Staples Australia and New Zealand has announced a rebranding and service-oriented pivot following Platinum Equity’s acquisition of the local division earlier this year.
The company will be retitled ‘Winc’, a name the company said was derived from the term “work incorporated”, and is expected to represent a “breakaway from traditional competitors” as the company adjusts its focus to more than just office product reselling.
Winc will continue to serve Staples ANZ’s more than 26,000 customers, including banks, telcos and healthcare providers from sites across both Australia and New Zealand.
Chief executive Darren Fullerton said the brand was “designed to bring a breath of fresh air to an industry that has been historically quite traditional and predictable”.
“It represents our shift from offering products to providing solutions and inspiring a better way for workers and learners to get things done. By its nature, it also gives us the ability to flex and add adjacent solutions and offerings to meet our customers’ needs both now and into the future,” he said.
Changes to the business also include investments in its supply chain, digital experience and a new service to help businesses monitor the performance of their company, heralding “the start of a complete change to the customer experience”, according to Fullerton.
“It is more than defending disruption from the likes of Amazon, it’s about developing our ability to see around corners and fully anticipate customer needs. We are also investing in a best-in-class digital experience, complete with artificial intelligence and full automation to remove friction in the cart process and provide smart insights to customers,” Fullerton said.
“Our competitive edge sits in our deep domain expertise. With our new customer insight report, called The Winc Review, we will provide a new level of insight and data for our customers into their own supply chain, innovation, compliance, cost management and sustainability. This information will, in turn, allow them to improve the overall health of their business in these critical areas.”
Fuller also spoke of strengthening the company’s delivery service, which was a point of pride for the business.
“Our drivers know our customers’ personally – in many cases they see them every day with a straight-to-desk-and-doorstep delivery experience. You don’t get this experience when you buy straight from an e-Commerce site. This is something our customers in Australia and New Zealand have told us time again that they value and we are making investments to make this experience even better,” he said.
The company will officially be known as Winc from 4 September.
| A CrowdZ release || August 7, 2017 |||
As Tesla races to deliver its grid and wind farm-connected 129MWh lithium-ion battery in time for South Australia’s coming summer, a much smaller-scale version of some of the same technology is set to be switched on at a salt manufacturing facility across the Tasman, on New Zealand’s South Island.
NZ utility business Vector Energy Solutions said on Monday that a 250kW/570kWh Tesla Powerpack would soon be switched on at Dominion Salt’s Lake Grassmere works, to store and smooth energy from the already installed 660kW wind turbine.
Integration of the wind turbine and Tesla battery storage system – believed to be an Australasian first – is expected to meet around 75 per cent of the site’s energy needs, minimising its use of the grid, and maximising security of supply in a region susceptible to earthquakes.
“We contacted Vector because we decided that battery storage was critical to our energy needs,” said Dominion Salt CEO Shane Dufaur.
“It’s incredibly important to have security of supply for the overall sustainability of the business. Given out location and the recent seismic events, we need to make sure that we’re not reliant 100 per cent on the grid.
“Vector produced a design that incorporates our renewable energy sources, the lake system and the plants, to optimise our uses of energy. Very importantly, it includes our 660kW wind turbine,” Dufaur said.
Vector Energy Solutions connects Tesla Powerpack to wind turbine from Vector Ltd on Vimeo.
“The solution Vector has created for Dominion Salt provides sustainability and resilience benefits to the salt producer,” said Vector’s group general manager for development, Brian Ryan.
“The Tesla Powerpack will help with peak shaving and load management while ‘firming or smoothing’ the often-intermittent energy generated by wind turbines.
“The addition of a 250kW battery storage system, storing up to 570kW-hours of energy, will allow Dominion Salt to maximise the use of its wind turbine and store any excess generation for use at other times,” he said.
“The control system, built specifically for Dominion Salt, will be remotely monitored, 24/7, to ensure it’s running optimally.”
Ryan said the new wind and battery system – at the intersection of technology and sustainability – offered viable alternatives to businesses with both green and commercial benefits.
He said Vector was pursuing other opportunities in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands to deploy both on-grid and off-grid battery storage systems.
| A OneStepofTheGrid release || August 7, 2017 |||
By Alex Tarrant
New Zealand’s manufacturers have issued a series of challenges to politicians on both sides of the aisle, saying leadership is needed on tertiary training to close skills shortage gaps, on research and development (R&D) incentives, and on readying the economy for the growth of automation.
In a Double Shot Interview with Interest.co.nz, New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) CEO Dieter Adam told Alex Tarrant that his organisation’s members were crying out to be heard on issues central to the future of the sector.
The NZMEA on Monday was set to host Finance Minister Steven Joyce, Labour’s finance spokesman Grant Robertson and Green Party co-leader James Shaw for a panel on how the various parties would help sustain and grow New Zealand’s manufacturing base.
From 26% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) 40 years ago, the manufacturing sector’s contribution to the overall economy has fallen to 10% of GDP today. Even over the past four years, the trend is evident, falling steadily each year from 10.5% of GDP in 2012 to 10% now despite the sector itself continuing to grow.
It may not seem much but we’re talking in the hundreds of millions of dollars as domestic consumption and the services sector, including services exports like tourism, jump up the list. While that’s all well and good for those industries, Adam argues government needs to focus on policies to allow his sector to flourish. “I’m not aware of any reasonably wealthy country that doesn’t have a strong manufacturing sector.”
Continue to read the complete article here || August 7, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242