Break Room and Cleaning Supplies Offer Growth

In the very competitive OCS market, diversification can be critical to growth. But being diverse means much more than offering a wide range of coffee and beverage products and systems. Companies looking to gain a competitive edge need to take a broader approach to meeting the needs of their facilities and office manager customers.

For many OCS companies, the answer just might be in the break room and the washroom. The break room category, which consists of products such as paper and plastic cups and plates, plastic cutlery, straws, lids and stirrers, is expected to reach $12 billion in 2007. The opportunity is even greater in the continually growing janitorial/sanitary category — which includes items ranging from hand sanitizers to cleaners to floor care products — where 2007 estimates place the market at $29 billion.

Yet while corporate refreshment customers are also often involved in the specification and decision-making process for “jan/san” and break room products, many OCS operators are not willing to stray from their core competency and take a leap into these other categories.

This point is even more puzzling when you consider that it is three times more cost-effective to sell additional products to existing customers than to seek out new customers. At the very least, adding break room and “jan/san” products provides another tool for strengthening existing customer relationships.

The bottom line, however, is that if your mix of business is not 25 percent to 30 percent jan/san and break room ancillaries, you are missing out on a profitable opportunity.

As is the case with any new venture, entering these new categories will require an investment of time and monetary resources. However, the investment is minimal when you consider the rewards in terms of customer satisfaction and increased margins. So, the question then becomes, how can you minimize the risks associated with entering into new markets and move quickly to the rewards?

Expansion into ‘jan/san': a multi-step process for OCS

Paradigm Group, a full service supply distribution, facilities products manufacturer, warehouse packaging and marketing consulting company, offers a solution. The company believes the key to successful penetration into the jan/san and break room categories is the implementation of a multi-step process that emphasizes the OCS operator's strengths, yet addresses the overall facilities requirements of current customers.

Simply asking your existing customers to consider you for their jan/san and break room business is the easy part. Securing the business and keeping it long term requires a much more strategic effort.

That is why it is critical to align with a sourcing partner that has industry-specific expertise, can offer an array of facilities products as well as a focused go-to-market and ongoing marketing support program. The Paradigm Group specializes in helping distributors and OCS operators enter the jan/san and break room businesses and navigate the marketing challenges.

Case study: Corporate Essentials, Fairfield, N.J.

Corporate Essentials, Fairfield, N.J., a traditional provider of coffee and beverage products to offices in the New Jersey and New York areas, came to Paradigm Group looking for solutions that would extend its refreshment line and create future growth opportunities.

When Corporate Essentials expanded into jan/san, its mix of product sales was 90 percent coffee and beverage, with the remaining 10 percent split between jan/san paper products and break room items. With the help of a committed supplier partner, which implemented its integrated sales and marketing program, Corporate Essentials was able to grow its business in the jan/san category area alone by 15 percent.

Overall, Corporate Essentials has grown its business by 30 percent over the last three years, landing a spot on the Inc. 5,000 list of the fastest growing companies in America. The company attributes 8 percent to 10 percent of this growth directly to working with the Paradigm Group.