Chances are that the name Audax does not ring a bell. But you are undoubtedly familiar with one or more titles of the company active in the print media chain. And if magazines like Santé, Vriendin or Royalty don't mean anything to you either, then you probably know the AKO, Bruna or The Read Shop stores, which are (partly) owned by Audax. Finance director Johan Rijnvos is not worried about the low name recognition of the family business founded in 1958 by Jacques de Leeuw. "The name Audax does not reach consumers. As long as they know our titles and know the way to our stores."
Logistics operation
And they do. With its magazines, Audax reaches more than 3 million readers every month (see box). The aforementioned titles are produced by the Gilze, Brabant-based media company, with its own editors and freelance journalists. The printing of the magazines is outsourced, but for distribution the magazines return to Audax's logistics center, says manager of planning & control Tycho ter Elst. "We bring our magazines, but also those of other publishers, to our own stores as well as to the other of a total of 5,500 outlets. These include Primera, but also Albert Heijn and Jumbo, for example. We go wherever you see magazines." The logistics operation takes place on the basis of statistics, trends and analyses, Johan explains. "We know exactly how many magazines a retail outlet sells. We know from experience that we have to deliver a few extra copies, otherwise the sales figures drop. No, the entrepreneurs don't have to pay for the unsold copies, they can return them to us."
Seasonal products
With the growing flow of information online, newspapers and magazines are struggling. Circulations are declining, titles are disappearing. Audax is trying to maintain and, where possible, strengthen its market position with a number of measures. One such measure is the expansion of services. More and more stores under the Audax banner have an ING Service Point and/or a parcel service, and by adding (seasonal) products to the assortment, Audax hopes to attract more customers to the stores. Acquisitions, such as in 2020 when Bruna and BookSpot were acquired, should also ensure a healthy future for Audax.
"More and more, especially young, Dutch people are reading books in English," says Johan. "That the market for these books is growing is good for our business, because we have a solid market share in books the English language. We sell these partly through Bol.com, but we also believe that someone who orders a book on the train should be able to pick it up at the next station. Since we took over BookSpot, the successor to ECI, this has been possible. Customers can buy a book through BookSpot. nl, RDC.nl or Bruna.nl and pick it up at the Bruna or AKO."
According to Johan, the corona pandemic accelerated this development. "When we bought BookSpot, we were already planning to modernize the online platform and set up a click & collect service. We accelerated that. By the way, the coronavirus hurt us quite a bit. During the first lockdown, sales of the AKO stores at Schiphol Airport and railway stations dropped tremendously. Bruna was still doing well then, because many people started working from home and needed paper and other office supplies. Furthermore, people had more time to read books and magazines. But when all the stores were closed for a while, we suffered a lot."
Night rainstorm
The corona virus and declining circulation figures were not the only challenges for Audax. The risk of fire, lightning and flooding also requires attention. "We work with paper, flooding poses a big risk to our products," says Tycho, who manages the insurance portfolio at Audax and would rather not think back to the massive water damage that recently hit Audax. "During a gigantic night rainstorm, the pressure of the rainwater caused a crack in a drain on the second floor, right above our book and magazine warehouse. Fortunately, people were still there, but they could not prevent thousands of gallons of water from flowing across the floor."
That same night, a company was called in to make emergency repairs to the pipe and a company that got the water out with drying machines. "The damage to the books wasn't too bad in the end, though a lot of magazines and comics were lost," says Tycho, who called Schouten Zekerheid at 8 a.m. the next morning. "Before lunch an expert was already there to take stock of the damage and give us some advice to prevent further damage."
AFM Award
To reduce the risk of fire or water damage, Audax pays close attention to safety and prevention. Because it got things so right, it even received the AFM (Authority for the Financial Markets) Award, Tycho proudly explains. "A year earlier we had four areas for improvement on our fire policy, all of which had been resolved. I see the award mainly as a reward for the serious way we deal with internal security. For example, we don't leave garbage lying around on the shop floor, every employee knows the rules of the game and we test our sprinkler system every two months.
Not because the insurer asks us to, but because we want to offer our employees a safe working environment." At the end of the conversation, when asked which Audax title(s) the two men themselves actually read, Tycho almost shifts color: "I must honestly confess that I hardly read any magazines. But then again, I don't really belong to the target group of magazines like Friend, Weekend and My Secret. But if I buy a book or magazine, it always comes from the Bruna." Johan reads mostly books and home, motorcycle and car magazines. "Those kinds of magazines Audax does not have in its assortment. But of course I also buy my books and magazines through BookSpot or in one of our own stores."
