an independent management view, closer connections with government and provide the management team some overall leadership guidance that will enhance their own capabilities.

“He will provide further board rigour that will enhance our corporate governance and he is our first-ever non-executive director. I welcome him on behalf of our excellent team and look forward to working alongside him.”

Mawhinney’s other directorships include the post of deputy chairman of the England 2018 World Cup Bid.

At the 4^th Office Products Excellence Awards, presented by Papelaria, during the Escolar show, AF International took first place in the Best Product – Computer and Multi-media category with Multi-Screen Clene with Micro-Fibre Cloth (MCA_200MIF).

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Ron Jakeman, Group Managing Director, Janaina Ferraz - Sales Support, Carolina Casetti Kina - General Manager Brazil, Moises Bittencourt – Sales

Ron Jakeman, Group Managing Director “We have recently entered the Brazilian market with eighteen AF branded products.  AF’s sister company Electrolube has been trading successfully in Brazil since 2005 and with the Brazilian economy growth it made perfect sense to introduce the AF brand of ICT cleaning products. The Escolar show proved to be the perfect platform. The interest in the product was amazing, and to win an award confirmed that we had made the right decision.  Many reseller groups, large independents and wholesalers are interested; our Brazilian team are going to be extremely busy following up after the show”.

Multi-Screen Clene is a gentle non-smearing screen cleaner can be used on all sensitive screens including TFT, LCD and plasma technologies.  It is also suitable for PSP’s, phones and MP3 players.  The product is extremely safe in use and contains no alcohol.  The 200ml pump spray has a soft micro-fibre cloth contained within the lid which provides a clean and shiny surface.

If you would like to know more about AF International or The H. K. Wentworth Group please go to www.af-net.com

Tags: AF International

Dealer Excellence Award
Everything Office
Harper Office
Penketh’s
Samson Office Supplies

Brand Awareness Award
Fellowes
Oxford (Hamelin Paperbrands)
Samson Office Supplies

Business Technology Award – (Up to £5m annual turnover)
CTS Sales & Service
Paperstone

Business Technology Award (£5m+ annual turnover)
Office Depot
Penketh’s

Catalogue of the Year Award
Blue Fish Office Products
Mark C Brown
NEMO

The Environment Award (Manufacturers)
Kyocera Mita
HSM (UK)

The Environment Award (Dealers, Dealer Groups, Resellers and Distributors)
Lyreco UK
Office Friendly
Penketh’s
Office Depot
Office2office

Manufacturing Excellence Award (Up to £10m annual turnover)
Durable (UK)
Trodat UK
Williams Jones Clifton

Manufacturing Excellence Award (£10m+ annual turnover)
ACCO UK
Brother UK
Fellowes

Manufacturers’ Marketing Excellence
Avery Dennison UK
Fellowes
Mitsubishi Pencil Co (UK)

Resellers’ Marketing Excellence Award
Integra Office Solutions
Penketh’s
Spicers Academy

The Retailer Excellence (Independent & multiple retailers’ awards)
London Graphic Centre
The supermarketonline.com
Tesco
UOE

Young Professional of the Year Award
David Kelly – Lyreco UK
Richard Lockley – Superstat
Andy Whyte – Evolution Software

The awards are at the Lancaster London Hotel on 14 October 2010

“These Belden products eliminate the need for lots of tools. All an installer requires is just a precision cleave tool for quick and easy installation which saves a considerable amount of on-site time and associated costs.”

Nimans is initially stocking four product lines based on different sizes of fibre cables. Further variants will be added in due course.

Geoff added: “Belden is an industry recognised quality brand. This new product may be small in size but it is destined to have a big impact out in the field, based on a very simple design and implementation. It is a significant development for the whole industry.”

Tags: Nimans

DS Smith Group

Office Products Wholesaling
The trading performance at Spicers is ahead of last year with profitability increasing due to better product mix. The focus remains on improving mix and on tight cost control to ensure Spicers leverages its strong market positions to take advantage of improving economic conditions.

Business Review
The review of our business strategy is making considerable progress. As set out in June this year, our aims are to create a growing business that is more focused, producing higher margins and returns with less cyclicality. We expect to announce our conclusions at the time of our half-year results on 9 December this year.

Acquisition of Otor
On 7 July 2010 the acquisition of Otor for €247m was announced and completion took place, earlier than planned, on 1 September 2010.
As set out at the time of announcement of the acquisition, we expect Otor to be accretive, before exceptional costs, to both earnings and margins in the first full financial year of ownership, with a return on investment above DS Smith’s weighted average cost of capital.

The integration teams are established and the work is proceeding well to realise annual cost synergies of €9.3 million in the second full financial year of ownership. Combining Otor’s successful, well-established, FMCG focused corrugated packaging business with our existing French operations will create a platform for further revenue opportunities across the wider European market.

Save for the acquisition of Otor as described above, there has been no significant change to the financial position of the Group since the publication of the results for the full year to 30 April 2010.

Pension
We have started consultation with the remaining active employee members of the Group’s UK defined benefit pension scheme with a view to closing the scheme to future accrual. This will help the Group better manage this exposure in the future.

Outlook
The year is progressing in line with expectations underpinned by continued FMCG demand and we continue to grow our business through our continuous focus on innovation and servicing the customer. We look forward to the remainder of the year with confidence.

Tags: DS Smith

“There’s great potential in these areas of business. Public address for example represents an easy and cost effective way forward.  From a dealer’s point of view it’s easy to sell and easy to expand – ideally suited to a vast range of sites, from warehouses and offices to hospitals, schools and car showrooms.”

Nimans works with many leading brands, notably Valcom, Eagle, TOA and Adastra, providing a complete array of solutions – from speakers and microphones to central pre-amps and mixer amplifiers.

James says Valcom Public Address systems represent an ideal opportunity for dealers to maximise their margins as they can easily be added to existing telephone systems.

“There remains healthy demand for public address systems which allow businesses to pinpoint staff efficiently and effectively. Valcom equipment is designed to be easy to sell and expand; featuring innovative technology such as talkback’ where an announcement can be answered directly by talking at the speaker.”

He concluded: “The ability to also now incorporate public address as an application through existing IP networks represents another significant step forward. There’s a world of different solutions and sales opportunities out there.”

Tags: Nimans

DURABLE have an array of hard-hitting and informative marketing support tools available to trade customers to assist with promoting Computer Cleaning Week® 2010. Please contact your local sales representative for more information.

*Source: Royal Chemistry Society

Tags: DURABLE, Computer Cleaning Week