Tailoring your brand portfolio to new retail realities...

As the multiples struggle to adjust to the consumer's shift to smaller, cheaper, faster, closer, more convenient and online shopping by selling surplus outlets and trying to manage lower productivity caused by redundant space in their estates by culling SKUs, the consequences for brands are hopefully obvious.

In other words, with less shelf space available, only strong brands can maintain their facings, unless you can prove otherwise....

Moreover, brands are further threatened by the fact that much of the multiples' growth is via private label (if in any doubt, why not dig into your in-house Kantar data?), and discounters' via surrogate labels.., all adding to the need for new retail strategies..

In the face of these 'permanent' market changes, it follows that branded suppliers need to re-set what may be a pre-2008 approach by re-evaluating the relative appeal of their brand portfolios to suit current retail realities.

Essentially, this means fundamentally re-assessing consumer appeal, by brand, by retailer, vs. available competition to ensure each SKU of each brand has a defensible rationale to justify its on-shelf presence in each of the multiples.

In practice, this will mean you will have a different brand portfolio for each of the multiples, with possible regional variations to match local need.

Finally, any of your brands that do not meet these criteria should be diverted to other channels, before the multiples do it on your behalf...  

Making every trip count...

Demonstrating your impact on Tesco averages

How your brand drives Tesco performance in latest figures

Latest results indicate that:

1. Tesco Group sales £54.4bn vs. Inventories of £2.4bn suggest a stockturn of 22.6 times/annum

Given your twice weekly delivery, and assuming smooth sell-through, has to suggest your SKUs are turning 100 times /annum, thereby driving Tesco stockturn...!

2. Tesco UK sales of £37.2bn vs. UK sales area of 41.5m sq. ft. showing selling intensity of £900/sq. ft./annum 

Calculating your SKU footprint (Average number of facings x number of units of facings backup on shelf x numbers of stores stocking) and then dividing the result into Tesco sales of your SKU per annum, has to show that your SKU is generating sales per sq ft of at least 2x Tesco average...

Just two ways of demonstrating your value in negotiation...

Tesco's latest result: the stand-out numbers for NAMs

Tesco’s return to profitability means that proactive NAMs can now incorporate latest operating profit into their discussions with buyers.

With UK sales of £37.2bn and operating profit of £505m, this means that Tesco is generating 1.4% operating profit on sales.

This can help in demonstrating the value of your trade investment, in that every £10k you give Tesco is equivalent to £714k in sales i.e. £37.2/1.4 x 100

This has to help for starters, while we await the full detail of the latest annual report...

A 3-in-1 Solution? (Redundant-space, Deterrence, Theatre)

Is delivery the new black? Three trends are changing the distribution landscape

A great article in realbusiness by Tim Robinson describes the changing image of logistics and fulfilment becoming the sexy end of retail.

The seemingly unstoppable growth of online shopping has put the spotlight on fulfilment and delivery in particular. Delivery options are now promoted in prime media space, a situation which would have been unheard of 10 years ago.

The article goes on to detail new ways of meeting consumer need fulfilment in terms of matching ease of purchase with ease of access to products. Read here for Tim’s update on technology, environment and the sharing economy.

The key point for NAMs is to see this raising of the fulfilment game in the same way that savvy consumerism spread back up the pipeline, making the buyer more savvy, demanding demonstrable value for money, or else…

In other words, as retailers struggle to meet the rising standards of home delivery, so these standards will spread up the supply chain and become the norm in supplier-retailer delivery..

If in any doubt, why not nip down to the despatch department and find out what your logistics colleagues think?

Lidl - the real threat?

This week, why not visit your nearest Lidl and think about the threat to the major mults? Even better, follow it with a call on a nearby Tesco to heighten the contrast…

See how long it takes for you to appreciate that the hard discounters becoming more like supermarkets is not the issue... Of course they will add to their offering, especially to cater for upmarket clients…

But suppose their real impact is in making the consumer-shopper value a simpler, more limited choice, and in the process convincing us that we cannot perceive – and don’t always need – the ‘extras’ provided by equivalent brands at 30% more…

Causing us to ponder whether we are changing the discounters, or they are changing us?

Now that’s the type of competition the mults – and their branded suppliers - don’t need…

Waitrose raises the Private Label bar - a threat for all brands?

News that Waitrose is rolling out 'Waitrose 1' premium label across 500 food products, replacing some premium ranges but adding ‘new and improved lines’ raises some issues for suppliers:

• Given that Waitrose tops the league table for best place to buy private label (Which? report 2015, 47% of products tested achieved best-buy status) this represents an extra emphasis on premium own label
• Bearing in mind that Aldi came 2nd, Sainsbury’s 3rd and Lidl fourth in the same survey, it is likely that other mults may take the Waitrose move as an incentive to upgrade their private label offerings
• With all mults in the same large-space, out-of-town boat, their growth will be at the expense of other mults...
• Price-cutting on brands has not worked and has impacted bottom lines...
• ...and private label remains the only real differentiator for the mults
• This could mean we are entering a new type of food-based private label quality-war, which if it works, could spread to other categories