Sovereign Business Solutions
Every Label Tells a Story
“For over 40 years, Sovereign Business Solutions Group and Avery UK have shared a partnership built on quality, trust, and a passion for brilliant office supplies.
From the early days of paper labels and dividers to today’s expansive, innovative product portfolio, the relationship has gone from strength to strength -with both businesses growing side by side.
Avery’s ever-evolving range of office essentials has helped Sovereign open countless doors, won major contracts, and kept customers coming back for more. Whether it’s clever labelling solutions, organisational must-haves, or smart presentation products, the portfolio has always given Sovereign something new and exciting to offer. It’s a partnership that’s proved, time and time again, that with the right products and people behind you, anything’s possible in business — and the best is yet to come.”
Q: Can you tell me about Sovereign and how it started?
A: Sovereign is a third-generation family business which started on the 2nd of June 1982 and it was started by father and son, Gary and Sydney Cox, in the heart of Birmingham where they realised there was an opportunity to sell office supplies. They started off very small with a shop front and then grew very quickly. I think it was close to ÂŁ3 million in the first four years and they realised they needed more bodies. We are now going 43 years, 28 staff, 5 divisions with growth now towards ÂŁ10 million, specifically interiors proposition being really high and we're looking into acquisitions moving forward.
It's more of a business supplies and services company now led on both sides and the diversification was always something that we had in mind. I joined the business 10 years ago now and when I joined the business, the margins were decreasing within OP (office products), so we looked at other options. When COVID hit, we were kind of ready and on the curve ball we had warehouses full of stock and we did quite well from that in one regard.
Q: You mention interiors, diversification and being prepared during Covid, but are there other areas or categories you are seeing really contribute to success right now?
A: Yeah, absolutely. The biggest area of growth for us is FF&E (furniture, fixtures & equipment) and M&E (mechanical & electrical) projects within interiors. So obviously larger order values, more scope, more capital expenditure and then everything passes down the line. If you put in the desks, chairs and carpets, everything else feeds through. The biggest order we've had this year is for an air conditioning unit into a building which we subcontracted to one of our trusted subcontractors. We’ve also got a division now for managed services, which is very much like FM (Facility Management). We've just taken on a couple of security guards, some cleaners, and we've took on a building in the centre of Birmingham, where we're doing a full turnkey solution, so it's quite nice to not just be shifting a box. We’re actually now selling a service.
Q: Are there any specific challenges you are facing right now, and how can a manufacturer like Avery help and support to overcome these?
A: April was a bit of a kick in the teeth with National Insurance contributions and minimum wage that affected the P&L over ÂŁ50,000 per year. It's just increasing overhead and therefore increasing price files and constantly trying to build margin into orders. Overheads are a massive challenge and if I could say where Avery could help, it's really difficult because it's very much down the pecking order within OP. I think if Avery and other manufacturers could do more with the wholesaler to help us, and also possibly get involved in more specific projects with businesses like Sovereign to help support that mutual growth.
Q: Looking ahead, where do you see Sovereign moving into, and how can Avery help to get you there?
A: We are in the process of moving heavily into education. So the footprints for the education will be not just paper and exercise books, it will be a full portfolio of education supplies. I think education is going to be a tag on where we actually launch the category, have a category head and a category lead, and we go really heavy into it. We would be looking to work with a supply chain partner to help and support in this venture.
Q: To round off, is there one piece of advice you would give to organisations in the industry to help overcome challenges they have?
A: Firstly, I think the curveball at the moment would be always to be visible with your social footprint. Secondly, if you're not on AI, why not? AI is now a tool that we're embracing. It's something that we're trying to build within to take processes out of our business. We're looking at things like AI bots for order taking. They're going to be somebody that sits on the end of the phone and you can programme them to cross sell. So when you talk about the old cliches of, if you're selling a desk and somebody asks about a desk, you then sell the chair, then you sell the mat, then you sell the bin, then you sell the stuff that goes on it. This is stuff that you can programme AI to do. So there is stuff that we're exploring at the moment and as I say, if I can take out process, it gives time back for us to actually try and have those relationships face to face. So that's the only advice I can say is visibility and looking to always be the key person of interest in that room. There is a great saying of, “don't try and be the most important person or you should try to be a person of interest, so you add value to others rather than you being the most important person.” I think this is the same with a company as well.