Velpic begins strategic reseller programme to broaden customer growth

Velpic Ltd (ASX:VPC), a provider of cloud-based educational services in the Learning Management System (LMS) market, has announced its first re-seller partnership since listing on the ASX on 12 November.

VPC announced an agreement with well-known retail trainer Mr. John Blake for the purpose of distributing VPC’s proprietary eLearning platform to members of the Surf Boardsports Industry Association (SBIA) and their retail employees, located in over 1000 locations across Australia.

Mr. Blake is a popular and highly acclaimed Australian retail industry training expert with over 28 years direct sales experience. His forte is helping retail businesses raise sales revenues through “proven formulas” that create predictable and sustainable increases in sales performance. At age 23, Mr. Blake increased sales turnover from $750,000 per year to $6 million per year as national sales and marketing manager at Arnette Sunglasses.

Direct to Corporate Sales Mentor, John Blake

As a re-seller of VPC’s platform he will utilise VPC’s video learning platform to create and deliver retail training content to all of SBIA’s workforce, including part-time and casual workers.

The deal opens a commercial channel for over 1000 potential small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to be on boarded as VPC clients with a dedicated new “SME version” of Velpic’s platform on track for launch in Q3 2016.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates Australia’s retail industry to be worth around $23 billion annually and VPC is making a case to provide ongoing, high-quality training at a fraction of the cost, thereby alleviating logistical headaches often associated with training dozens of staff.

Training new employees from day one and to a high standard are crucial to delivering better overall performance according to Mr. Blake. “By providing new staff with access to tailored video content covering induction and retail topics before starting a new role, both employer and employees start off on a firmer footing and can hit the ground running,” said Mr. Blake.

Traditionally, staff training costs were quite high and inefficient because trainers have experienced logistical difficulties mainly due to the fact that all lessons were done in person, which meant organising large groups into smaller ones and teaching generic content.

“It’s incredible that training that would have cost hundreds of dollars per person to deliver, can now be delivered to an entire store’s retail sales team for a fraction of the cost,” says Mr. Blake. Adding, “Velpic’s technology is so disruptive because it will literally take the cost pressure off retailers who need to keep their staff members trained.”

Second pillar in threefold strategy

In order to maximise its growth potential Velpic is pursuing a parallel strategy of marketing its platform directly to end-user clients such as metals manufacturer Alcoa and multinational agri-business Olam. Velpic struck a direct agreement with Alcoa last month.

But to further boost its market traction and client numbers, VPC is actively setting up “strategic partnership agreements” with re-sellers and co-branding partners.

Velpic Chief Executive Russel Francis, who recently won the award of ‘Most Disruptive CIO/CTO’ at the Talent Unleashed Awards in Sydney, Australia thinks with the wide proliferation of internet-ready devices combined with their increasing usability, changes the rules of the game when it comes to training staff quickly, effectively and remotely.

Velpic Chief Executive Russell Francis receives Most Disruptive CIO/CTO award from Sir Richard Branson at Talent Unleashed Awards

“In a fast changing retail environment where customers are digitally savvy and changing their shopping habits, retailers need to deliver high-quality, effective training for a diverse and geographically spread workforce. We have every confidence that Velpic’s visually inspired eLearning Platform has the ability to meet this need” says Mr. Francis.

Since listing on the ASX on 12 November 12th 2015, VPC shares have climbed from $0.03 per share to $0.067 – a 123% increase.