Earlier this year, at the parent company’s strategy briefing day, Officeworks managing director Sarah Hunter mentioned the education market as one of the areas the company will explore as part of its growth.
It’s not surprising that 200 plus schools, which have previously chosen Officeworks as their primary supplier, have appreciated this business decision.
Since its establishment in 1994, Officeworks has become one of Australia’s most loved and valued brands. It is part of an extensive network of companies and communities and stocks more than 40 000 products.
Officeworks has a footprint of 168 stores and more than 900 team members. With sales of over $2 billion and a consistent revenue increase, they are doing well, providing Officeworks deals and promotions.
Officeworks ventures into the education market
Officeworks is using the Classroom Essentials bulk ordering service to push its entry into the educational market. Primary schools were the first target audience, but there are plans to extend the reach by offering items to secondary schools.
About 1.2 million kids use the B2C (Business to Consumer) platform used by the company, parents, and teachers. Australia’s B2B (Business to Business) education market is estimated at around $2.5 billion.
Besides Classroom Essentials, schools and learning institutions can also use and direct parents and teachers to the Officeworks catalogue using the Officeworks education discount.
Aside from stationery and furnishing items, it introduced 1 500 new lines, in addition to stationery and furnishing products. 56% is devoted to arts and crafts materials and 29% of the space is dedicated to educational supplies.
How Officeworks is using platforms like MURAL for collaboration and digital support
When the world went into lockdown, Officeworks’ support offices started using a hybrid system, but they needed a tool to help them connect teams far apart from each other, and tools beyond whiteboard and screen share.
MURAL was chosen as the platform to help teams and management collaborate remotely. It was selected for its convenience and ability to integrate with Officeworks’ Microsoft suite and project management tools such as Confluence and JIRA.
MURAL worked so well as a collaborative tool to build Officeworks’ Change Playbook (a guide that affiliated businesses may use to implement a reliable, custom-designed technique for managing projects and change).
It defines the guiding principles, structure, and templates to help with the transformation process.
According to Change Partner Rowena Layzell, “It started small, with sticky notes on a digital whiteboard, and quickly moved to build an enterprise-wide Change Heatmap that was 12 ft long when printed out.”
Officeworks’ commitment to sustainability
Even in their growth, Officeworks has made 18 commitments associated with helping consumers purchase sustainably, preserving and respecting human rights, taking real climate action, promoting a more circular economy, and supporting the goals of local communities.
In the Officeworks FY22 Sustainability report, they celebrate the numerous customers they have reached and the contributions they have made to helping educational outcomes in underprivileged areas, as well as efforts to recycle and reduce their carbon footprint.