In business and in life, the ability to survive is based on how well we can evolve in the face of change. And our France team is a perfect example of evolving with their latest B2B success story. By targeting supermarkets without a press offer as a new client base across the country — and using the skills of their entire team and field workers — they’ve launched a new range of MEGAJEUX magazines that already gained 415 new customers by late September.
But first, some background
“The France team has a long history,” says Gilles, Managing Director of Keesing France. “It started from French-speaking Belgium in 1955. Twenty years later, we set up a commercial office in the heart of Paris”. By 1995, they were producing magazines, and the team grew to nearly 80 talented employees. “In 2010, we took over our competitor Megastar and doubled in size with two leading brands: Sport Cérébral and MEGASTAR.
Despite we are gaining market share, we’ve noticed a slight decline in these sales. This trend is continuing, which is a main reason we began to look elsewhere and appeal to a new target customer — grocery supermarkets.”
A Supermarket Success Story
The France team recognized how to transform a challenge into an opportunity.
“Traditionally, we sell our magazines specifically in the “press” network of stores (newsstands, kiosks, travel stores, food stores, …) with a very organised distribution” explains Gilles. “But with their slowing decline in sales, and the competition branching out, we decided to develop a new client base of our own at grocery stores without a press offer. It raised additional challenges, but our team adjusted and have succeeded.”
Before launching the new brand of puzzle magazines, the French team created a pilot program, ran testing, and determined logistics. “We started with a book distributor, but the costs were too heavy, then we tried to work with press wholesalers. It wasn’t as efficient as expected, so 2 years ago, we decided to manage internally all the operations”. explains Gilles. We started with a few POS and now have more than 400 stores and deliver 47 different titles every two months.
The Deal at-a-glance
“We launched our new range of MEGAJEUX magazines into supermarkets,” explains Gilles. The magazines include eight distinct families of games along with engaging in-store displays located next to the check-out areas where there is the most traffic from consumers and puzzle enthusiasts. “It is an ideal arrangement for our customers who enjoy straight sales commissions with every sale, and don’t have to worry about returning unsold products, distribution or delivery. We handle it all for them.”
Unlike traditional news and press distribution outlets, the Keesing France team had to create everything from scratch, from designing and producing the puzzles, to distribution, and appeal to a new supermarket customer base. “This involved mobilizing the majority of Keesing’s employees in France, from our editorial, marketing and sales teams, to the IT department, stock managers and Naintré accountants.
Facts and Figures
The collective efforts of the French office for non-press distribution outlets that target a new customer base for Keesing have already paid off. Launched across France in 2021, by the end of September 2023, they’d signed 415 food supermarkets, developed eight new MEGAJEUX magazines, created their own distribution system. To succeed, they needed to deploy new skills, prospect for new customers, negotiate commercial offers, and implement new in-house logistics.
“Today, we sell 400,000 copies per year, which we expect to grow to 500,000 next year,” adds Giles. “It’s a very important new customer base and keeps growing as we also continue to recruit more stores, too.” It’s inspiring to see how a clear vision, teamwork and evolutions can transform into a great success story. And team France hopes their superb supermarket story can inspire teams in other countries to be bold and evolve too.
