2008 Mondi Ithabise! winners

South Africa's multi-billion rand stationery and office products industry celebrated the winners of the Mondi Ithabise! Awards last week. An initiative of the Southern African Association for Stationery, Home and Office Products (shop-sa), the 16 year-old awards programme is designed to acknowledge the industry's outstanding individuals, companies and marketing campaigns.

“Often taken for granted due to their commoditised nature, stationery and office products play a fundamental role in every office, classroom and household. In fact, you could say that these products grow businesses. The very fact that these products are simple commodities, often leaving consumers at a loss as to differentiate between the benefits of different brands, is one of the reasons for the awards programme.

“Marketing a brilliant new invention or exciting product with loads of features is easy, but establishing market-leading brands and driving sales volumes in such a competitive marketplace dominated by product parity requires brilliant marketing prowess, outstanding customer service and consistent operational excellence,” commented Davy Ivins, executive director of shop-sa (www.shop-sa.co.za).

Regional winners were announced in Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal and Inland regions at three separate awards ceremonies, with the Premier award winners announced on Thursday, 6 November 2008, at a gala awards ceremony held at the Theatre on the Track, Kyalami, Johannesburg.

The Premier Award winners are as follows:

Marketing section
- Supplier marketing campaign of the year: Cansa “Pink” Campaign - Rexel Office Products
- Reseller marketing campaign of the year: PNA Mascot Competition
Company section
- Supplier of the year: Beswick Office Products
- Regional supplier of the year: Beswick Office Products - Western Cape
- “Made in Africa” award: Flip File
- Retail store of the year: Waltons Fourways Retail
- Commercial reseller of the year: Waltons Watloo
Individual section
- Performer of the year: sales: Shahied Isaacs - Waltons Cape Town
- Performer of the year: Internal sales: Bronwen Fick - Waltons
- Performer of the year: support staff: Joseph Mabode - Wino Office Supplies
- Performer of the year: management: Liz Ribeiro - Waltons Gauteng
- Business leader of the year: Eugene Kleynhans - Waltons

Entries underwent a stringent evaluation by industry judges, as well as an online electronic vote by the industry. Short-listed entries were submitted to an external judging panel which selected the final winners.