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| P2P Magazine | Spring 2016
01732 759725
PENS
Doing an Aldi
On test:
The Schneider One series.
Reichelt, a successful German online retailer for electronics,
automation and computer accessories, is entering the UK
market with an English e-commerce site and delivery service for
businesses and consumers.
The company was established in Germany in 1969 and has become
a market leader as a result of its competitive pricing and high stock
availability. It has more than 220 employees at its German logistics
centre in Sande (Friesland) and currently generates annual revenues of
around 125m Euro.
Reichelt hopes to emulate the UK success of German grocery
retailers, such as Aldi and Lidl, by offering lower prices than competitors.
CEO Ulf Timmermann says it is offering many of its products for 20%
less than UK rivals such as Maplin, Mouser, RS and CPC-Farnell.
He said: “We supply business customers in the electronics and
engineering sectors, from laboratories to workshops, education and
IT, but we also meet the needs of the consumer audience. There’s
a growing ‘makers movement’ in the UK and we are able to serve
their needs, as well as businesses’, at prices lower than in Maplin, for
instance, but at a higher quality than they might find when importing
from other international suppliers.”
Timmermann says Reichelt is able to charge low prices because it
does everything itself, from writing its own ERP software to setting up
its warehouses and managing its call centres.
As an added incentive to buyers, it offers discounts for bulk buying
on certain products and VAT-free invoicing.
Reichelt’s aggressive growth plans include a
€
9 million investment
in a third warehouse. Due to open at the end of April, this will enable
Reichelt to increase the number of items it holds in stock to more
than 100,000 by next year.
Low-cost German electronics retailer enters UK market with value proposition
scratchiness, giving a very soft, almost
feltpen-like feel. It also allows the pen to
adapt to your writing style. For example,
it will write perfectly whatever your grip
or writing angle. Plus, when you press
lightly you will get a thin line and the
more pressure you put on the pen, the
bolder your writing will become. This
pen is now available in most high street
stationers, supermarkets and wholesalers,
and will feature in its own TV ad
campaign in June.”
Permanent rollerball pens offer added
protection for written information and
can provide businesses with peace of
mind when signing cheques and other
important documents. Buyers should
look out for rollerballs compliant with
ISO 14145-2 (rollerballs for documentary
use) and the newer ISO 27668-2 (gel ink
ball pens for documentary use) to ensure
that what they write stands the test of
time – and fraudsters.
...continued
Pen To Paper
tried out a One
Business rollerball with a line width
of 0.6mm – the thickest in the range
– and found it very pleasant to write
with due to a smooth and even
ink flow and a rubberised grip for
stability and comfort.
We also tested a One Hybrid N
rollerball with a needle tip and line
width of 0.3mm (a 0.5mm version is
available). You might expect a pen with
such a fine tip to be scratchy, but, like
all of the models in the series, it writes
very smoothly.
We tested ink permanence by
soaking a sheet of paper with water.
The ink didn’t run or smudge even
when rubbed. Colours remained bold,
though the black ink did yellow slightly
at the edges after getting wet.
To demonstrate the special
properties of permanent ink, we
ran the same test with a general
rollerball and found that its ink
smudged very easily when wet
– clear proof of the benefits of
using a permanent rollerball when
stability and durability is required.
Pen To Paper smudge and run test
