In recognition of his outstandingly successful first year, Bruce was awarded Expense Reduction Analysts Best New Consultant of the Year. Bruce Murray is an absolute expert after spending 30 years in the print industry. He left his previous role as a director in a multi-national print services company to join ERA as he wanted to develop his career, have more control over his future and achieve a better work/life balance.

Joined ERA:

January 2012
Location: Aberdeen
Role: Print specialist
Awards: Best Newcomer of 2012

Bruce Murray – Awarded ERA Best Newcomer of the Year

In recognition of his outstandingly successful first year, Bruce was awarded Expense Reduction Analysts Best New Consultant of the Year. Bruce Murray is an absolute expert after spending 30 years in the print industry. He left his previous role as a director in a multi-national print services company to join ERA as he wanted to develop his career, have more control over his future and achieve a better work/life balance.

We asked Bruce how he would sum up his experience of joining the UK’s most profitable Specialist Procurement Franchise.

“I am very pleased with how it is going so far. The network of Franchise Partners have become my clients. I have developed my relationship with other ERA Franchise Partners and they in turn have allowed me to work with their valuable customers. By delivering a good service to the end-clients, the level of trust really grows and so does my business as the pipeline of further projects flows from those relationships.”

“My target marketplace is companies with a £150,000-plus annual print spend,” says Bruce. “In the last 12 months, I have achieved significant savings as well as quality and process improvements for a wide variety of organisations”.

“My clients range from charities, housing associations, further education organisations, to some well-known sporting establishments. I am also working with both traditional and online retail companies with a large catalogue and direct mail spend, as well the traditional mix of commercial and manufacturing businesses. So business is varied, interesting and lucrative.”

“I have found that most companies cannot identify their true overall print and marketing spend, because it is made up of lots of small individual jobs, spread across multiple spend categories. With ERA, I review the whole process holistically, from creation to distribution with the clients and their suppliers to deliver significant cost and process improvements.”

WHY I JOINED ERA.

“After reviewing a number of career options, including other franchise operations, I quickly realised that the ERA network was the right one for me. It was something to which I could add value and which, in turn, would add value to me and my career.”

“The openness of the organisation in general and the Franchise Partners was very refreshing,” says Bruce. “I immediately recognised that these were all very high calibre individuals, people with similar backgrounds, attitudes and ambitions to me – professional people that I could work with.”

Based in the North East of Scotland and wanting to focus on my printing background, I knew I would have to communicate well and travel throughout the UK to make this work. I compiled a strong communication strategy that I could roll out throughout the network. I also attended many of the ERA regional team meetings throughout the UK to get myself known and build relationships that I knew would be vital to my success in ERA.”

Bruce now sends out regular client facing print and marketing category bulletins and white papers, advising other Franchise partners on print and marketing related matters which they can use to target their own specific clients, campaigns or vertical markets.

Bruce concludes “I can honestly say I am delighted with the award. It has been hard work but a deeply satisfying first year. With the help of ERA, I am well on the way to growing my own successful business.