newsXpress Echuca is the latest Victorian regional member to rebrand and open. The Dye Family certainly engaged the community with a month of activity commencing with the sponsorship of  a regional conference and culminating with the Gala Opening last Friday.

An alreadt great store has been further improved with the pro-active owners seeing strong growth in Hallmark cards and related product ranges, magazines and Canson Art. Their fun opening day was obvious to all as highlighted by the enthusiastic team. An ever popular sausage sizzle, promotional give-aways and the nromal newsXpress activities provided a great start.

Congratualtions to Steve, Liz, Andrea, Jo-anne and all the team at newsXpress Echuca!

newsXpress Bairnsdale opened under the newsXpress brand on Saturday and everyone came to town.

Promotions giving away free petrol, Accomodation, Show Bags, Lucky Dips etc were supported by Hallmark Forever Friends Bear, Coco the Clown (How do they make motorbikes out of Balloons?) and a lovely chamber ensemble of local musicians filled in a great day that could not even be marred by the cold, wind and rain!

Many people entered the store for the first time and were eager to come back again. This positive feeling was only strengthened thanks tothe local Lions club and the 300 + delicious sausages they gave away out the front of the store.

newsXpress Bairnsdale proprietors Gina and Taz epitomise the newsXpress mantra. As new members, their particiaption is strong and they are subsequently reaping the rewards for their efforts!

Congratualtions on a great day!

Vaughan Lawrence and the team at newsXpress Seymour have grown card sales by 38% since switching to Hallmark Cards. Yes they made some changes by bringing the cards to the front of the store which has also helped, but the stunning growth is mainly attributed to the new range of cards. The added promotions from the Hallmark Alliance Program which is supplied have also been a key contributor to this stunning growth with the store recently giving away a Giant 36″ Forever Friends bear as a part of the promotion.

They cant wait to see the growth at Fathers Day!

Imagine the growth when newsXpress Seymour gets a shop fit which is planned for the future.

newsXpress Beechworth were already great business operators and entrepreneurs before they joined newsXpress as showcased by their multiple ‘Newsagent of the Year’ accolades.

However since joining the newsXpress group which prides itself on attracting, nurturing and challenging the ‘Best of the Best’, they have taken their performance to a new level!

The innovative and high performing HOT ink! sub-brand has been strongly embraced by Tracy, Vaughan and their team and as the photos below show they have tied the Olympic theme of the HOT ink! 8 event into another push on home and office printers.

Dubbing the iconic front of the store their “Green & Gold Window”, Tracy and team have highlighted the promotional product using some simple yet highly effective Olympic visual marketing materials.

newsXpress Bairnsdale proprietors David and Gina Brakey have left no stone unturned in their pursuit of advertising their newsXpress store opening. In a competitive market with several newsagents in a small town, the team at Bairnsdale stand proudly on a pedestal by their pro-active and enthusiastic approach.

Already embracing HOT ink! and developing an innovative signage solution for their display, they have also commissioned this enterprising newspaper advertisement and radio ad: 3380-newsxpress-aug11.mp3

newsXpress Sarina revealed an uncanny coincidence when communicating their Care & Friendship Grand Prize winner!

The local winner Walter shared his name with the Giant Forever Friends Bear as nicknamed by the team at Sarina. The Girls in the store were so excited about the fluke about the names that they ended up playfully fighting over who would call the original Walter with the good news.

Pictured in the below photo: Bec (who won out and got to call Walter!), Walter, Angela & Walter.

Serving the community is what newsagencies are renowned for, if you can tap into it using local icons even better.

Proprietor Donna and the team gave it some thought and declared that Pumpkin Scones were to be on the menu at newsXpress Kingaroy Mall and dutifully invited Flo Bjelke Petersen in to sign her new book (with her famous Pumpkin Scone recipe the highlight!).

A nice sales boost can do wonders, thinking outside the four walls at Kingaroy has brought joy and renewed sales…

Lisa the store manager at newsXpress Nambour recently asked the newsXpress marketing department for a copy of the ‘say NO to plastic bags’ artwork.

Little did we know what they had in store for it! As you can see from the photos a very creative mind has transformed our branded re-usable bags into cute little turtles to tie into the environmental message we have been supporting.

Great innovation often is often the result of good ideas and enthusiasm as shown in this example.

John Klemm at newsXpress Klemms Mildura has started trading with Hallmark as part of him joining newsXpress. The Hallmark strategic relationship has been extremely beneficial for all parties concerned and their strong and bold branding plus quality product have seen massive sales increases throughout the newsXpress network.

All John can say is that he is astounded with the growth in his greeting card sales. The pictures tell the story!

newsXpress Kin Kora received a special early allocation of one of the newsXpress Father’s Day promotional lines – the Gourmet’l cook book.

Sarah at Kin Kora has negotiated a local area cook up with the decidedly male influenced recipes on the menu! Below are some of the pictures of their first display!

newsXpress Woden in the ACT have spent the last three weeks operating off trestle tables in their shopping centre due to a brand new shopfit being completed in their store.

Despite the tight time-lines interfit retail completed on schedule and Anthony and Nicole were able to open on time today!

The shop looks sensational, and team at newsXpress Woden are equally excited, tired, proud and motivated!!!

The photos below illustrate perfectly the window display at newsXpress Beechworth for the first Canson Create ART promotion. This window merchandising has been fantastic as it has highlighted the new range to their customers who are overall an artistic community.

Customers have expressed to Tracy in the store that they cannot get the beginner pads (watercolour, Canvas etc) cheaper anywhere else. Word of mouth and the letterbox drop of the catalogues around town should get this information around very quickly.

Brett and Alexandra Carey of newsXpress Deception Bay have done a magnificent job combining two very different promotions and also introducing a new ‘kid’s corner’ initiative.

The Care & Friendship Promotion exclusive to newsXpress through the Hallmark Alliance relationship builds sales by encouraging customers to purchase multiple products in the Forever Friends and Welloington Bear range – the prize a giant 36″ cuddly Forever Friends Bear!

The ABW Mid-Year Book promotion as seen in the photos has proved a great success throughout our network of stores.

And finally the introduction of a ‘kiddies corner’ which encourages greater duration of time shopping the store, while also providing a conscientious and creative local community service.

The ever popular Diddl and Forever Friends Bear made a special guest appearance at the newsXpress Drewvale store much to the elation of the many young customers.

As you can see from the photos not all the fun was confined to the kids with proprietor Terry Augustine getting in on the act!

These are some pictures taken at newsXpress Orange last Monday, Karen is seen pictured with Paul & Maureen Blunden’s cute little grandson son Sam in his very special newsXpress T-shirt!

Great innovation all round in Paul & Maureen’s store, they are great ambassadors for newsXpress!

Manni Ribeiro is an enthusiastic newsXpress proprietor. Eumundi is a small market and to excel in a retail business you need to show energy, a point of difference and an ability to adapt to changing needs and tastes.

The following photos show Manni’s store with three concurrent promotions. While some might say this can detract from each event, others will point out that he is trying to maximise exposure and interest in three very different categories. This can not only generate new sales but also encourage multiple purchases across his entire range.

Photos depict the following promotions:

• ABW Mid-Year Book Promotion
• Create ART Mid-Year Promotion
• Care & Friendship Month

newsXpress Kin Kora are always one of the first to share their great merchandising standards and ideas with the rest of the network and the current care & Friendship Promotion is no exception.

Proprietors Sarah and Ian have been able to convey the promotion excitement to their key team members who have enthusiastically outlined the event to all customers especially trying to upsell product when one qualifying purchase has been made.

newsXpress Chancellor Park took advantage of the first newsXpress and Canson Create ART flyer promotion by dedicating a specific area of the store for the range.

With the event designed to coincide with school holidays and a high quality marketing flyer distributed to homes in their local market, this newsXpress store was certain to see some very positive results for this ‘new money’ category.

newsXpress Wagga Wagga have supported the newsXpress exclusive Care & Friendship event with this spectacular display at the front of their store. Using the engaging Hallmark Alliance marketing materials they have carefully arranged the range of products in an attention grabbing manner.

Retailers are presented with many seasonal and promotional opportunities, how successful they they are often depends on the store’s willingness to embrace the event and live the promotion in the way the team at Wagga Wagga undoubtedly have.

newsXpress Woden had double reason to celebrate this week with the Hallmark Alliance exclusive Care & Friendship Promotion and the 40th Birthday of proprietor Anthony McCormack.

The team went to great lengths to put the display together and customers enjoyed the event as well as the personal touch.