Europe's largest business supplies wholesaler has announced a rebranding and refocusing of its business. Effective 1st May 2019, VOW Europe officially became VOW Wholesale, the company says bringing a fresh emphasis on spearheading continued growth and innovation in the reseller channel.
"This is much more than a name change," explained VOW Wholesale's MD, Adrian Butler. "After an incredible amount of industry change over recent years, we've taken a step back to re-evaluate what it means to be a modern wholesaler. We've refocused and committed ourselves to our role as an evolving wholesale business – one that truly understands wholesale and the value it adds to the supply chain in all sorts of ways, from smooth product distribution and marketing support to sector innovation and much more besides. That role means we are well placed to drive success alongside our supplier and reseller partners."
The company provides access to a comprehensive range of around 25,000 products on a next-day basis. Recent months have seen a focus on progressive activity including expansion into new areas to help respond to the evolving demands of its reseller customer base.
Innovations include the ground-breaking Product Conveyor, which allows dealers to order new items as they become available, rather than having to rely on the traditionally rigid annual catalogue cycle. This has given resellers access to a steady flow of products throughout the year, so they have always got new products to promote and to help open doors with customers particularly in growth categories, ergonomics, SMB print hardware and facilities supplies (which has seen a 12% growth over the past 2 years) to name a few. In 2018 over 3,000 new products were introduced outside of the catalogue window, with VOW aiming to increase this throughout 2019.
The self-service Customer Portal, meanwhile, has revolutionised day-to-day admin for resellers, automating much of the process and improving insight, control, deliveries and financial management. The portal functionality includes the ability to raise a query, raise a return, view reports, track orders, view invoices, make a stock enquiry and access documentation.
According to Adrian Butler the rebranding is about highlighting "who we are and what we do". He said: "We're establishing the benchmark for the channel with unrivalled customer experience and product choice, dedicated account contact and a delivery service that suits the various requirements of our resellers, plus effective marketing platforms, loyalty programmes and industry events. As VOW Wholesale, we are committed to maintaining that, working collaboratively with our supplier and reseller partners, while setting the agenda for the challenges and opportunities ahead. We have some really exciting developments on the horizon, evolving trading models and further investment in our national Truline service to name a couple, all I can say is watch this space!"