KOPYA NG SALIN 🔗
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Welcome back to Distribution Unpacked. We're here with the great Lauren Keating. Lauren, welcome to Distribution Unpacked.
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Thanks so much for having me today. I appreciate it.
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So wait, before we get started and we talk about all the cool things going on at Morkon, you have a history with sp.
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I do.
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So let's talk about it.
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So SP Richards was the first job I had outside of college. I was fortunate enough to work out of the Richmond Distribution Center. So I worked there as a management trainee for a year, working in the warehouse, customer service, just learning all the different facets of the company. And then I wanted to get closer to South Carolina, where I'm from, so they offered to move me to Atlanta, Georgia, where I was fortunate enough to be one of the original marketing merchandising managers. The
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old M3s.
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The old M3s,
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yeah.
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And was under Jack Reagan and kind of the rest is history. It was a fabulous experience.
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So what's funny is, you know, you don't want to date anybody based on age, but we don't even have a Richmond facility anymore.
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I know, I know. That's what's so crazy is just to see, you know, Even in the 20 years roughly that I have been in this industry, to see the way it's evolved and changed. It's. It's been fascinating to watch. But yeah, it definitely has a kind of coming home moment being with y' all and working on your account again. So very excited to be here. Well,
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we're thrilled to have you. All right, so that's the history. Tell us the present. What are we doing at Morcon? What's your role? All that kind of stuff.
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Yes. So I am the director of sales at Morcon Tissue. I've been with the company for about three years. So while I've been in the paper industry and dabbled in chemicals for a hot moment, paper is where my heart is. So I'm excited to be with Morcon. Being family owned and operated, there's a lot of synergies with Yalls accounts. We really pride ourselves on the fact that, you know, we have family working for the company. We are producing locally here in the United States. These are things that we are extremely proud of and I'm excited to be part of that organization.
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That's awesome. So, you know, for the listeners and folks, obviously we know towel and tissue. We know kind of the bigger players in that space. What is the Morcon niche? How does Morkon win in among all of the players?
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Yeah. So you're always going to have what we call the big three. We are very proud to say we want to be your alternative to the majors. We know who we are, we're very confident in our selling story and we recognize and respect those big three. But when they are not the right fit, we want to be that phone call that you're making and we want to be, like I said, that alternative to the majors.
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That's awesome. Trends. The big thing for us is really looking at market trends is kind of the world has. Obviously we talk about the world changing after the pandemic and all this different, you know, but the economy is shifting a little bit. And I think as we look at into 27, 28, what are you seeing from a market trend perspective? And it relates to towel and tissue.
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Yeah, there's always gonna be price. Price is always going to be part of the conversation. But yes, we are seeing other trends evolve. And I think one of the biggest ones is the shift in what people are offering. So historically you would see food service, state and food service Lane, Jansan seed and Jansan Lane office products, dealers, obviously, pens, paper, coffee. And what we're seeing now is people are dabbling and shifting and they have that mentality of, okay, I already have a customer that I am selling into. I'm already selling them X goods. Why can't I just tack on a few more things? It's more profitable for the distributor saying, hey, I already have a truck coming to your facility. Why don't I just drop off a few more things? So I really see that blend and kind of that mixing of the channels really happening now.
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Yeah. And so it's a great segue into vertical markets for us. We always talk about how do we help a customer, whether that's a dealer or distributor, become that single source. Because when we think about how people are buying today, and you know, we could talk about that major online player, you don't go there for one specific thing. You go there, you start there for whatever that is. And if they have it, great. If not, we'll go somewhere else. But how do we help our customers start to be that way and how do we help them expand? To your point, the op dealer might not be comfortable selling into healthcare, but how do we get them selling into healthcare? Maybe not acute, but maybe non acute, where they can walk into a dentist's office or, you know, any other, a med spa or things of that nature. They don't always have to win in the operating room. In acute care.
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Absolutely.
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And so as we move into 27, as we move and look at what we're doing from a marketing perspective. We're talking vertical markets. What are you seeing? If you think about like industrial healthcare, education, Fed Gov, what are you seeing as some of the growing verticals specifically around the end user types?
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Yes, I would even take it one step back. So regardless of which vertical you're calling on, there's five things
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that are going to matter to them and it's really discovering which of these five are the most important. Tell
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me more.
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And we use the acronym chips. Okay, so C cost and use H hygiene I image P productivity and S for sustainability. And you know, it's really discovering which of those are the most important because all five matter in some shape or form. But it's the prioritization piece. So if you are calling on acute care or maybe long term care, anything in the healthcare segment you're gonna have to focus on hygiene. So you want to find a hygienic solution where you know, the towels are in a cabinet. They want that covered roll, they want one at a time dispensing where you know, if you do have germs on your hands, you're not infecting, you know, the entire roll. Alternatively, if you're going into food service, cost and use is a big play right now. Right. With trends like doordash and instacart and all of these things, it's changing how restaurants operate and they don't have as many people dining in. So that is impacting the napkins and things of that nature. But when you go back to that acronym of chips, it's really just figuring out what is the most important to that customer. The beauty of morcon and where we're really trying to help is what we want to give you a good, better, best solution that caters to where you can pivot. You don't have to be the master of all the different paper products and companies out there. We want to be an easy, simplified but effective portfolio. So where it's like with that SP Richards with more con, Hey, I may not know everything about this particular vertical that I'm trying to get into, but I know that I have the support from an inventory standpoint and I know that I can learn enough about morcon to where I can find the right solution for that customer.
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No, I think that's fair. And I think, you know, when we think about it from a reading perspective, talent issue, always kind of center of the plate along with a few other players, but it's a little overwhelming, you know, is it a JRT is it an hr, there's. We love acronyms, as you know, it's an industry thing. But to your point, I know, what do you lead with? How do you work it? And then you start talking about verticals. And one of the things we're working toward next year is you can go win in certain verticals, but you also have to talk like them. So who are the Personas? How do you. Like you just said in healthcare, they want single pull, single use versus, you know, in a restaurant. Now today, to your point, QSRs are changing. How does that whole place. So it's a, how do we help build Personas? How do you build acronyms? And it's just trying to get people educated. What do you see are some ways our customers can win with Morcon in partnering with us, but with you. But what are some of the key ways that you guys can help a customer win differently?
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Yeah, so we look at the trends that are going on, and we really try to adapt and evolve our product portfolio. The beauty of being independently owned and operated is we're extremely nimble. So if we see a need in the market, we're very quick to adapt and be able to provide a solution. If we don't have one already for that vertical, I would say that's number one. Number two, some of the trends that we're already seeing, like sustainability, we're already making huge efforts to ensure we are the most current and kind of up to date on our products. So we recently looked at all of the items that are in our assortment. So it's 75 items over the course of napkin, towel and tissue. And we said, okay, which one of these are sustainable? Which one of these can get Green Seal certified? And we're going ahead and getting a lot of that certifications done. And we are creating marketing pieces like that.
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Love that.
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And obviously working with your marketing team of saying, hey, we have sheets where it shows from the front of the house to the back of the house, whether you're in class A, whether you're in a restaurant, whether you're in manufacturing. So from the moment someone steps through the door till they go out the back door, where are all the places that Morcon fits? And a lot of times your customers are already selling them. Whether it's the chemicals or, like I said, the paper,
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without a doubt they're in there.
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So it's just identifying and pointing out. And sometimes it's as simple as asking your buyer, hey, where are you getting that product today? Because I, I'm shocked at the amount of times that they have someone from their, you know, office or someone going and running out and grabbing that facial tissue or running out and grabbing, you know, some forks or napkins for the party.
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It's so true. It's crazy. It's so true. And, you know, it's a funny story and I've shared this before because it's my go to story, but, you know, we have a seller in the north, in the, the Midwest, and she's a Jansan seller and she does her thing and one day she was leaving and she noticed her counterpart or her colleague at the, at the, at the end user level kind of just sitting there fixing chairs. And I think there was a conversation. Meanwhile, we sold a truckload of chairs. A Jansan person who's there to sell, you know, cleaning, you know, sold, you know, new chairs to the office. Because generally the end user customer could be the same person who's fixing the restroom towel and tissue dispensers, also fixing the casters on a chair. And so by just to your point, walking and asking and how do we just be a little bit more and helping our customers get comfortable? You know, at sp, as you know, we're twice removed from the end user. So how do we help the dealer and the
distributor, their sales reps, get comfortable onward into the end user? And so that's why we're trying to shape those things up. And you guys are totally in line and a good partner for us. As we think about our relationship and growing and opportunities, one of the things that's important for us is how do we simplify complexity? We launched that as our tagline about 18 months ago. And while it's aspirational because we're pretty complex, how do we help our customers simplify that complexity? And in your opinion, what's one way that you can let the customers know that Morkon's there to help you?
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I would say first and foremost, the good, better, best brand architecture that Morconn has. Again, everyone knows that, you know, if you look at a dispenser, you can say, all right, I know that it is a small core tissue. How do I find the right solution? Well, when you have a good, a better and a best, it makes it a lot more simple. So I think, again, don't overcomplicate it. That is one thing people do is they want to go in there and they, they want to create change or they want to like, be able to say, hey, here's all the things I can do
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for sure.
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Sometimes it's as simple as saying, hey, I noticed this. Would this be a better solution? And just providing a small tweak versus trying to completely re outfit their, you know, whether it's the restroom or their break room. When it comes to simplicity as well, I think having a plan going in there, we have like a one pager and it's almost like a checklist. Sure. Right. Of here's all the things that maybe you should look out for. Are you noticing that trash is overflowing? Are you noticing that maybe there's paper on the floor? There's little things that you can quickly do a quick site survey, you know, as you're waiting to meet with your buyer or whomever that can give you some talking points. And Rome wasn't conquered in a day. So sometimes like you said, that chair look for the one thing because that is going to get the buyer thinking of, okay, wow, this person really cares about not just selling me something, but how can they improve and help me look good too?
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No, it's a true statement. I think it's so overlooked until you go in and think about the restroom. And we joke about winning in the restroom, but it's so much more than that. It's. Is there a look the feel. I think your CHIPS acronym is exactly the right way to look at it. So, Lauren, thank you for your time. This has been great content. All of a good majority of the marketing materials are all on the exchange. I know you're working with the team, so thank you for that. And we're excited to continue building on the relationship.
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Yeah. And I would just say too, we have a wonderful marketing team. We have a robust samples department as well. So we want you to be able to touch vlc. But if there is something that you are needing, please reach out to our team. Obviously, SP reps are wonderful. They can help get in contact with us.
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Awesome.
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But if there's ever anything you need, we're here.
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Awesome. Lauren, thank you so much. Take care.