What’s in the Big Red Unisource Truck?
By KIM MURTHA, Maintenance Supply Specialist, Unisource Canada Inc.

What’s in the big red Unisource truck? It is one of the most often asked questions of the company. Although Unisource is Canada’s largest distributor of printing and imaging, packaging and facility supply products and equipment, many people still don’t know that our 19 locations from coast to coast supply 95 per cent of the commercial market with next day delivery.

Unisource services many markets, with a primary focus on grocery, food service, property management, hospitality, health care, food processing and general manufacturing. With 60,000 different products in the 215 big red trucks we are well known to many manufacturers who rely on our 1500 employees to “Deliver the best value every time” to a wide variety of customers. Although millions of people may confuse us with a trucking company, we deliver outstanding value to companies such as Wal-mart, Loblaws, Atlantic Co-Op, Second Cup and Staples, to name a few.

Our leading market position in the facility supplies business means we have strong partnerships with leading manufacturers like Kimberly Clark, Georgia Pacific, Scott Paper, Cascades, The Avmor Group, Gojo, JohnsonDiversey, Procter & Gamble, Rubbermaid, Atlas Graham and Castle Rock (formerly Windsor Industries), as well as many others. Unisource comes to the market with the finest brand name products available as well as our “own” Allstar line of premium products manufactured in Canada to precise specifications.

Green cleaning solutions for your business is another area Unisource excels in. From the Save-a-Tree® program, to green cleaning solutions like Green Quality™ from Scott Paper, to the Environmental Choice certified Avmor EcoPure™ line of products, Unisource has all the green cleaning solutions for your company’s needs. By adopting a cleaner, more sustainable cleaning program for your business, you will gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace while helping to protect the health and safety of your workers and the environment.

Unisource also offers a coast-to-coast distribution network and support team of technical specialists with over 135 sales professionals and merchandising that support both national customers and local levels.

What does this mean to the Atlantic marketplace?
From its three distribution centres in the Atlantic region – Moncton, NB (96,000 sq. feet); Dartmouth, NS (32,000 sq. feet); and Mount Pearl, Nfld. (45,000 sq. feet) – Unisource is able to provide its customers with next day delivery throughout the region.

With over 65 employees in the Atlantic, the company is able to provide customers with the efficient and expert support they expect and demand. From its seven sales professionals to the merchandisers, to the customer service providers, Unisource has the personnel to satisfy all customer requirements. We have sales professionals who specialize in various markets and product lines as well as a maintenance supply specialist to assist customers throughout their purchasing experience with Unisource.

In 1992, Unisource Canada Inc. was formed from a number of established and successful national companies that provided printing and imaging paper, packaging and maintenance supplies to businesses and government. These companies included Barber-Ellis Fine Paper, Inter City Paper, Price Daxion, Crown Paper Company, Whyte Hooke Papers and Smith Paper. Some of these companies had been servicing Canadian customers for over 100 years.

The formation of Unisource represented a new era – one where a single, large distributor could provide its customers with the services and products they valued, whether the customer had multiple locations from Victoria to St. John’s or a single location anywhere in Canada. Through market share growth, as well as merger and acquisition, Unisource Canada has become the premier distributor of printing and imaging supplies, and supply products across Canada.

Today, Unisource is an affiliate of Unisource Worldwide. As part of a North America-wide distributor, Unisource Canada can capitalize on the organization’s size, scope and expertise to make sure that customer expectations are exceeded, and its buying power ensures that customers get the best value possible.

The ways of doing business are constantly changing, and the company’s web site – www.unisource.ca – represents just one more step that the company is taking to make it easier and more cost efficient for customers to do business with Unisource. From manual systems in the 1800s to fax, EDI, e-mail and now e-commerce, Unisource will continue to grow to meet its customer’s needs.

The “My Unisource” on-line ordering system allows users to manage and purchase all of their organization’s supply needs easily and efficiently in a customized environment, tailored to their individual needs.

Features of the system include the following:

• My Catalogue – select from a list of your organization’s pre-determined products; order all products within specified folders.
• My Web Orders – order products on-line; view past orders.
• My Profile & Preferences – Manage personal preferences such as language and password; manage One Source e-mail membership profile.
  
• My Invoices – view past invoices; reorder using past orders.
• My Unisource Contacts – view personal Unisource contact information; e-mail your personal contact questions.
• My Unisource Manager – management users control access to their users and determine the type of approvals needed, if any, to purchase products; manage the organization of product folders.
• Help – easy reference on how to use each My Unisource option.

Additional features of the One Company, One Source web site include:

• On-line customer audit.
• Tools and resources.
• Products and MSDS information.
• Locations.
• One Source News.
• Industry Links.
• Contact Us.
• Visit our ‘virtual village’ and learn about the world of products and services Unisource can provide to you.
• Buy on-line.

What’s in the big red Unisource truck? It’s a simple answer. All of your company’s maintenance supply, packaging and paper needs. Many solutions, one source – Unisource.