A stylish and desirable product design enabled ACCO to price its Leitz IQ Autofeed Office Shredder Range at a premium, while reducing manufacturing costs by a fifth.
Although document shredders are essential for data security, they’re generally regarded as unattractive and cumbersome. Wanting to change perceptions and create value, ACCO was launching a new autofeed office shredder range under its premium brand Leitz.
The market for large shredders had been heavily impacted by COVID, but Oxford Product Design’s bold design has been instrumental to the success of the new Leitz Autofeed range. The premium and striking aesthetic differentiates the machines from competitors as well as ACCO’s manual shredders and has been integral to securing listings.
An early design decision to utilise components common to ACCO’s Rexel shredder range, reduced manufacturing costs 20%. This also facilitated unparalleled speed to market for the Leitz shredders, even with COVID-related delays. Although identical internally to the lower-priced Rexel brand, consumers were willing to pay more for the Leitz machines due their industrial design. Along with the highly cost-effective manufacture, this has enabled the models to be sold with a larger margin.
Leitz went from having no share in the Europe, Middle East & Africa autofeed shredding market in 2020, to 16% share in 2021, following the range’s launch in January of that year. That was double the company’s target and over-all, the brand’s shredder sales increased 55%.
