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http://www.opi.net/e_news/march_2010_news/groups_send_letter_to_contract_investigators?SQ_ACTION=login&
PURCHASING AGENTS SEND LETTER TO
CONTRACT INVESTIGATORS
APRIL 2010 –
Alexandria (VA), USAFour major US independent dealer organisations have
put their names to a letter addressed to local and state purchasing,
auditing and investigations officials regarding manufacturer list
prices.The letter below – which was co-signed by the heads of AOPD,
is.group, NOPA and TriMega – was emailed to recipients on 12 March.While
the letter does not specifically refer to Office Depot, opi.net
understands that the letter is a response to Office Depot allegedly
refusing to provide list price data to agencies reviewing their Office
Depot contracts, asserting that list price data is proprietary and
confidential information.Dear Local and State Purchasing,
Auditing and Investigations Officials:
We are writing on behalf of
our organizations’ members in Florida and throughout the United States
who are independent office products dealers, all of whom purchase most
of the products they distribute to the final customer from S.P. Richards
and/or United Stationers, the two largest national, full-line
wholesalers in the office products industry. Those wholesalers’ products
also are available to the national Big Box companies for items they do
not buy directly from manufacturers.As several of our dealer
members have advised you, manufacturers’ suggested list prices are not
proprietary information. To the contrary, those prices are widely
published in hard copy and online by industry wholesalers as well as by
manufacturers themselves. They also are made available to independent
dealers electronically in price files that are regularly updated.Thus,
manufacturers’ list prices are readily available to all industry
companies in a variety of published formats and can be verified
independently. NOPA, with support from AOPD, is.group and TriMega, is
leading an ongoing initiative to ensure maximum standardization of
product data for all office supplies and certain other items that
dealers sell. Without full transparency on item numbers (SKUs) and the
manufacturers’ suggested list prices that accompany them, it would be
impossible for any customer to verify that they are receiving correct
net prices according to their contracts for office products.We hope this
letter clarifies the apparent misunderstanding regarding the public
nature of manufacturer list prices in our industry.
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