BJ Ball bounces back into town

Old established Australian paper merchant brand has now become the largest paper player in the region.

Andrew Bull, managing director of BJ Ball, flew into Sydney on Monday to take on his new paper merchant business, emphasizing the equity involvement of existing management. Keen to promote what he terms the “family values” of the enlarged company that has grown out of the takeover of CPI, he maintains the business will be run very differently from now on.

“BJ Ball will run with the culture of a small business. It is a state-based paper merchant organisation with 26 management stakeholders who have all taken shares in the company. We intend to increase that number in the near future. These are people who have invested in their own future,” he said.

The emphasis is important, as the process of consolidation will see around 40 redundancies across Australia. BJ Ball will be the major paper merchant identity in the industry from now on as it subsumes CPI Paper, Focus Paper and Raleigh Paper into the new entity, BJ Ball Papers. Edwards Dunlop Office Products, Boomerang Paper, CPI Inks and CPI Graphics, will remain as their own brands.

The move will result in the long awaited and to many minds long overdue, consolidation of the Australian paper industry.  BJ Ball will be the merchant with the broadest product and service offering.

“The paper distribution supply chain needs consolidation. From my experience customers want access to a larger range, deeper volumes of product and a streamlined approach to sales, delivery, invoicing and statements. Our customers will enjoy better experiences with a merged entity,” said Bull (pictured above centre with new national team, Peter Friend-Ngui and Craig Brown).

This belief in the necessity of change will initiate a revamp of distribution facilities around the nation.
• Western Australia will see the Osborne Park site merged into the BJ Ball distribution warehouse at Balcatta. Stephen Jeffrey is WA manager.
• Queensland will see the construction of a purpose-built facility in early 2012 to replace the three existing sheds. Paul Hardie will run Queensland.
• NSW will have all businesses operating from the Prospect facility, apart from EDOP, which will use the Girraween site. David Chatillon is NSW manager with Aaron Carter in charge of sales.
• Victoria will stay the same, apart from the changed BJ Ball branding, with three facilities at Mulgrave and Braeside continuing to operate. Michael Byrne is in charge of Victoria with Luke Wilkinson as his sales manager.
• Kerry Saul is state manager of South Australia.

Craig Brown is the new Group General Manager of BJ Ball in Australia. Brown was GM of Raleigh Paper prior to moving to Focus. Peter Friend-Ngui is the new national marketing manager. Apart from these necessarily national roles, the company will rely on state managers to provide customers with relatively autonomous decision making, close to the action.

“Our state-based management structure will be more responsive to customers’ needs. There is a lot of experience and commitment there. Managers will have more say in making their own decisions about how to go to market,” affirmed Bull.

The board of BJ Ball reflects the depth and breadth of the change in the industry. Apart from Andrew Bull as managing director, the executive directors include Craig Brown, Mark Smitheram (CFO) and Richard Hislop (NZ). Ian Harry, formerly managing director of Focus Paper (and even before that a managing director of CPI) will also act as an executive director. Maui Capital, the major equity shareholder in holding company PagePak, will provide two non-executive directors.

It will come as a surprise to many in the industry to learn that BJ Ball is an original Australian paper merchant brand. One Benjamin Joseph Ball founded it in Sydney in 1906. The better-known New Zealand entity traces its origins back to 1921.

The arrival of BJ Ball clarifies the paper merchanting situation in Australia. It is the largest merchant, especially in regional terms, closely followed by the combined weight of the two PaperlinX merchants, Spicers and Daltons. Family-owned KW Doggett comes next and then a number of smaller, specialised suppliers such as Longbottom Paper. BJ Ball is likely to grow further as Andrew Bull maintains there may be further acquisitions in the pipeline.