Storelink has been in the merchandising business for nearly 20 years originally as a division of Korbond Industries. During the last six years of its history at Korbond it was managed by Ken Hewitt and, in June 2000, he eventually bought it after considerable restructuring within Korbond to maintain the service not only to the clients served under the Korbond umbrella but to others who have come on board over the years.

The company has enjoyed years of growth with the support of experienced managers including members of his family. Then in 2004 Ken reached a crossroads in the company’s development. He believed that the writing would eventually be on the wall for a company just specialising in merchandising alone, he was also cognisant of the fact that there was no natural successor to carry the business forward into a new era with the experience of working as anything other than a merchandising company. For these two reasons Ken believed Storelink would either need to expand its horizons or it would simply fade away.

After discussing future opportunities, operations were expanded to include a sales brokerage service. Storelink, which encompasses Storelink Services and Storelink Sales, now offers a customised service to fit whatever needs a principal may require. This may be merchandising alone or can also include warehousing, distribution, sales and marketing depending upon the individual client’s needs.

To be able to provide the management and expertise to expand the business in this way, what was an originally a one man operation has now become a partnership for Storelink Sales Ltd.

Joining Ken, with exceptional experience is Jeff Coyle. Jeff has overall responsibility for all Key Account Management, managing trade support and expenditure, total sales and profit targets.

Brendon Korner Company Divisional Manager works with Jeff and Ken managing new business opportunities, relationships with principal owners and manufactures.

Today Storelink is a formidable organisation with 25 full-time members of staff. The rest of the staff work part-time and this can be anything from three to five hours a week in one store towns up to 30 hours in the city. There are now eleven experienced field sales people backed up by approx 200 part time merchandisers. The merchandisers are supported with 20 field managers who work to enhance their service to the supplier/retailer relationship.

Storelink - a one-stop shop third party service provider delivering total logistics opportunities. Offering everything from merchandising solutions, putting product on the shelf, to operating and managing the business relationship in New Zealand.