Bye Bye Kinko’s
Hello FedEx Office. FedEx is reportedly eliminating the Kinko’s brand and leaving their own on all stores starting sometime soon. FedEx acquired Kinko’s in 2004, so the name is theirs to toss, but any time a company eliminates a strong brand they face trouble. In FedEx’s words:
“Kinko’s was primarily a copy- and print-service provider when it was acquired in 2004,” said Brian D. Philips, president and chief executive of FedEx Office. “The name FedEx Office more accurately represents our broader role. … We are a back office for small businesses and a branch office for medium to large businesses and mobile professionals.”
Since when was FedEx about the back office? That was always UPS’s territory while FedEx built their brand around reliable overnight delivery. The stores may have become a back office for small and medium businesses, but have they done so as FedEx or as Kinko’s?
The UPS Store
And speaking of UPS, they actually did this successfully a few years ago when they acquired Mail Boxes, Etc. and renamed it to the UPS Store. The renaming worked very well for them, mostly for reasons that do not apply to FedEx. Mail Boxes Etc. was never as strong of a brand as Kinko’s, while UPS had already started to establish itself with some backoffice credibility. On the other side, the Mail Boxes Etc. shtick had always been about shipping first, other stuff second, making it easy to move the brand for UPS. Today this differentiation still works - when you visit a UPS store you see more shipping material than copiers while a Kinko’s is all about document preparation
FedEx’s Path Ahead
FedEx has a very difficult path in front of it. I have a feeling this won’t work out so well for them and that in a year we’ll wonder why they spent $891 million doing this in the first place. Besides, when was the last time you heard someone say “I’m going to go make a copy at FedEx.” When one strong brand disappears, it’s usually the competitors that win. Expect some turmoil in the office supply and copier space soon.
I agree.
In my moment of lamination need . . . to whom will I turn?
Kinko’s.
Federal Court Accepts Franchisee Victims’ Amended Complaint Against United Parcel Service (UPS) PDF Print E-mail
March 22, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACTS:
L. Michael Hankes, Esq.
63 Commercial Wharf
Boston, MA 02110
(617) 723-1144
Los Angeles, CA
Peter C. Lagarias, Esq.
1629 Fifth Ave.
San Rafael, CA 94901
(415) 460-0100
Federal Court Accepts Franchisee Victims’ Amended Complaint Against United Parcel Service (UPS)
A group of small business owners (The Brown Shield Association, BSA) unites against shipping Goliath UPS, citing omissions, non-disclosure, unfair practices, breach of contract, and predatory practices for franchised locations.
Los Angeles, CA (March 22, 2007) - A substantially revised amended class action lawsuit against UPS was accepted earlier this month by the United States District Court – Central District of California. The amended complaint was filed by more than 220 franchisees of The UPS Store. The franchisees contend that, among other claims, UPS omitted and/or did not disclose relevant information to franchisees opening new The UPS Store locations and those franchisees switching from the MBE brand to The UPS Store brand; UPS made false claims about how well The UPS Store would perform financially; UPS competes and uses information from the franchisee to acquire customers for UPS directly, bypassing the franchisee altogether.
“Corporate greed is still alive and well in America” says Larry Bowdoin, President of the Brown Shield Association (BSA), and a franchisee himself in Alabama. ”UPS likes to call us a minor number of disgruntled franchisees. We’re just one group. What UPS doesn’t want you to ask is how many additional lawsuits from franchisees are there?”.
Bowdoin continued, “No franchisee could have forseen that our biggest competitor would have been our franchisor, UPS itself. There have been many instances of UPS luring away our [franchisee] customers, often with incentives, affecting the franchisees’ profits. UPS makes more money that way, with no regard to our bottom line. The more money per package that they get doing it that way adds up to tens of millions of dollars of extra profit for them. They don’t care that we have rent, employees, health care to pay for out of our own pockets”.
“Had information been fully disclosed regarding profitability, missing test market data, and unfair trade practices, the franchisees would have been able to see that UPS was pulling a fast one on us”, said Bob Strickland, VP of the BSA and a franchisee from Virginia. “This is not a viable business to be in,” he continued. “Instead, we have people filing bankruptcy, drying out their retirement accounts, maxing out their home equity line of credit - it’s a travesty. We’re fighting back for all of the exploitation that UPS has done to us”.
The BSA represents a wide range of franchisees from around the country.
Ok UPSS, whoever you are, I’m going to allow your post, but you are barely on the spam line. Rather than cutting and pasting a press release, a simple summary and a link would have been preferable. While your release is topical, I don’t like my site being a repository for PR for other people’s problems. This is not a newswire.