Colart Becomes Distribution Partner for edding in North America
From 1st October, Colart will distribute the edding brand and its portfolio of ‘Creative and Home-solutions’ products throughout North America.
This partnership offers retail partners an extended trade portfolio of existing edding products and many new items, bringing the total count to over 500 live SKUs.
This long-term partnership aims to increase the sustainable growth of the German brand in this region. It supports its growth strategy to become a leading brand for creative marker users and a one-stop solution for all creative/DIY projects.
View the Press Release below. Please use this for all external communication.
We have developed a set of key questions and answers so you can better understand the partnership.
How did the relationship with edding come about?
Chief Commercial Officer Gail Pasquier noticed that edding's current distributor Savoir Faire had been acquired by North American distributor MacPherson. Mergers and acquisitions often bring unrest within an existing client base, so our Business Development Director, Jasper Van der Wuff, placed a cold call into edding. This led to an introduction to edding's North America managing director.
What are the benefits of this partnership?
The distribution partnership offers the opportunity to generate more sales and profit and, importantly, without the need to make significant investments.
By expanding our portfolio, we become more relevant to our customers, as we can provide a broader range of products. This helps spread our fixed costs (sales team, warehouse costs, support functions, etc.) over a more extensive portfolio.
The edding portfolio is mainly complementary, delivering relevance and a reason to "play" in a category we would typically not operate in with our brands. It also provides insights and learnings within that category.
Why is the partnership only in North America?
North America has the most significant growth potential for both Colart and edding. Doing this in partnership builds a stronger foundation for growth.
Who from Colart will be directly involved with edding?
Currently, it will be the local North America commercial and marketing teams who will be the most involved. As with many projects, this does not happen without collaborating with other teams, including Finance, Procurement, Supply, Regulatory, Legal, the Digital Data Team and Corporate Communications.
How do we communicate this partnership externally?
Please use the press release attached to this news article for trade, customers and consumers.
Next update coming to you in early Q4.
We will continue to update you with information and development with the edding partnership, including stories from the edding team.
Exciting news, well done to all who made this happen.
We remain committed in North America to grow our market share in the Graphic Art arena. As well as the opportunity to grow sales with minimal changes to our overhead structure we also believe, through being seen as a more ‘credible’ supplier and brand builder in this category, our other brands can also grow more quickly in Graphic Art through this partnership with edding. Exciting times indeed – well done and thank you to all involved.