According to the NFRN: The talks follow proposals by the news wholesaler to close its Cambuslang branch in Glasgow and transfer all its operations to the Linwood branch nearby.
Senior NFRN officials, led by Chief Executive Paul Baxter, National President Kieran McDonnell and Newstrade Operations Committee Chairman Sam Whiteside, called for urgent discussions to avoid a repeat of the poor service levels, inconsistent deliveries and crediting and voucher issues, following the major reorganisation of Menzies’ wholesale operations in South East London last year.
Representing the wholesaler were Menzies Managing Director David McIntosh, Commercial Director David Cooke and Supply Chain Director Mark Cassie.
As well as securing a commitment that the NFRN would be kept fully informed of developments in Scotland, the wholesaler agreed to a series of further requests from the Federation.
These included to review as a priority its copy allocation and voucher redemption processes, to look into increasing the number of times that Menzies customers are credited a week, to fully examine instances where customers have failed to have their standing order requests honoured and to improve and enhance the i-Menzies customer website.
It also agreed that deferred payments for TV listings titles would be available from Christmas 2012.
The NFRN also provided feedback for the wholesaler’s customer satisfaction survey, which is currently being sent out, and advised on latest Newspro developments, which Menzies agreed to support.
Commenting on the outcome of the talks, the NFRN’s Mr Baxter said: “It was pleasing to sit round the table with senior executives to discuss a series of issues that we know have great impact on NFRN members. We advised that we remained unhappy with the continuing service issues at SEL, although we recognised that great effort was being made to resolve these, and did not wish to see these repeated, should Menzies’ proposals for a major reorganisation in Scotland go ahead. We have been heartened by their response to this and the myriad of other improvements that we have put forward and we look forward to holding regular meetings with senior personnel in addition to our monthly service meetings.”
Commercial Director David Cooke, from Menzies Distribution added: “Listening to our customers is crucial to ensuring that we deliver any change projects in a way that meets their service expectations. Our relationship with the NFRN is a major pillar of that listening strategy – and we’re pleased to enjoy such a close and constructive partnership with Paul and his team.”
