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Distributor-only CSRs and five plants are positioned to handle distributor orders

The $2.43 billion direct-selling giant of the forms industry—Moore North America, Bannockburn, Ill.—has launched a business unit geared to the independents and joined the DMIA. The new unit, called Latitudes, is based in Iowa City, Iowa.

According to Dick Dennis, vice president of the Resale Channels, Latitudes is completely independent of Moore's direct-selling divisions. Rather than reporting to a vice president of sales, Dennis reports to Patrick Brong, the president of Logistics & Operations for Moore. No stranger to the independent channel, Dennis previously served as vice president of sales for Vallis Form Service/Champion and, before that, as vice president of sales for Transkrit® for several years.

The venture will tap into the multi-billion dollar distributor segment of the market to increase volume for Moore's form manufacturing plants.

Latitudes has a three-pronged strategy

• First, to operate in the independent marketplace via Latitudes, building a network of distributors.

• Second, the licensing of Moore's 2,000-plus registered patents

• Third, to develop reseller agreements involving Moore proprietary products in order to fill manufacturing capacity.

The distributor strategy is now operational. The other two parts will begin in the coming months.

As part of its plan, Moore applied for admission and was welcomed into DMIA. The company has begun taking part in DMIA Trade Marts and will exhibit at this year's InformServices Show.

Scott Miller, director of operations for Latitudes, explained that Iowa City is a central ordering point for Moore. Latitudes has six customer service representatives set up in a separate area to input distributor orders into Moore's system.

"Once in the system there is nothing to distinguish a distributor order from one of Moore's direct orders," said Miller. Standard cartons and labels are used for distributor jobs—there is nothing to identify Moore as the manufacturer.