At IWS, you're recognised as an independent business owner. But you'll also be part of one big team – working together to generate significant buying power used to secure a competitive edge over the big players in the industry.
Independent Workwear Specialists (IWS) is a buying group created for independent sellers of Industrial Workwear, Corporate Wear, PPE and associated products.
In 1997, the group was born with just 8 original member stores located in NSW. These businesses were tasked with the challenge of staying competitive against big players who had more resources and focused primarily on undercutting prices to win business. The group surged forward on its mission to gain further members and was soon bringing unprecedented value to its network of preferred suppliers, who began to see the vision and the collective power a group like IWS could harness.
Fast-forward to today – we now have over 200 independent members covering 6 states and 2 territories in Australia, and we couldn't be prouder of all we've achieved together. Our focus remains on strategic membership growth to strengthen our buying power as a group, while supporting our preferred suppliers to boost their volumes.
All members are independently owned and operated businesses. We have fostered a strong culture of support and co-operation between our members; however we restrict our formal role as a buying group. We are not actively involved in their marketing or other business decisions, rather we act as a 'Support Office' arming them with experienced guidance and important information to assist their growth and success rate.
We're committed to transparency. We ensure all dealings between our suppliers are fully disclosed to our members, and our business strategy and focus, our negotiations with suppliers and the results we achieve as a group are always communicated accurately.
As a group, our objectives are clear:
As we continue to grow, our buying power strengthens. As a group, we are becoming more meaningful to our preferred suppliers, and this is reflected in the highly competitive deals we continue to negotiate on behalf of our members.
We're committed to supporting our members and preferred suppliers in all aspects of business. It's no secret that our passion is to continually challenge our preferred suppliers to offer lower buying prices and higher margins exclusively to IWS members in exchange for higher volumes for our preferred suppliers to enjoy. This has allowed our members to boost their competitive edge in the market and become a dominant force in their immediate marketplace. Each year, we continue to generate significant rebates for our members. Many members can use these funds to employ additional staff, purchase back up stock for their store or fund a percentage of their business overheads.
Our equal focus is to ensure we continue to support our preferred suppliers. As a group, we have worked hard to transition our purchases to preferred suppliers, and as a result, our suppliers have seen significant increases in business as well as continued growth year on year.
We're proud of what we have achieved in a short period of time.
From just a hopeful vision, the original concept behind IWS is now a reality for our members. As a group, we have worked together to generate significant annual rebates across our preferred suppliers which is distributed directly to our members. As you can imagine, a cash-injection into any business is hugely welcomed and allows the owner to invest in their business strategy for growth... or take a well-deserved break!
Above all, we are immensely proud of the culture we've nurtured among our likeminded members in the group.
We respect that our members are independent business owners and reinforce our zero tolerance to bureaucracy and business politics. We understand that business decisions remain in the hands of our members, and simply encourage engagement and participation in initiatives and events that offers significant benefits for their businesses.
If you're seeking a dedicated structure with a corporate image and national brand outlook, the IWS group offer a complete business solution called 'Worklocker.'
We currently have over 30 Worklocker stores achieving tremendous success, with recognisable lift in sales due to their perceived national branding.
If you’d like to find out how to become the next Worklocker store in your area, please get in touch with Brad Booth on 0400 536 539 or email headoffice@worklocker.com.au
Our vision is to be the most competitive workwear and corporate wear buying group in Australia.
Our mission is to support our members and their businesses by negotiating competitive buying prices and improved margins, allowing them to maintain their competitive edge! We also support our suppliers by transitioning our purchases, which leads to higher volumes.
Everyone’s a winner with IWS!
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