1 - Better Wholesaling

Transcription

1 - Better Wholesaling
BETTER COMMUNICATION BETTER SALES BETTER PROFITS exclusive
category
guidance
betterwholesaling.com
march 2012
just moved in time to
meet the new today’s
P08
Export
sales
soar
P24
in the
club
there’s more
to customer
loyalty than
great promotions
How to get it right P12 Tackling compliance P18 Feel the Buzz P20
p1_cover finalV2.indd 1
23/02/2012 20:36
welcome march/2012
Contents
Analysis
4
Cover story
12/16
londis’s plan
for multiples
IT and fresh will
secure customers
06/
RED tractor
drives sales
The food standard is
wooing consumers
07/
sustainable
dining
Restaurants to vet
suppliers’ ethics
Spotlight
08/09
a vision
for today’s
MD Bill Laird on
the company’s
wholesale focus
10/
no big bang
for mobile
A toe in the water
is all you need
11/
olympic
chances
Jayne Clark on
P&G’s 2012 plans
how to run
a retail club
They benefit
retailers, suppliers
and wholesalers but
what’s the best way
to manage one?
Leader
26
know your
customers
Get the basics right
and you’ll sell more
beer and cider
Category guide
Features
18/19
compliance
conundrum
Why won’t retailers
do what’s in their
best interest?
20/21
raising
the bar
Wholesale loyalty
clubs for pubs are
winning fans
22/23
Depot doctor
– Britvic
How to get the
best from your
soft- drinks stock
24/25
overseas of
opportunity
The global demand
for UK food and
drink is growing
30/32
WINEs and
spirits
Drinks for toasting
any occasion offer
good profits
38/39
heating up
drinks sales
Flavoured teas,
premium coffees and
hot chocolate are key
40/41
the smell
of success
Toiletries are everyday sellers that can
boost your sales
43/
Social networks
that really work
Welcome to the third issue of Better Wholesaling.
In this issue we ask: does every major wholesaler need a club
for its independent customers, offering better promotions and
help with marketing? The answer, we say, is yes.
We look at compliance with promotional schemes and we
ask how best to get customers to meet your requirements
and act in their own interests. The answer is persuasion and
incentives, educating your own staff so that they can educate
your customers, and committing to the long haul.
Thirdly, we look for a promotions club in catering – an area
we were told was not promising – and, to our delight, find a
drinks scheme for pubs that is generating raving fans.
Plans to boost retail clubs were one theme of our interview
this month with Bill Laird, MD of the Today’s Group, in which
he presents a clear vision of what the group plans to do as a
company wholly focused on serving wholesalers.
We also have wide-ranging product
information that is concise and
actionable, and that it is accompanied
by some great category management
guidance from leading suppliers.
I hope you enjoy this issue. I would
strongly encourage you to think about
the issues it raises and what else you can
do this month to grow sales and profits.
editor-in-chief
products
The latest launches
and promotions
get in touch [email protected]
our contributors
Lindsay
Sharman, who
writes about retail
clubs in this issue,
is a former editor of
Retail Newsagent,
news editor of Retail
Express and account
manager in public relations for leading food and drink brands.
Lindsay loves anything to do with the
arts, including mid-century antiques,
and cycles everywhere, even in winter.
Mike McGee,
who writes about
mobile apps in this
issue, was managing
director of Landmark
Wholesale for eight
years. Mike, who has
written about data
management in previous issues, founded a stock management
software company for wholesalers and set
up a wholesaler data management services
firm before co-founding wholesale and
convenience consultancy Insight Offsite.
Nikki Allen,
who writes about
wines and spirits,
hot drinks and toiletries in this issue is a
journalist and copywriter who previously
reported on alcoholic
drink brands for The
Grocer. Nikki has a postgraduate degree
in psychology and recently returned from
a yoga retreat at an ashram in Rishikesh,
Uttarakhand, India.
Betterwholesaling.com march 2012
p3_contentsCS4.indd 3
03
23/02/2012 17:59
news analysis
symbol groups
multiple partners
Londis is targeting multiple accounts, as it invests in IT and fresh foods. By Nikki Allen
W
ith three new
multiple-store
operators joining
Londis last year, 2011 was
a successful year for the
symbol group.
Including the newcomers,
65 new stores joined Londis
last year. The 17 new stores
under service and facilities
management company Elior
were swooped from Palmer
& Harvey, as were stores at
FW Kerridge’s forecourt sites
in Sussex, Kent and Wiltshire.
Convenience and forecourt
site operator Chelvam Group
switched nine stores to Londis
from previous suppliers Nisa
and P&H.
Penny Petroleum & Top
Spot Services Group expanded its 19-store strong
Londis business with six new
shops, and Petrocell, Carsley
Group and Symonds Retail all
opened new stores. Brobot Petroleum also plans to develop
six new Londis sites this year.
It’s an impressive portfolio and one that Londis
04
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p4 newsCS4.indd 4
sales director Paul Courtney
is understandably keen to
publicise: “These are challenging economic times, and
we are delighted these major
operators have chosen to partner with us to develop their
businesses,” he says. “We will
continue to strengthen our
offer to our retailers, putting
our partners at the heart of
what we do.”
The symbol group is
certainly doing something
right when it comes to attracting multiples, with
Symonds’ chief executive
Jeremy Symonds praising
the “established brand” that
Londis provides as the reason
he opened a fifth store under
the fascia last year. “It’s great
to work in partnership with
the brand, whilst being able
to add our own flair and local
flavour,” he says.
Londis’s formula is working
for independent retailers, too,
says Londis Bracknell retailer
Arjan Mehr: “Londis has come
a long way in its offer and
professionalism, with huge
sums of money going into IT
and logistics, the backbone of
any organisation today in the
convenience sector.”
The group plans to launch
an online facility for retailers
later this year, with a website
providing pricing information and a delivery window
countdown, making ordering
‘simple and quick’, according
to the company.
In addition to investment
in IT, the group has ploughed
£4m into fresh food expansion over the past year, boosting fresh sales by 26% year on
year thanks to promotional
and retailer support as well as
new product line-ups.
We will continue
to strengthen
our offer to
our retailers
“We now offer an extensive
fresh range of over 1,300 lines
and are driving the bestsellers
into all Londis stores, providing innovative wholesale deals
and helping retailers embrace
fresh lines that are relevant
to their stores,” says Londis’s
Paul Courtney.
Londis is by no means
the only symbol group to be
concentrating its efforts on
multiple-store operators. In
February, Spar announced the
appointment of new business
development controller Mark
Steven, whose role will be
primarily to focus on growing
the symbol group’s national
accounts. Of the group’s 2,500
stores, 190 are national account stores under partners
including leisure group Haven,
forecourt chain Total and
facilities service-provider ISS.
But with more investment
set for this year, including
plans to double fresh-food
sales, the expansion of Londis’
multiple accounts looks set
to continue. l
Betterwholesaling.com
22/02/2012 16:25
news analysis
meat
red revolution
The Red Tractor meat quality-assurance logo is proving a big draw for shoppers. By NIKKI ALLEN
W
holesale supplier
DBC Foodservice’s announcement last month that it
was expanding its range of
Red Tractor assured-meat
products, the company was
spurred by the rise in sales
of its Red Tractor meats by
£600,000 in 20 weeks. DBC
will now roll out a range of
Red Tractor lamb and beef
products aimed at chefs and
caterers throughout the
rest of the year.
Since joining the supplier
last year, DBC’s commercial director of meats Rob McFarlane
with has launched Red Tractorassured turkey chicken products, as well as EBLEX-quality
beef and lamb products.
Evidently, the strategy is
working – the company’s total
fresh meat sales have increased
by 10% during the financial
year to date.
Mr McFarlane says, “We are
very excited to be developing our Red Tractor range of
products and are listening
closely to our customers to
06
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ensure we consistently have
the right products to suit their
needs. DBC Foodservice has
been working with Red Tractor
Assurance for a while, and our
expanding range demonstrates
our continued commitment to
British farming and to offering
quality British products to our
discerning customers.”
But why exactly is the
Red Tractor scheme proving
so successful? Red Tractor
is a not-for-profit product
certification programme
that comprises a number of
farm assurance schemes for
food products, animal feed
and fertiliser. It is licensed
by Assured Food Standards,
a British organisation that
promotes and regulates
food quality.
Essentially, when a consumer buys a product with
the Red Tractor quality mark,
they are assured that it meets
high standards of food safety,
animal welfare, food origin,
traceability and independent
investigation.
bol explains why
Richard Cattell,
DBC isn’t the
head of marketing
only wholesaler
at Red Tractor,
getting on
says the logo
board. Brakes
is attracting a
Group says it
lot of interest
was the first
in the food­
food­service
service arena.
company to
“For example,
provide Red Tracthe majority of the
tor meat in 2007
large contract caterRob McFarlane
and it now sells more
ers in the UK are Red
and Richard
Tractor-licensed,” he
Cattell (right) than 300 Red Tractor
products.
says. “They see it as a
“We grew Red Tractor prodway of demonstrating to their
uct sales by 25% during 2011,
clients that their sourcing and
beating our target of 20%
procurement policies are to
growth,” says a spokeswoman.
a high standard and the food
3663 also supplies a comthey’re putting on their clients’
prehensive range of products
plates is of a high standard.”
carrying the label. “Since 2008,
Perhaps this host of
we’ve tripled the number of
information and assurance
Red Tractor products that we
provided by one on-pack symsupply to our customers,” says
the company.
If, as Red Tractor argues, the
logo is becoming an ‘important
We grew Red
short-cut’ for shoppers looking
Tractor product for food-quality assurance,
wholesalers could do worse
sales by 25%
than to plough ahead with
during 2011
certified products. l
Betterwholesaling.com
23/02/2012 15:35
news analysis
FOODservice
food for thought
Sustainable restaurants are set to vet their suppliers’ ethics, writes Nigel huddleston
I
ndependent food
producers are being
targeted by a new
supplier-approval scheme
from the Sustainable Restaurants Association (SRA)
as part of a first foray into
assessment of the supply chain.
The approval scheme, which
uses a similar process to the
association’s star rating for
restaurants, gives the growing
sustainable-restaurant movement an easy way to identify
suppliers that share its ethos.
Approved suppliers will be
featured in a directory and
need to exceed minimum
standards for production
methods, and client and staff
relations, based on a questionnaire completed by the supplier and evidence it provides
to support its claims.
Membership of the scheme
has crept up into double figures since its January launch,
and includes bottled water
brand Belu, New Zealand wine
producer Yealands, the Rough
Old Wife cider brand and
organic-vegetable company
Fletching Glasshouses.
Tom Tanner, a spokesman
for the SRA, says the association is looking to adapt the
scheme to include wholesalers. “A lot more wholesalers
are focusing on issues that
restaurants and consumers
are interested in, such as local
produce, and are offering corresponding products within
their ranges.
“It would be very difficult
to assess every product in a
wholesaler’s range but we will
probably be able to include
them for their overall working
practices and other aspects
of sustainability. There are
obviously challenges in how
that would work but it should
be possible.”
Alastair Jessel is
managing director of Kentbased Taywell Ice Cream,
which is a founding member
of the supplier approval
scheme. He says: “If you’re
a busy restaurant owner
who’s just spent six months
getting SRA-approval, I’d
assume you’d be looking for a
list of SRA-approved suppliers. More and more people
Sustainable Restaurant Association
£300m 2010
Combined turnover Launched
Restaurants SRA-rated: Just under 1,000
Members include: neighbourhood restaurants and gastropubs;
Michelin-starred Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons and Quilon;
chains including Geronimo Inns, Prezzo and Carluccio’s.
Focus areas: Healthy eating, responsible marketing, community
engagement, treating people fairly, saving water, energy
efficiency, waste management, fair trade, ethical meat
production, sustainable fishing, and local and seasonal products.
are interested in ethics and
how you trade, and they
are more sceptical about
claims made by companies,
so it’s good to have to have a
scheme like this where claims
are checked.”
Taywell supplies 90% of
its products to restaurants,
much of it through direct
sales, but its distributors include local wholesalers Kent
Frozen Foods and Landmark
member Turners Fine Foods.
It’s also just been listed
by Costco.
Turners director Simon
Raphael says of the scheme:
“I’m not sure how big the
immediate benefit will be or
what will filter through in
time. There’s no doubt that
chefs are really buying into
the whole idea of sustainability, but in the current climate,
there are questions about
whether people will pay more
for those sorts of products.” l
Betterwholesaling.com March 2012
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07
23/02/2012 17:41
interview
Buying groups
today’s man
MD Bill Laird says Today’s has a clarity of focus after the split from Nisa, writes Guy Campos
08
march 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
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P
erhaps the most surprising thing about
Bill Laird, managing director of the Today’s
Group, is that he feels the
need to explain what the
group is and what it does to
a visitor to the company’s
new Doncaster offices.
It would be natural to
expect people to know.
Today’s is a buying group for
whole­salers with more than
200 members that completed
its separation from retail buying group Nisa a month ago.
When joined to Nisa in the
Nisa-Today’s consortium, both
companies were successful.
But Mr Laird, who took over
as Today’s MD three years ago,
would often be asked “Do you
do the buying for Nisa?” and
“Where is your depot?”
For the record, Today’s
didn’t do the buying for Nisa’s
retail membership – it acted
for its own wholesale members – and it doesn’t have a
depot because it doesn’t do
any buying itself.
Instead, the company uses
its clout to negotiate better
terms, including over-riders
and promotions, on behalf of
its members which do their
own buying. It also offers
members support with business development through
retail, food­service and marketing teams.
Newly moved from NisaToday’s offices in Scunthorpe
to its Doncaster headquarters,
its directors can now focus
exclusively on the strategy
needed to drive member
wholesale businesses forward, says Mr Laird, without
attempting to deliver a retail
buying group’s business plan
simultaneously.
But it is not the separation that is on Mr Laird’s
mind when asked about the
achievements of the last year.
Instead, it is the strength of
members’ businesses: collectively, they have posted three
consecutive years of growth,
at rates of nearly 14%, 10%
and 5.5% respectively.
In the group’s core activity of negotiating terms for
its members, it has kept a
promise it made to develop
longer-term joint business
plans with suppliers that are
mutually beneficial rather
than crudely adversarial.
“Three years ago at a conference in Madrid, we said the
days of getting the supplier
in, grabbing them by the neck
and thumping the table were
gone. We are moving the majority of our primary contracts
with our key suppliers to at
least two years, if not longer,”
he says.
The key benefits of the
longer contracts are the confidence that it gives suppliers
to invest and the flexibility to
deal with unexpected market conditions.
Retail development, where
the Today’s Group provides a
retail club and symbol group
service that members can offer to retailers, is another area
of progress.
“In the last year, we’ve added the best part of 400 new
stores to the retail club, about
another 150 stores to our
symbol fascia group and we’ve
got around another eight of
our wholesalers beginning to
develop retail affiliate programmes,” Mr Laird says.
Wholesalers working with
the Today’s Group on retail
clubs now represent a majority of the sales volume in the
group. The progress represents
a revival of interest in an area
where the group was a pioneer
more than a decade ago, but
where it had lost focus.
Today’s has also been
ramping up its foodservice
expertise, making senior
appointments from outside
the group, with more announcements due to be made
soon. The aim is to prepare
for greater developments in
the future.
Mr Laird says the biggest
challenges members have
faced this year have been the
depressed economy, with
multiple discounting greatly
affecting licensed products,
5.5%
Today’s
growth rate
last year
and difficulty in borrowing to
fund expansion.
But he can also list a string
of names of member wholesalers that have invested
in expansion, among them
Dhamecha, First Choice
Food­service, Pilgrim, Regal
Wholesale, Soho Cash & Carry
and Venus Wines & Spirits.
“What I take from that
scenario is that there are wise,
confident people in our sector. If those guys think now
is the time to invest when
other people are putting their
money under the bed in a
tin, they must be here for the
longer term. They are banking
for the future,” Mr Laird says.
If members have
a strong balance
sheet, they will be
looking to grow
In fact, Mr Laird’s prediction for the year is that we will
see more members growing by
acquisition or by expansion,
but that there will be some
consolidation in the market as
other wholesalers are bought.
“If [members] have got a
strong balance sheet, I think
they will be looking to grow,”
he says. Some members
“have been very prudent in
the way they have built up
businesses until now, so they
will be using their own balance sheet. They’ve got the
clout and wherewithal to do
it ­themselves.”
Members will also be
getting more involved in retail
affiliate schemes.
“Retail clubs took a huge
leap forward last year and it
will happen again this year.
That won’t just be with the
same wholesalers. There will
be even more wholesalers doing more.”
For many members that
are expanding sales, marketing support is available and is
highly valued by companies
that have spoken to Better Wholesaling.
“Our members are highly
entrepreneurial so we don’t
give them advice. We give
them support. As we do things
for members, more come and
say ‘I’m looking to rebrand a
service I give’ or ‘I’ve just invested a six-figure sum in our
foodservice business – would
you come and help me market
it to the local community?’”
Looking to the future,
Mr Laird says ‘Big Box retail’
will be stagnant and there will
be increasing use of technology in wholesale, including
the use of quick response
(QR) codes.
Today’s is experimenting in
this area and Mr Laird himself
is an enthusiast, having written about the promise that
mobiles held while working in
retail eight years ago. He talks
animatedly about mobile users
being open to prompts, teasers and offers.
Also coming up in the year
are the group’s 25th anniversary celebrations. There
will be a programme of event
days that move up and down
the country, organised from
the centre.
“Nobody does event days
like us,” says Mr Laird,
“and we have 34 of those
this year happening across
the ­membership.”
There will also be a special
conference in the Bahamas
this spring and a celebration
of the official anniversary date
in October.
In addition, the group will
be at the Stoneleigh exhibition
in April where a key speaker
will be Greg Wallace from the
BBC’s ­Masterchef programme.
The Stoneleigh exhibition
remains a joint venture with
the Nisa Group, as does the
Consortium magazine, and
Today’s has separated from
Nisa on friendly terms.
“People ask us what the
divorce was like,” Mr Laird
says. “We said it isn’t a
divorce because that would
indicate there was acrimony
and ­fallout.
“We’ve had the experience
of a 25-year-old growing up
beside his mum and then
going to his own place now
but saying, ‘I’ll still come
and visit, I’ll still send you a
birthday card, I’ll come round
on mother’s day.’ We’ve got a
good relationship.” l
Betterwholesaling.com march 2012
p8-9_wholesalerCS4.indd 9
09
23/02/2012 18:38
Opinion
have your say [email protected]
Smaller wholesalers may find a full ecommerce
app too expensive but can use apps to build
footfall with promotions, writes Mike McGee
E
commerce has become increasingly important for wholesalers over the past five years, but
selling online still has some limitations in this marketplace. To be
frank, a lot of retailers do not like
ordering online. The process can be
cumbersome for large orders, retailers do not always have immediate access to a PC, and many miss the buzz
of shopping – from the daily special
offers to the social interaction.
A mobile app seemingly overcomes all
of these problems. It can give customers
compelling offers directly using their mobile phones, and offers value for attending
the cash & carry. With an app, wholesalers
can build on existing gap-filling strategies
with tailored offers to extend the ranges
and products purchased. It also provides
retailers with a chance to keep a record of
the offers they have used.
However, in a highly fragmented and
regionalised wholesale industry, already
slow to take up ecommerce or online
selling, using mobile apps as salessupport tools is a highly complex and
expensive undertaking.
To start with, there is the need to
consider the way in which the app might
be used and the technical implications
of getting it to work. If it is used to
promote offers, then strict redemption
controls and the ability to delete the
voucher the moment it is redeemed
need to be in place to minimise malredemption and the risk of secondary
wholesaling, for example.
Such integration is readily achievable in
the foodservice sector, where the likes of
3663 and Booker can relatively straightforwardly implement a mobile app for
voucher promotions as they have a single
sales order-processing system. But it is
simply not possible for small- to mediumsized wholesalers, where the cost of
integrating apps with their multiple tilling systems would far exceed the cost of
setting the apps up in the first place.
However, rather than using mobile
apps to support an ecommerce strategy
or as a sales-support tool, there is an
10
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p10_columnCS4.indd 10
Wholesalers can encourage
customers with a small
incentive to provide
personal details, which can
help them build up current
customer information
opportunity for wholesalers to use apps
as an information portal or as a marketing-support tool designed to generate
footfall by highlighting promotions or
managers’ specials.
Using apps in this manner takes away
the technical complexity of vouchers
and still presents the customer with
additional incentives to visit the cash &
carry. In addition, such an app can work
without the need for the wholesaler to
have access to the customers’ mobile
numbers, and the app can be promoted
in-depot and accessed by customers at
their convenience. Wholesalers can encourage customers with small incentives
to provide personal details, which can
help them build up current customer
information, customer behaviour or
buying insight. This more basic use of
mobile apps can be supported simply by
keeping records in-depot detailing which
customers or retailers have bought into
which incentives, managing the redemption process cost-effectively while still
dipping a toe in the ‘mobile app’ water.
Mobile apps as ‘the next big thing’
within the wholesale industry might not
be achievable today or even tomorrow.
However, the benefits of using apps for
marketing and driving footfall are realisable today at relatively low cost.
Once these are achieved, there is scope
for wholesalers to invest in the next
stage of integration.
Apps can then be used to leverage
additional benefits, such as data insight,
to improve the offer and build customer
profiles to support ongoing marketing
and gap-filling strategies. l
Mike McGee is the managing director
of wholesale and convenience industry
consultancy Insight Offsite
Betterwholesaling.com
22/02/2012 16:01
industry spotlight
jayne clark P&G Professional away from home team leader
the facts
company P&G
key brands Ariel,
Fairy, Flash, Deepio, Daz.
profile P&G Professional is
the out-of-home division of
P&G. It focuses on delivering
high-performance, branded
cleaning and laundry products
to professionals.
latest news Pop-up
Preparedness Pods to educate
customers in-depot about
the Olympics.
going for gold
Guy Campos asks P&G’s Jayne Clark about the opportunities available in the Olympic year
BW: What were your main
achievements in the last year?
JC: In October 2011, we
brought Ariel with Actilift
to market. This innovative
and market-leading product
delivers unique cleaning and
stain removal benefits to the
professional end-user, and
has been very well received
by our core customers, who
demand convenience, value
and performance from the
products they specify.
We also refocused on our
fabric conditioner market by
adding premium and sensitive
variants to our value range.
This has allowed us to offer
customers a broad portfolio
with a wide choice of product
to suit evolving budgets and
changing demands.
BW: What have been
the major challenges?
JC: Much the same as
everybody else, all our raw
materials have seen big costincreases, which has meant
we have had to work hard to
ensure that our consumers
understand our brands
deliver excellent cost in use.
Even if they are a little more
expensive to buy, brands
like Fairy Liquid and Ariel
have proved their heritage
of consistently delivering
excellent results, ensuring
that customers using our
brands have one less thing to
worry about in the everyday
running of their businesses.
BW: What are you planning
to do in the next six months?
JC: We will continue to invest
in product innovation and
have a dedicated away-fromhome sales team that works
with our key customers to
ensure we support them in
growing our mutual business.
This year, we also have the
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
presented by the London
2012 Olympic Games.
To help independent
operators drive their businesses this year, we are setting up a number of pop-up,
in-depot Preparedness Pods
at a number of key cash &
carry locations. Our team of
trainer-advisors will be running a series of events across
the country to help operators
put their best feet forward
through early scenario-plan-
ning and offering advice on
selecting the right cleaning
products to get the job done.
With thousands of tourists
flocking to the UK for what
is commonly referred to as
‘the greatest show on earth’,
independent operators need
to up their game to ensure
they set the standard for the
UK hospitality industry and
cope with increased demand
for services. We want to help
as much as we can.
As one of the major sponsors of the London 2012
Olympics, P&G Professional
products will be used to clean
hundreds of foodservice
areas, as well as cleaning the
athlete’s village and also washing their clothes, so that will
certainly be a key factor! The
halo effect of that event across
the rest of the hospitality and
leisure industry is certain to
2012 is a huge
opportunity for
growth for the
market overall
ensure that 2012 is a huge
opportunity for growth for
the market overall.
BW: What are the biggest
market trends?
JC: In the current climate,
everyone is looking for value
for money. Professional users
are comparing the absolute
cost of products they need
to use every day and we are
seeing them demand more
help in measuring how
products perform – and what
value they offer in real terms.
BW: What advice do you
have for wholesalers?
JC: Consumers are always
reassured when they see the
brands they use at home
being used in a professional
environment, so P&G
Professional products can
often help wholesalers win
new business.
Once again, I’d come back
to the value message: Fairy
Liquid may cost a little more,
but in value, performance and
many other measures, it is
the best choice and the best
product for the job. It really
is that simple. l
Betterwholesaling.com March 2012
p11 industry CS4.indd 1
11
23/02/2012 14:21
COVER STORY
12
JOIN
THE
CLUB
MARCH 2012
p12-16 cstoryCS4.indd 12
Betterwholesaling.com
23/02/2012 16:19
feature
U
Retail clubs provide great opportunities
for retailers, suppliers and wholesalers to
increase sales. But, as LINDSAY SHARMAN
reports, they can be more complicated to
implement than it first appears
nlocking the potential of
unaffiliated independents is
an on-going challenge for the
wholesale sector.
While symbol-group members offer a more
or less guaranteed level of compliance, this is
not so with unaffiliated retailers, who more often than not have their own ideas about how
they want to run things.
As Mark Bottomley, retail manager for
Bestway and Batleys puts it, “Dealing with
the independent sector is like dealing with
2,000 managing directors.”
Retail clubs are one of the main pieces of
wholesale activity designed to help wholesalers, independents and suppliers work together effectively. The concept has developed over
the past decade to the point where a retail
club is essential for every major wholesaler.
A retail club has two main functions for
the wholesaler, the first of which is to act as
a stepping stone between independents and
symbol-group retailers.
“A retail club is a launch package – a test
for non-symbol group customers who
want to get involved,” says Simon Hannah,
managing director at JW Filshill. Its Smart
Buy retail club is a precursor to its Key Store
symbol group.
“When retailers see the success of the
retail club, it is a natural progression into the
symbol group,” he says.
A retail club is a launch
package – a test for nonsymbol group customers
who want to get involved
This strategy of testing the water with a
retail club before committing to a symbol
group is widespread across the wholesale
sector and can be extremely successful. It’s to
the wholesaler’s advantage as well as the retailer’s, giving it the chance to see if a retailer
meets the high standards required for
a symbol package.
Progression to a symbol group is not
the only outcome for retail-club members,
however. Over time, the clubs have become
established in their own right as a second
tier of engagement between wholesalers and
independents – and have become an increasingly important part of supplier marketing activity.
James Russell, formerly of Britvic, is a
commercial director at Rowan International,
a specialist wholesaler supplying independent discount retailers. While at Britvic,
he split the convenience sector into three
tiers: Tier A is fascia and symbol retailers,
Tier B retail clubs and Tier C unaffiliated
­independents.
Betterwholesaling.com march 2012
p12-16 cstoryCS4.indd 13
13
23/02/2012 16:21
cover story
“Tier A was very important, but Tier B
was definitely an area of focus because it
offered a promotional programme to give
us what we wanted in terms of distribution,” he says.
Retail-club promotions enable retailers to
offer competitive prices and value to their
customers, as well as drive footfall and
ultimately profit. Being a member of a
club is a step up from operating entirely
independently, without the level of
commitment and investment required
to become symbol group members.
For wholesalers, it is a second route to
market they can offer suppliers looking to
drive sales in the independent sector.
“Ultimately, we do it as much to protect
our business as we do the retailers’,” says
Bestway and Batleys’ Mark Bottomley.
Retail clubs across the sector operate in
largely the same way at each wholesaler:
they are a simple mechanism for wholesalers to offer promotions to independents on the understanding that they will
pass on the value to their customers.
Support for the promotion varies from
wholesaler to wholesaler but shelf-talkers,
promotional leaflets and other marketing
support materials
are usually part of
the package.
Current activity
includes the addition of Bestway’s
magazine Impact,
which is sent to
Extra Local retailclub members,
giving them notice
of promotions and
category advice.
Mr Bottomley
says: “We have
received great
Booker has two retail
feedback from
clubs, including Shop
retail-club members.
Local 2 Go
Because the information is endorsed by their wholesalers,
they trust it.”
Booker has two retail clubs, Shop Local
2 Go and Retail Club, which have 4,500
members between them. Its emphasis is on
offering retailers outstanding value.
“The deals drive both footfall and incremental sales for members and guarantee
retailers a minimum margin of 15%. The
PoS package includes shelf-barkers and
leaflets to distribute in the local area to
drive awareness of the great value available,” says retail sales director Steve Fox.
JW Filshill sends out 300,000 leaflets
every three weeks for its symbol and retailclub members. The large majority of these
go to the members of the symbol group,
but some go to the retail club’s members.
14
march 2012
p12-16 cstoryCS4.indd 14
retailers’ views: retail clubs
nick southern
The Newsagents (Premier Express)
“We joined
Booker’s
retail club
when it was
first introduced and we
were members
of the scheme for
around four years.
There were several
things that I liked about being part of
a retail club. One of the most useful
things was the point-of-sale material
provided. Having marketing materials
of a professional standard is streets
ahead of anything I could produce
myself in-store and gives customers
the right impression. Having access to
promotions and a bigger range was also
a great help.
“Over time, it became clear to us that
moving over to the symbol group was a
natural progression and after a re-fit to
increase the size of the store so it met with
the minimum requirements, we did that.
“You could say we’ve grown with
Booker as they have developed their
offering for independents – the decision
to join the retail club and start that
journey was the best we’ve ever made.”
iain paton
Cullen Corner Shop, Cullen, Scotland
Iain Paton
spent 13
years working as a B&Q
executive before
setting up his own
business in 2008.
Retail clubs have a part to play in
Mr Paton’s strategy. He sees them as
a helpful tool in offering value to his
customers but does not have plans to
convert to a symbol group.
“I appreciate the opportunity that
retail clubs offer because it is good for
business to offer customers value for
money,” he says.
“The problem with retail clubs is the
products are not always right for my
MD Simon Hannah says the advantage of
passing on the leaflets to the retail club’s
members is that it encourages them to take
part in the promotions.
John Kinney, retail director at the
Today’s Group, says it produces different
types of leaflet for different types of store.
He adds that it is important to make the
right choice about what offers to promote.
“Some suppliers want to get NPD on the
leaflets but that is challenging because it
would need to be in all shops to be successful. It is about getting a balance between
the supplier and the customer.”
Over the years, although the basic mechanics of the retail club haven’t changed,
store – Booker for example majors on
alcohol but grocery, dairy and everyday
essentials like soap powder or cereal
would be better for my business”
“The PoS material is useful and there
is value in having it, but some people
will not see the offer, even with blue
flashing lights on, so we always make a
point of actively promoting offers at the
till point.”
“Availability is also a key issue for us.
Often the lines on promotion sell out
before we have a chance to get hold of
them. I think bigger businesses take it
all so smaller businesses miss out.
“I’d like to see wholesalers addressing
this – and listening to smaller retailers
more.”
the range of activity has expanded, demonstrating the level of support available for
independent retailers from the wholesale
sector. The kinds of deals and categories
have expanded and there’s more club activity than ever before, meaning it is increasingly the role of the wholesaler to oversee
promotional activity at store level.
But do retail clubs work? Essentially,
yes. They allow retailers the chance to be
competitive at a time when the landscape
of the convenience sector is changing and
the market is growing, thanks in part to
the entrance of the major multiples.
Patrick Mitchell Fox, senior business
analyst at the IGD, says that wholesalers
understand retailers’ need for flexibility
Betterwholesaling.com
23/02/2012 16:22
cover story
and their retail clubs enable them to implement professional standards.
“For retailers that are keen to be competitive, the opportunity to take part in
these clubs is excellent because they get
deals that have the value and impact of a
symbol group but they don’t have to be a
member, which would mean compliance
and investment,” he says.
“There are plenty of pros and relatively
few cons,” he adds.
The general consensus among wholesalers is that one of the main reasons retail
clubs work so well is because they are
consumer-led. Products are promoted
based on what will sell, rather than what
suppliers want to push.
This is particularly relevant for Steve
Parfett, chairman of Parfetts, who is passionate about his company’s commitment
to promoting only the right ­products.
“We are determined that suppliers
cannot buy their way into promotions,”
he says. “We decide what is right for
the consumer and then we approach
the ­supplier.”
It is a similar story at JW Filshill.
MD ­Simon Hannah says: “Promotions are
always based on supplier activity, which is
based on consumer demand. Everything
we do is based on above-the-line marketing. If it’s on TV we have it in-store.”
Retail clubs are good for suppliers, too,
providing them with an effective route to
market and greater access
to the independent sector.
Mr Hannah says much of
the desire to drive retail
clubs comes from the suppliers.
“Suppliers don’t want to
invest in something that
doesn’t reach consumers,”
he says. “Retailers are
more likely to get value
from suppliers if they
are associated with
a retail club.”
Ken Cameron, field sales
manager at Coca-Cola Enterprises, agrees
that the clubs allow the company access to
convenience consumers.
“Suppliers use the mechanics of retailclub promotions to drive distribution of
key lines into an important consumer environment, namely the local convenience
and independent retail channel,” he says.
“Coca-Cola Enterprises offers consumer
deals for retailers, such as two 500ml
Cokes for £2, that are designed to drive
incremental purchase. In turn, the loyalty
that the club’s member demonstrates
should grow volume and distribution
with that particular wholesaler.”
With suppliers and wholesalers on
the same page, it’s no surprise that
16
Parfetts has a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ approach to members who don’t comply with promotion rules
retail clubs have become prominent.
But the challenge, as always, is retailer ­compliance.
The definition of compliance can be
different for each wholesaler, which frustrates suppliers.
“The level of promotional participation can vary from depot to depot,” says
Mr Cameron. “Some wholesalers simply
provide customers with a free
case at the start of the promotion, whereas others support
with promotional leaflets and
photo­graphs of additional
off-fixture displays. This can
sometimes make it difficult to
consistently record the overall
success of a promotion.”
Implementing a retailer
club in a way that satisfies
both the retailer and the supplier can be complex, too.
Iain Paton has run Cullen Convenience
Stores in Cullen, Scotland, since 2008.
He recognises the value of retail clubs
and uses Booker’s Shop Local 2 Go among
others. But he admits he isn’t loyal to any
wholesaler and bends the rules when it
comes to promotions.
“With retail clubs, I always put the
15%
Minimum margin
for Booker retail
club members
product on promotion but if it doesn’t
work for my customers then I’ll stop running it. There is no point me keeping it on
if it isn’t working,” he says.
The issue of compliance is one that
wholesalers are fully aware of and seeking
to address. Parfetts, for example, has a
‘three strikes and you’re out’ approach.
A Go Local co-ordinator in each depot
manages retailers and if one is consistently not passing on value, then the relationship is stopped.
“We absolutely don’t want retailers to
not pass on value to consumers,” says
chairman Steve Parfett.
Bestway also takes steps to ensure
compliance is well managed by not only
addressing under-performance but also
providing additional support to educate ­retailers.
“We check our retailers for compliance
each period,” says Mark Bottomley of
Batleys and Bestway.
“We try to educate our retail club
members through Impact, as well as communicating with them about planograms
and display.”
There’s no doubt retail clubs are set to
remain part of the wholesale sector for
the foreseeable future. Indeed, wholesale expansion into other areas to help
support independents is likely, according to James Russell from Rowan Inter
znational.
“I think wholesalers will start to do
more to help independents connect back
to their communities,” he says.
“The leading retailers are already onto
this but there is a core of retailers that
are being left behind and this is a big
opportunity for wholesalers.” l
march 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
p12-16 cstoryCS4.indd 16
23/02/2012 16:25
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CARA-0120_ClubCommitteAd_A4_AW1.indd 1
31/03/2011 14:52
compliance
the gentle art
of persuasion
Getting independent retailers to follow best practice is hard work but Landmark is making progress, says DAVID HARRIS
W
holesalers and suppliers
spend a small fortune
finding out which products
sell best and why.
Market research can tell them what
retailers should stock, how much they
should have available and when they
should stock it. Good market research
leads to better sales, which is good for
both wholesalers and retailers.
So it is no surprise that one of the
eternal riddles of wholesaling is why
retailers can prove so unwilling to stock
the key items that wholesalers want them
to stock, offer promotions as suggested or
generally follow commercial advice that
should do the retailers every bit as much
good as it does the wholesalers.
In short, why won’t retailers do what
wholesalers want them to?
Even wholesalers find the reasons difficult to pin down. Chris Doyle, business
development director with Landmark
Wholesale, has been working on the issue
for years. In 2010, Landmark decided
that ‘non-compliance’, as it
is rather inelegantly
known, had become
such an issue that
it was going to
concentrate on
raising loyalty in 2,000+
Lifestyle Express stores,
rather than
recruiting
new members.
Mr Doyle
says that what
Landmark is
looking for is quite
straightforward: it wants
its stores to stock the core
800 or so products identified as the best
sellers. But the average independent retailer is stocking only around 55% of this,
even if Landmark’s efforts have nudged
the figure up in the last two years.
So why are independent retailers so
bewilderingly unwilling to do themselves a
favour by stocking what sells best?
18
Mr Doyle has gathered a variety of
reasons why shopkeepers are unwilling
to follow advice that could make them
more money: “My store is different”, “I
haven’t got time”, “I don’t believe it [the
research]” and “I’ve got more important
things to sort out” are just some of the
reasons ­given.
Market research carried out in depots
by Him! shows that retailers are certainly
remarkably resistant to stocking items
that wholesalers tell them will increase
their sales. The research seems to back up
Mr Doyle’s own informal conversations,
indicating a variety of reasons for this, including the fact that independent retailers
simply like their independence.
Natalie London, Him! general manager,
says that its wholesale tracking programmes, based on talking to thousands
of retailers and caterers in depots each
year, suggest that two in five independent retailers do not follow core ranges
“because they like to make their own
decisions”. One potential way around this
would be to offer retailers a list of 20 products from which they should sell at least
10 – in other words helping them to feel
independent while giving them the necessary commercial guidance.
Retailers will often purchase certain items of
stock just to be independent
55%
Items in Landmark’s
core range stocked by
independent retailers
But when it comes to guidance, the
Him! statistics are startling. Only 44%
of independent retailers say they understand their wholesalers’ core range and
best-sellers concepts, with 17% saying
they understand them only ‘somewhat’.
A further 27% say they don’t understand
them and so do not follow them. Part of
the reason for this may be that for many
convenience store operators, English is not
their first language.
However, retailers say they do recognise
the importance of stocking the best sellers
in each category, but even here the Him!
research suggests that agreement is not
absolute: just over half say that it’s ‘very
important’ that they stock the best sellers,
with a further third saying it is ‘important’.
In fact, the most important aspects
for retailers buying from wholesalers are
value (57%) and acceptable prices (49%).
march 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
p20-21 ComplianceCS4.indd 18
23/02/2012 17:28
retailer insight
Put bluntly, some retailers seem more willing to let their profits
suffer than to surrender a centimetre of their right to choose
Furthermore, one in five retailers do not
stock the top sellers because ‘they are not
on promotion’.
For wholesalers, the issue remains how
to tackle such intransigence. Put bluntly,
some retailers seem more willing to let
their profits suffer than to surrender a
centimetre of their right to choose.
Landmark’s Chris Doyle says that language is just one of the things that needs
to change: “I don’t like the word ‘compliance’. I prefer to think about it as influencing the retailers and sharing best practice.”
Getting independent retailers to believe
the research presented to them by wholesalers is also part of the secret, he adds.
“You need to tell them that if they stock
certain products, they will be more successful retailers.”
To back up straightforward advice with
an immediate reward, Landmark has been
offering cash back to retailers that follow
its advice. The retailers can spend that
money in-depot.
The programme is working, but slowly,
adds Mr Doyle, who sees it as “five-year
mission rather than a one-year goal”.
Wholesalers that have set out to solve
the problem of persuading retailers agree
with Mr Doyle that it is much more
likely to work if carried out carefully and
clearly rather than by becoming frustrated
with them.
United Wholesale Grocers in Glasgow is
one of those taking the calm, considered
approach to persuading retailers to toe the
line, and it appears to be working.
Rahan Ali Irshad, general manager at
the company’s Polmadie branch, says
that the first step was to educate its sales
team about why core lines and promotions work so well for both wholesalers
and retailers.
Then the team went out with a clear
method of demonstrating to retailers
the commercial benefits of promotions
and the importance of the core lines.
In the case of United Wholesale, the core
lines are a modest 50 or so items, so it
is not particularly arduous for retailers
to ­follow.
In addition, says Mr Irshad, it is important to ensure that group members
also comply with other brand standards
in things like how their store is kitted out
and the uniforms staff wear.
Overall, the policy has been a great success. By last year, compliance among United’s 142 members, including its Lifestyle
Express, Drinks Express and Shopsmart
members, had increased from 45% to 85%.
This is going to go up even further in 2012,
says Mr Irshad.
It seems fairly evident that the firmbut-polite and reasoned approach to
persuading retailers is the right one,
even if it takes time and planning. Chris
Doyle’s plan for Landmark sounds about
right. The message for wholesalers must
be: don’t get frustrated and don’t give
up, because the rewards will eventually
benefit everyone. l
Betterwholesaling.com
p20-21 ComplianceCS4.indd 19
MARCH 2012
19
23/02/2012 17:29
pubs
feel the buzz
Nigel Huddleston looks at an idea from Booker that is proving popular with customers – a retail club for pubs
R
etail clubs are a popular way
for wholesalers to build loyalty among independent shop
customers, but there’s been relatively
little similar activity to incentivise
the on-trade.
One such exception is Booker’s Buzz
scheme for pubs, which provides a range
of price promotions, mainly on leading
alcohol brands, and could point a way to
sales growth in the hospitality sector.
The scheme aims to drive loyalty
towards Booker from existing customers
and attract potential customers that are
free from the traditional brewery tie with
at least part of their ranges.
Wholesale schemes to drive loyalty
among pub customers aren’t entirely
new: Brakes offers Nectar points to
its small- and medium-sized business
customers, and specialist drinks wholesaler Waverley TBS has its own Total
Points scheme that allows operators
20
to save for stock, extra staff training,
premium point-of-sale (PoS) material or
high-street shopping vouchers to use as
staff incentives.
What makes Buzz different is that it
is a loyalty scheme that’s also consumerfacing, aiming to help customers to build
business, not just reward them for their
ongoing custom. It effectively provides
pubs with a brand to market their venue
while keeping their independence.
Drinks specialist Matthew Clark Wholesale said it provides PoS material and price
800
The number of
pubs in the Buzz
loyalty scheme
promotions for customers but stops short
of creating a marketable pub brand.
“A lot of customers are probably more
likely to use the drink brands’ owners’
PoS material with their logos if they do
want to attract customers with brands,”
an MCW spokeswoman says.
With Buzz, members are required to
commit to the prices suggested in nofrills Buzz PoS material, which features
photos of products alongside prices.
In return, Booker provides trade
discounts and marketing support to help
independent pubs compete against multiple operators on their patches.
The scheme has a built-in target gross
profit of at least 50% on products included in the promotions.
Buzz began with a trial of 500 pubs
in the summer of 2010, with no cost to
join but a minimum order of £200 for
each promotional period. It has now been
rolled out to more than 800 customers.
march 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
p20-21 pubsCS4.indd 20
22/02/2012 17:41
feature
buzz marketing
As well as price promotions, consumer
involvement in the Buzz scheme has
been driven by competitions. A text-towin competition last autumn offered
prizes of weekend breaks, Red Letter
Days and iPads and was backed by
Blossom Hill, Coca-Cola and
Walkers Crisps.
The programme has included
seasonal promotions such as
a £2.25-per-measure deal on
Highland Park single malt
for Burns Night and a cider
festival promotion which ran
in early summer 2011.
Buzz is backed by a dedicated website that features
latest news on prices and
­competitions.
It also has a pub finder,
allowing consumers to find a
list of nearby Buzz pubs by
entering their postcodes.
There’s a free mobile app available
from iTunes that allows users to track
down pubs using the GPS facilities on
their phones.
As one consumer feedback comment
put it, “I always drink in my local Buzz
pub, but this was great when I went
away for the weekend and found another Buzz pub where I was staying.”
Buzz also
has its own
Facebook
page with
details
of all the
offers and
a featured
pub slot.
In all, Booker has in the region of
38,000 pub customers, so there’s plenty
of potential for Buzz to grow from the
wholesaler’s existing customer base.
As is stands, the coverage of the Buzz
scheme appears to be big enough to give
it workable scale, but small enough not to
saturate the market. This has an attraction for pubs as it gives them a USP in
their local market.
For now, Booker’s competitors have
kept the club concept for their convenience retail customers, but if the buzz
around Buzz continues to build, clubs
for pubs could become a feature of the
wholesale landscape. l
How the Buzz Pubs package stacks-up
l drinks discounts: Pubs get discounts on
leading drinks brands in return for commitment
to hit price points.
l promotions: Deals are supported
by seasonal competitions and other
promotional activity.
l customised pos: Booker
supplies Buzz-branded PoS
material for the venue and
local marketing, including fliers
customised with the pub’s
name and address.
l branding: The club
provides outlets with a brand to
market around while retaining
independence.
l online presence:
Gross profit
A dedicated website and free app
target for
feature ‘pub finders’ and advertise
every Buzz
deals to consumers.
promotion
50%
case studies
barrie webb
Kevin calladine
“We joined shortly after it was
launched in the summer of 2010. It
seemed like good value for money but
what attracted us wasn’t just that it was
about selling through cheap stuff to make
us competitive with the pub chains, but
that it would help to keep customers
in the pub for longer, which it has.
“It’s also expanded our clientele base.
I’d say it has increased our footfall by
around 2% and the average spend per
“We started taking part in Buzz in January and a big draw for us was the exclusivity that it gives us in our area. It means
we’ve got a promotional offering that no
one else has in our part of the city.
“The main benefit is driving footfall into
the venue. We’re very much a night-time
venue, and having promotions like this can
help to drive business on the quieter nights
in the middle of the week.
“We’ve been putting the deals on our
Facebook page. We also get point-of-sale
material with A2 posters for the window
and inside, plus A5 leaflets that we put on
the tables so that customers can take them
away and show to their friends.
“There are also promotions that can help
drive footfall during the day, such as one at
the moment for a Twix and cup of tea for
£2, which is backed by PoS material.
“The pub already had a really good
relationship with Booker and there is an
element of discount in the products we buy
as part of the Buzz offers. That gives us the
incentive to support the scheme and put our
all into it, so there’s something in it for us
and for Booker.
“We checked to see if we were featured
on the website to make sure Booker was
following up what it says it’s doing and we
were on there straight away – which isn’t
always the case with online directories.”
Swan Inn, Stone, Staffordshire
The average spend per
round has gone up by
about 15%
round has gone up by about 15% which
is where the real win has been.
“We use the PoS in the pub and
distribute the leaflets in the town at
the local farmers’ market.
“You are expected to make a commitment to buying, but to be honest it
only works out at around one case of
each product that’s in each promotion
and we easily sell considerably more
than that – so really the commitment
is minimal.”
Queen’s Arms, Brighton
Betterwholesaling.com march 2012
p20-21 pubsCS4.indd 21
21
22/02/2012 17:43
DEPOT DOCTOR
soft drinks,
hard cash
Are you looking after the health of your soft
drink sales? Get a full checkup with Britvic
soft drinks depot doctor Adrian Howe
1/ the symptoms
Soft drink sales are currently
worth £639m in cash & carry
and growing at 2.3%, but this
growth is only half that of total
sales growth in cash and carries
(IGD, Grocery & Foodservice
Wholesaling, 2011).
With soft drinks growing at
6.3% in the total market over
the last year, it seems that
there is a great opportunity for
wholesalers to capitalise on the
scale and opportunity of soft
drinks (Nielsen Scantrack Total
Coverage, MAT to 28.01.12).
If cash & carries increased
their sales by the same growth
as the total market, £24m of
sales would have been added to
the ­industry.
Making small changes to
range and layout ensures
the fixture is easier to shop
and ultimately helps drive
growth levels that match
the total market.
6.3%
The total
market
growth in
2011
2/ THE DIAGNOSIS
1/
The wrong
products
Cash & carry shoppers
often rely on the same
range that they always
buy, or focus on the top
impulse lines only. However, stocking a broad
range that meets all
consumer needs, incorporating best sellers and
new products, will help
to grow sales.
22
march 2012
p22-23 Britvic Depot Doc.indd 1
knowing
your customers
2/ Not
It’s important not to take
a ‘one size fits all’ approach
and to appreciate different
customer types. Although
retailers deliver most soft
drinks sales, caterers bring in
35% of soft drink sales and
should be catered for with the
right products in the right
formats. One idea would be
for depot managers and staff
to speak to customers on their
visit to the depot to find out
what they want.
easy
to shop
3/ Not
Time is precious for depot customers, and it is
important that both the
main fixture and wider
depot floor are easy and
logical for people to shop.
The main reasons for
lack of purchase in depot
are either out of stocks
or not being able to find
the product in depot.
Betterwholesaling.com
23/02/2012 19:30
In association with
3/ the cure
1/ The right range
It is key to stock best selling soft drink categories, such as cola. Be aware of trends, such as the
growing demand for energy drinks, like Mountain Dew Energy, which can help boost sales. Consider
all your customers. Licensees might need glass formats, rather than the PET format a retailer requires.
2/ The right advice
Cash & carries can be business advice centres. Research trends,
like the increase in popularity of cold hot drinks such as Lipton Ice Tea, so
you can tell customers about them. Speak to customers regularly in depot
and when they are at work or at home by email and direct mail.
3/ A logical layout
Ensure all products are
visible, by avoiding single facings,
managing your lower performance
SKUs and palletising brands that
deserve space. Place related subcategories, such as cola and carbonates, next to each other in-depot.
Group categories that complement
each other, such as soft drinks,
snacks and confectionery.
4/ for better health
1/ A new range
Work with your suppliers to analyse the current
range and how it could be evolved. Try to make sure
fixture layout is simple, dedicating more space to the best
selling brands.
2/A dedicated area
Creating a dedicated soft drinks area in depot can
help make shopping easier. Signposts placed throughout
the depot will also help customers find it. Break the fixture
into different segments (cola, pure juice, energy drinks)
and formats (bag in a box, on-the-go, take home) to make
shopping simpler.
3/ Category advice
Offer engaging business building advice at the main
soft drinks fixture to help customers maximise their soft
drinks sales. Help customers understand the category, suggesting which brands and formats they could stock, as well
as what deals they might offer in store. Keep it simple and
focus on the opportunities soft drinks present.
Creating a dedicated soft drinks area in depot can help make shopping easier.
Signposts placed throughout the depot will also help customers find it
Betterwholesaling.com
p22-23 Britvic Depot Doc.indd 2
MARCH 2012
23
23/02/2012 19:32
exports
fresh fields
British food is in demand around the world. TOM FERGUSON looks at how wholesalers sell their goods overseas
W
ith the government committed to boosting UK food
and drink sales overseas,
wholesalers are well-placed to carve
their own slice of a £16bn annual
export market.
In late January, the Department of
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) unveiled a ‘Farming, Food and Drink
Exports Action Plan’, aimed at increasing
sales to high-growth markets like India
and China.
Simultaneously, wholesaler Bestway revealed its own exports had climbed 23%
in value over the preceding 12 months;
earlier in January, Stockport-based
Parfetts reported its own substantial ­increase.
“British food is in great demand around
the world,” says Elsa Fairbanks, director
of the Food and Drink Exporters Association (FDEA), the 95 trade members of
which range from suppliers like Asian
food manufacturer Geeta’s and confec-
24
“The pound’s recent strength
tioner Green & Black’s to
helps,” says Ms Fairbanks,
specialist wholesaler Suma
“and we have some fantasWholefoods and Bestway.
tic products – not just the
“Exports are going very
obvious strong British ones.
well at the moment,” deMany of our exports are
clares Ms Fairbanks, “and so
products like ethnic food.”
are wholesalers.”
“Demand has been increasWholesalers “offer an exceling,” says Bestway central export
lent service for [overseas retail]
buyers,” she adds, “with variety Steve Parfett: ex-pats buyer Umar Sheikh. “Over the
years, people have been visiting
and range. They’re also usually are the main drivers
the UK for one reason or another,
flexible, can offer help on prob- of overseas sales
be it a holiday or education, busilems with labelling, and so on.
ness or immigration. [So] millions
A lot of smaller UK companies
of people around the world have developed
in particular don’t have the resources to
a taste for UK-manufactured FMCG.”
devote to export, so it’s an effective way
of doing it.”
Defra says food and drink exports
There remains room for growth. Defra
climbed 12.2% per cent in 2010 to
notes the UK exports more food annually to
£16.1bn, the sixth consecutive year’s
Belgium than to Brazil, Russia, India, China
growth. Top earners were whisky
and Mexico combined – countries repre(£3.5bn), beer (£536m), chocolate
senting 44% of the world’s population.
(£376m), breakfast cereals (£367m) and
Mr Sheikh declines to put a value on
soft drinks (£327m).
Bestway’s 23% increase, but attributes
march 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
p24-25 exportsCS4.indd 24
22/02/2012 14:56
out of the box
the government’s big ideas: key points from Defra’s
Farming, Food and Drink Exports action plan
l promote exporting: Hold regional road shows and B2B networking
events to share best practice and encourage exporting.
l cut the red tape: Make food-export paperwork simpler and easier for
companies to access.
l end the meat bans: Work across government and industry to get
countries to remove bans on British meat.
l build on the olympics: Showcase British food and drink at the London
Olympics 2012 to attract international buyers.
l nurture the novices: Support inexperienced agri-food companies
to showcase products internationally.
growth to demand from Africa, the Middle East and Pakistan, key product areas
being “all FMCG – grocery, soft drinks,
dry goods”.
While Bestway has always had some
overseas customers, he says “export
was never a part of our agenda in the
early days of the business”. The company
reappraised its position a little over
24 months ago, explains Umar Sheikh.
Appreciating that “our export customers
needed support just as much as our domestic customers motivated us to apply
resources and put into place a strategic
plan of action”.
That resulted in an expansion of
services and export staff numbers, with
the company offering full door-to-door
assistance wherever possible, as well as
a web-ordering service. Bestway now
exports to 49 countries.
Mr Sheikh pinpoints Bestway’s participation in the October 2011 Anuga international trade fair as a significant piece
of export profile-building – the Cologne
event attracted 155,000 trade visitors
and featured over 6,500 suppliers.
Such events are important marketplaces for striking export deals, confirms
FDEA’s Elsa Fairbanks, so the association
organises British pavilions at “all the
major food fairs around the world”.
Some companies prefer to take a
different route towards attracting export customers.
Parfetts sells to “between 20 and 25”
countries, says chairman Steve Parfett.
“Primarily,” he says, “business comes
through word of mouth or our web site.”
The company’s key export markets are
mainly European, he says, for “a mixture
of very traditional grocery products and
some very interesting things – for example, we sell far more Atora suet, flavoured
teas and flavour essences for cooking
overseas than we do in the UK.
“We also do well with seasonal goods,
Easter eggs in particular. But it’s interest-
ing the ex-pat community seems to cook
– you can’t use Atora for anything else.”
Bestway’s Umar Sheikh says ex-pats
are “a smaller percentage of our customer
base”. However, for Steve Parfett, they
are “the primary driver” of sales. “In European countries particularly, the initial
market is ex-pats and holidaymakers,” he
adds. “But that also gives a platform to
sell to locals.”
Ex-pat communities “can often open up
markets,” agrees FDEA’s Elsa Fairbanks.
“Once UK food is on the shelves, that
opens up into more of a domestic market.”
Several wholesalers have suc-
cessfully built sales in specific regions.
Stratford-upon-Avon-based DCS Europe,
for example, has strong sales in Libya,
Egypt and Iraq, while Landmark group
member CPT International is active in
the Middle East.
Millions of people
around the world have
developed a taste for
UK-manufactured FMCG
Manchester-based Rayburn Trading’s
largest export destination is Ireland, says
director Howard Goldman, although it
sells toiletries and cosmetics, household
goods, and confectionery across Europe,
the Middle East, the Far East and Australia.
He says Rayburn’s key markets fluctuate, but the biggest “will probably always
be Ireland, because it’s so closely connected to the UK”. Mr Goldman says Rayburn’s long-established export business
has steadily increased year-on-year over
the past decade, culminating in a June
2011 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in
International Trade.
leading consumers of
UK food and drink
1
2
£2.7bn
Ireland
£1.9bn
France
3
£1.2bn
4
USA
£1bn
Germany
5
£963m
Spain
Source: Defra figures for 2010
Rayburn largely exports own-label
brands like Hair Academy and Zazie
Cosmetics, but UK manufacture still adds
a certain cachet, notes Mr Goldman.
“We sell more to the discounted end of the
market, but people like stuff that’s made
in Britain, seeing it as a sign of quality.”
While some wholesalers doubt the
relevance of Defra’s export plan to their
businesses, FDEA’s Elsa Fairbanks insists
wholesalers can benefit from the initiative, which was developed with leading
exporters and trade associations.
The plan outlines ways for government
to work with industry to remove trade
barriers and promote British products.
According to trade and investment minister Lord Green, “We want to see many
more SMEs exporting to high-growth
markets. By working together, government and industry can help British food
producers unlock their potential.”
Bestway’s Umar Sheikh is quietly
upbeat. “At this stage,” he says, “we feel
that any effort made by the government,
UKTI and other such bodies will be welcomed by all businesses.”
“Export is a key requirement for strong
growth for the sector,” Mr Sheikh adds.
“Only one in five small-to-medium-sized
companies export – we need the support
of Defra in highlighting the advantages
of buying British.” l
Betterwholesaling.com march 2012
p24-25 exportsCS4.indd 25
25
22/02/2012 14:57
BEERs AND CIDERs
In association with
know what your
customers want
Get the basics right and you will sell more beer and cider to retailers, says STEFAN APPLEBY
S
elling more beer and cider needn’t
be a difficult aim for wholesalers to achieve. It’s simply a case
Availability is as key for
of knowing what the people coming
wholesalers as it is for the
through the doors of your depot want
to buy and ensuring that you display it
retailers themselves
in an exciting and enticing way.
Nichola Cookland of Heineken, which
Rajiv Chotai of Chatham News Plus and
makes Strongbow, Fosters and Kronenbourg,
Yogesh Darji of Premier Baddesley note
says it’s about getting the basics right.
what they need before visiting depots.
“Availability is as key for wholesalers as
“I always make a list before I go to the deit is for the retailers themselves,” she says.
pot. It’s dictated by what the special offers
“Depots should make sure that they have
are that they’ve got on,” says Mr Chotai.
the brands that retailers are looking
“I make a list of what we need in
for clearly displayed on the shelf
the shop,” agrees Mr Darji. “Then
with no gaps.”
we’ll look at the leaflets and
Kay Patel, who owns four
see which wholesaler has the
convenience stores in east
Work with
best ­offer.”
London, believes that a guaransuppliers to
To alert retailers to your range,
tee of availability would be
stock it
you should make it stand out,
a guaranteed sale.
says Heineken’s Nichola Cookland.
“I don’t mind paying a bit extra
“Point-of-sale (PoS) material should
for something if I know that it’s definitely going to be available when I get to the be used to highlight the leading brands and
to alert retailers to the products that they
depot,” he adds.
should be buying.
Many retailers shop like the average fam“Make sure that you don’t stock too many
ily does – with a list of the things that they
products
in your depot – this could easily
need. Most of the time, they’re looking for
detract from the biggest brands and biggest
the big brands, so depots need to highlight
sellers, and confuse retailers.”
these in-store so they’re easy to find.
PoS
To sway shoppers from a list and promote
new launches, wholesalers need eye-catching displays.
“Sponsorship deals around big sporting
events, major advertising pushes or newproduct launches are ideal times to create
theatre in-depot,” says Ms Cookland.
“Nearly every supplier will have something you can support so get close to your
reps and you can create a really exciting
events calendar.”
PoS material can push products to retailers. “It would be great if suppliers worked
with wholesalers to make PoS available
in-depot, so that when you buy a product
you can simply pick up the relevant
shelf-talker at the same time for your store,”
says Kay Patel.
Nichola Cookland says that the final key
element is for wholesalers to understand
the value of price-marked packs for independent retailers.
“Suppliers are increasingly advertising
PMP on the outer shrink of cases so
retailers can easily identify them and
make sure they are visible and not
hidden away,” she says.
By sticking to the basics and observing
a few key rules, depot managers can really
shake up their beer and cider sales. l
retailer views: what they want from wholesalers
Kay Patel
Global Food+Wine, Wanstead
“I don’t mind paying a bit extra
for something if I know that it’s definitely going to be available when I
get to the depot. Availability is the big
thing. I’d like people who work in-depot to
be knowledgeable about what they’re selling.”
Nimit patel
Londis, Grays and Dartford; Best-one, South Ockendon
“It would be good if wholesalers improved their communications. We don’t have time to read through all the
pamphlets – what would be better is if they emailed you
to let you know what’s happening with offers and promotions. Then it
would be easier to see what you want and where to go.”
26
yogesh darji
Premier Baddesley, Baddesley Ensor
“The staff in the cash & carries we use don’t
offer us any advice on what we should be
buying – they seem very busy getting on with
their jobs. The Booker staff are good because
they listen to us if we have a complaint and we
will tell them if we think the prices are too high.”
rajiv chotai
Chatham News Plus, Chatham
“I always make a list before I go to the depot of what I want. It’s dictated by what the
special offers are that they’ve got on. The lines
that I’m looking out for most of all for promotions on are soft drinks and confectionery.”
March 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
p26 HeinekenCS4.indd 26
23/02/2012 10:04
AUST R A L I A N
for
CHIC
Grow your lager sales through
stocking new Foster's Gold
• 33 million bottles already sold within the first
six months
• Over 3/4 of stores already stocking Foster's Gold
in their premium lager fixture
• Over 3/4 of Foster's Gold sales add additional
value to the category - no stealing from other
products
• Benefitting from over £44m investment on
Foster's in 2012
• Make sure you stock the 6-pack PMP in your
chiller so your customers can buy it today
STOCK UP TODAY
Full mark on blue / dark background
Full mark on white / light background
Full mark on blue / dark background
Full mark on white / light background
Source: 1 Iri - last 8 wks distribution to 29th October. 2 Kantar world panel - data to 4th November
44201 Foster'sGoldAFCAd_RetailNewsagent.indd 1
Foster's is brewed in the UK. Over 18's Only.
21/2/12 12:13:58
Discover how brilliant basics
sell more beer and cider with
HEINEKEN
1
Always stock the brands
retailers are looking for
Top 10 Must Stocks list
• 2/3 of shoppers already know what they are
going to buy when they go to a convenience
store and that’s national leading brands
1
Stella Artois 6 x 4 x 500ml
2
Foster’s 6 x 4 x 500ml
3
Carling 6 x 4 x 500ml
4
Carlsberg 3 x 8 x 440ml
• Make sure you highlight the Top 10 Must Stocks
with POS so that your retailers know what they
should be buying
5
Stella Artois 6 x 4 x 568ml
6
Kronenbourg 1664 6 x 4 x 500ml
• Don’t be tempted to stock too wide a variety of
products in your depot as it will lead to confusion
and reduces brand visibility
7
Strongbow 6 x 4 x 500ml
8
Strongbow 6 x 2 litre
9
John Smith’s Extra Smooth 6 x 4 x 440ml
10
Guinness Draught 6 x 4 x 440ml
• Retailers will be looking to buy the brands and
packs their shoppers are looking for so make sure
you always have the top 10 must stock products
in your beer and cider aisle
2
Always make it easy for retailer to
find their way round your fixtures
• Catering customers will be looking for bottles, retailers
will be looking for all package types,
so make sure you understand who is coming into your
depot and layout your fixtures accordingly
• Have range and merchandising best practice advice
available in your depot for retailers to interact with
and use in their stores - this could be leaflets or
planograms for them to take away
3
Always stock the pack sizes
that retailers want to buy
• Most shoppers are looking for small-mid sized packs
that are easy to carry with 4 & 8 being
the most popular so these are the packs retailers will
want to buy
• Almost 2/3 of shoppers think Price Marked Packs
(PMP) represent good value for money and would
be likely to buy them so they are becoming more
popular with retailers
• Retailers will be looking to stock up on these
so make sure they are visible in the depot
4
Always look for ways to create
interest in the category
• Use events such as Heineken’s promotion activity
for UEFA Champions League to create theatre in
the depot
• Retailers will be looking for value adding NPD to
offer their shoppers something different
• Drive awareness of these through displays in
prominent areas of the depot
PM Prices indicative only and correct at time of print
44367 Heineken Better Wholesaling DPS .indd 1
23/2/12 17:13:43
wines and spirits
raise a glass to
greater sales
NIKKI ALLEN looks at how premium pricing, new flavours, sizes and quality are driving the wine and spirits markets
Worth £5bn and
growing at 3% year
on year, wine is the
largest category in
Premium
alcohol, four times
and sweet
bigger than the
cereal market and
almost double that of
chocolate confectionery
(Nielsen). In such a key market, it’s vital
for wholesalers to understand the trends
that are influencing consumers.
The biggest of this year’s movements
goes against the economic grain. In spite
of the current climate, one of the biggest
growth areas for wine in the impulse
channel is premium wines – bottles
costing £6.40-£8.50 (Nielsen), says Lee
James, channel director for wine at Pernod Ricard. “Our research suggests that
58% of consumers are willing to trade
up to premium wines, but this is not yet
being reflected in households,” he says.
“Since premium wine on average returns
a retail sales value of £2.95 more per bottle (Nielsen), there is a real opportunity
here for wholesalers to help retailers add
value into their wine fixture.”
Wines
Best-selling wines by country
1
2
30
16%
Italy
3
4
14%
France
14%
USA
5
8%
Chile
6
8%
Spain
Premium Rioja brand Campo Viejo,
for example, is one brand that continues to
perform very strongly in the independent
sector, says Mr James, with a 46% share
of the Rioja category and a value increase
of 15.8% year-on-year (Nielsen). “Despite
accounting for one in every two bottles of
Rioja sold in the independent channel, the
brand still only has 38% distribution, making it a good example of a premium wine
still to be fully explored.”
Another key trend this year is for lower
alcohol wines that are sweeter in style, says
David Mallory, E&J Gallo’s UK channel
controller for impulse and on-trade. “These
wines are set to win more shelf space this
year and play a central role in our plans for
2012,” he says. “Our recent research has
revealed that 52% of those who consume
alcohol feel that the majority of white wines
are too dry, bitter and acidic, meaning we
will be looking at the potential of sweeter
styles such as Moscato. It is vital that
20%
Australia
8
6%
New
Zealand
7
8%
South
Africa
9
2%
Germany
10
1%
Argentina
£5bn
Size of the wine
market in
the UK
wholesalers take advantage of this trend by
stocking these kinds of wines.” Other successful and sweet low-alcohol wines include
Treasury Wine Estates’ Bella Vie, launched
March 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
p30-32 winesCS4.indd 30
23/02/2012 10:22
CATEGORY GUIDE
last year, and Halewood International’s
Botany Creek range.
When it comes to offering retailers the
best possible range to choose from, it’s
vital to remember that in your depot,
retailers are shoppers too, points out Dan
Townsend, Treasury Wine Estates UK and
Ireland general manager. “Some wholesalers won’t have reviewed their wine range
for some time and could be missing out on
new category-driving wines,” he says. And
as wine consumers often shop by country,
it’s important to display your range in an
equally accessible way, making it quick and
easy for retailers to shop, he adds.
This year heralds
a host of exciting
social and sportFlavours,
ing events that are
set to boost spirits
sizes and
sales for independoccasions
ent retailers, as
shoppers look to
celebrate in the home, says Matthew
Critchlow, director of sales in convenience
at Bacardi Brown-Forman Brands. “Consumers will be looking to enjoy and make
the most of these occasions in spite of the
current economic climate, giving wholesalers and their customers huge scope to
make incremental sales and profits.
“As consumers remain cash-conscious
in 2012, shoppers are likely to be cel-
Spirits
Reflecting a similar trend
to wine, the premium
spirits category is large,
growing and resilient,
even in tough economic conditions
ebrating these events at home, points out
Mr Critchlow. “Consumers will be looking
to treat themselves by purchasing alternatives to beer and wine to give these
occasions more of a celebratory feel.
“Wholesalers can tap into this trend by
offering a range of spirit options appropriate for all occasions, such as Bacardi,
Jack Daniel’s, Bombay Sapphire, Southern Comfort and Martini,” he adds.
Alongside the trend for staying in comes
another that can add real value to the category, says Chris Ellis, channel director for
off-trade spirits at Pernod Ricard UK. “The
premium spirits category is large, growing and resilient, even in tough economic
conditions,” he says. “Premium spirits in
the UK off-trade are growing by 7% value,
ahead of total spirits (Nielsen). In addition,
Best-selling brands and suppliers
1/
2/
3/
4/
5/
Hardys, supplied by
Accolade Wines
Blossom Hill, supplied by
Percy Fox
Echo Falls, supplied by
Accolade Wines
Gallo, supplied by
Gallo
Jacob’s Creek, supplied
by Pernod Ricard
Source: Nielsen 24.12.11
6/
7/
8/
9/
10/
First Cape, supplied by
Brand Phoenix
Lindeman’s, supplied by
Treasury Wine Estates
McGuigan, supplied by
Australian Vintage
Wolf Blass, supplied by
Treasury Wine Estates
Isla Negra, supplied
by CYT
top tips: how to maximise your wine and spirits sales
l share advice with customers:
Keep customers informed about wine – help
them stock their fixtures by highlighting the
top-selling countries, brands and varietals.
Sharing best practice advice with retailers
will enable you to build strong relationships,
trust and loyalty with them.
l arrange wines by country:
The majority of retailers will lay their wine
fixtures by country so wholesalers should do
the same in depots.
l stock the top 10 wine brands:
Stock top-selling brands – 40% of impulse
wine sales come from the top 10 brands
(see above).
l display promotions clearly:
Wholesale customers can be easily swayed
by promotions, so make sure big
brands and premium bottles are
clearly displayed. Clearly
mark promotions, but try to
be on hand to offer advice
and ensure purchases
are not made simply on
impulse.
l educate
customers: Nearly
a third (29%) of spirits
shoppers would like more
information in convenience
stores, especially on mixing drinks.
To help retailers improve sales, you
could offer tutored tastings or other
educational initiatives to help them engage
with shoppers.
l educate staff: It’s vital your staff are
well informed and knowledgeable when it
comes to your wines and spirits ranges.
When this isn’t possible, use leaflets to flag
key information or deals.
l stock several sizes of spirits:
Make sure you are stocking a full range of
spirits sizes and formats. There is increasing
consumer demand for smaller bottles of
spirits because of the increase in duty tax.
l make your depot easy to
navigate: Retailers within a wholesale
depot will browse fixtures in similar
ways to shoppers in their stores.
Depots should be clean
and easy for retailers to
navigate through.
l group similar
spirits together:
Give enough space to
each spirit segment
according to its category
share. Group together
similar products, such as
vodka, rum, whisky and gin.
Betterwholesaling.com
p30-32 winesCS4.indd 31
march 2012
31
22/02/2012 17:10
wines and spirits
product lAUNCHEs and promotions
20%
Percentage of
spirits sales from
premium brands
premium spirits now account for 20%
of all spirits sales – that’s £1 in every £5
spent on spirits.
Innovation in the spirits category
with new flavours and tastes was rife in
2011, and this trend is set to continue
this year. “2012 will see the global trend
for flavour innovation continuing, with
more spirits brands looking to expand
their offerings in a bid to tap into this,”
says Mr Critchlow. Flavoured vodka in
particular has seen huge growth in the
past year, points out Mr Ellis, increasing by 18.3% year on year in value in
the off-trade (Nielsen). Pernod Ricard’s
Absolut Raspberri, Mandarin and Pears,
and Diageo’s Smirnoff flvaours in lime,
green apple and blueberry are bolstering
growth in the flavoured vodka category.
And when it comes to spirits, small
really is beautiful. “Another emerging
trend within spirits is the growing popularity of the 35cl category,” says Mr Ellis.
“The size has contributed £28.4m value
growth to spirits in the last year, and research has shown that 31% of shoppers
would try premium spirits if a smaller
format was available.”
The supplier is now offering 35cl bottles of its Absolut, Jameson, Malibu,
Martell, Chivas Regal, Beefeater and The
Glenlivet brands. BBFB’s Mr Critchlow
agrees: “There is an increasing demand
for smaller bottles of spirits, partly
due to the increase of duty tax, but
also because they offer a perfect solution for immediate drinking at parties
and events.” l
32
1/
Treasury Wine Estates’ Wolf Blass
is launching a £250,000 iPad giveaway this spring with 500 iPad 2s up for
grabs. With neck tags on 600,000 bottles,
the promotion will run across Wolf Blass
Red Label and Wolf Blass Yellow Label.
2/
3/
5/
EJ Gallo is launching Gallo Family
Vineyards Moscato in March, a
sweet white wine with an ABV of 8.5%.
Martini has launched smaller 20cl
bottles of its sparkling wines in the
wholesale and convenience channels. The
new 20cl Sparkling Wine range of Martini
Prosecco, Rosé and Asti is “cute and highly
profitable for retailers”, says BBFB.
Bacardi is celebrating its 150th
birthday in 2012 with parties,
promotions featuring 100 years of groundbreaking advertising, and commemorative
gifts throughout the coming months.
Percy Fox’s Yellow Tail wine
brand has relaunched its taste
guarantee promotion with the strapline,
‘Love the taste or your money back.’
The promotion is now running across
convenience and cash & carry. If
consumers do want their money back,
this will be directly through Yellow Tail,
rather than the retailer.
6/
7/
4/
Absolut is launching its latest
limited edition bottle, Absolut London, in collaboration with graphic artist
Jamie Hewlett. Set against a backdrop of
the city, the bottle depicts key figures from
history who have influenced and shaped
London’s culture.
Jacob’s Creek has recently
launched a new range of lighter
wines – Jacob’s Creek Cool Harvest. To
support the launch, the brand has teamed
up with actress Naomi Watts in a partnership that will be supported by a range of
activities to target women.
March 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
p30-32 winesCS4.indd 32
23/02/2012 10:24
New
Our Rosé
is in Bloom
White Zinfandel is the No.1 Rosé
varietal with 29% share*
Rosé is growing faster than
Red and White wines*
Consumers are now purchasing
Rosé all year round*
Rosé is predicted to grow
by 47% over the next
5 years to £2billion**
Bella Vie is already the No. 5 White
Zinfandel brand in the impulse channel
since launch under a year ago
Stock up now
On the radio in 2012!
* Source: Nielsen 52 w/e 08.10.11 – Total Off Trade
** Source: Mintel Rosé Wine Market Intelligence report October 2010 – Total Trade
BelleVie_BetterWholesaling_Ad.indd 1
21/02/2012 16:07
snacks
pricemarking for
superior profits
Four top crisp suppliers talk trends, with pricemarking leading the way. By guy campos
Q&A
Kieran south
Wholesale
director,
Director, Wing
Yip Plc
Pepsico UK&I
What is the latest news?
For the first time ever, we’ve
launched an everyday pricemarked pack of Walkers crisps
at 49p exclusively for the
independent retailer. It will
be in our top five crisp lines,
and we’ve invested heavily in
it to make sure the retailer and
the customer see great value.
We’ve invested from the point
of view of margins for our
retail and wholesale customers
as well.
What are the key trends?
I’ve worked for the company
for 11 years and I would say
2012 will be the best year
for an independent retailer
or foodservice customer
for Walkers because of the
way we are building our
12-month plans.
As with your article last
month, we are trying to get the
balance right between news
and everyday value. We’re
in the middle of ‘What’s The
Flavour?’, which is bringing in
incremental sales, but what
our retailers are telling us
is we need to focus more on
our core, everyday products
and help them grow sales. We
ran the ‘Three Simple Things’
marketing campaign last year,
which said we offer 100%
British potatoes, sunseed
oil and great seasoning
– the feedback from
independent retailers was,
“If you can just help us with
the value message as well,
we’re there.”
Why have
you introduced
a pricemarked, premerchandised
unit for the
till-point? Crisps
and confectionery
are probably the
two most impulsive
lines but while
confectionery is
almost always
by the till, crisps
almost always aren’t. We’ve
worked with some retailers and
seen that if you put packets
of crisps by the till, you
can sell 30% more.
Do wholesalers
understand this? Our
wholesale partners have
absolutely got behind
this. Since I started in
this job nine months ago,
the one thing everybody
said to me was if we
price-marked our core
Walkers range, that would
be the single biggest thing
we could do outside of
We’ve worked with some retailers and
seen that if you put packets of crisps by
the till, you can sell 30% more
34
March 2012
p34-35 snacksCS4V2.indd 34
our launches. It’s
nice to go back and
say we’ve listened
and the response
has been amazing.
Wholesale partners
have said they will put
up big, front-of-depot
displays and let us
use pointof-sale
material
from the
start of this
month.
What else is
happening in
the market?
Cash in the till
for retailers
is difficult,
which is
why we
launched ‘What’s
The Flavour?’ in
smaller case sizes,
especially for our
independent
customers.
The crosspromotion and
occasion-based
merchandising
opportunity
is also big. The
opportunity to
grab a four-pack
of beer and a bag
of crisps in-store
makes sense and
yet the merchandise
is probably 30 feet
apart in a wholesaler’s
depot. Putting crisps
in the soft drinks
section with a crosspromotion seems to
make a whole load
of sense.
Betterwholesaling.com
23/02/2012 21:15
CATEGORY GUIDE
nick stuart
Commercial manager, UBUK
What are the key trends and
your response? Shoppers are
looking for value for money so
it’s extremely important for
wholesalers to have a plentiful
stock of price-marked packs.
In response, UB has a wide
range of handy-packs pricemarked at 46p, including
Roysters, Wheat Crunchies,
NikNaks, Skips, Discos, Space
Raiders and Frisps, all of
which sell well in convenience.
A second trend is for
added-value promotions and
partnerships, such as the
sponsorship of PDC darts
by McCoy’s. This offers the
chance to win VIP tickets to
the Premier League darts
play-offs. Another great
Fiachra moloney
Marketing manager UK
and Ireland, Pringles
What is the latest news?
Pringles is launching its bestever chip with an extensive
marketing campaign, including
TV, print advertising and PR.
It has been created with an
innovative technique that
enables the seasoning to be
spread evenly across the whole
chip. This is highlighted with
a ‘bursting with more flavour’
claim on-pack. Our research
louisa grant
PR manager, Kettle Foods
What is the latest news?
Kettle is launching a range
of smaller price-marked
sharing bags, priced at £1.29,
specifically for the independent
convenience sector. The
‘little big bags’ provide 100g
example is UB’s
cross-brand
‘Snack Tracks’
promotion with
Universal Music
on grab-bags and
handy-packs.
This encourages
consumers to
download one of
over 100,000 music tracks for
free with every purchase, and
is on packs of Hula Hoops,
Mini Cheddars, NikNaks,
Skips, Discos and Wheat
Crunchies.
Healthy eating is a
trend that is not going to
go away but will only get
bigger. Consumers want
their favourite tasty snacks
and expect them to be
nutritionally improved,
so they look for on-pack
reveals taste is one of the most
important factors in purchase
decisions in snacks and we’re
confident the new product
will not only be a success
with existing consumers but
will drive penetration with
new consumers.
What are the key trends?
Apart from large sharing, for
Pringles over the last couple of
years, the main focus has been
flavour innovation. To expand
on this, 85% of Pringles
of the top selling
seasonings.
Another sharing
innovation are
price-marked Kettle
Ridge Crisps in 85g
bags, priced at 99p.
They’re aimed at
a slightly younger audience
than the core range, as well as
flashes to tell them of
such improvements –
a communication method
UB regularly uses.
Fourthly, over the last year,
there has been a resurgence
in savoury snacks. There is
a perception that savoury
biscuit snacks are healthier
than sweet biscuits and are
a convenient alternative
to bread.
In fact, classic brands such
as Jacob’s Cream Crackers
are showing strong
growth of 14%, which
is outstanding for such
a mature brand.
To capitalise on
this, UB is launching
Jacob’s Oddities, a
light, crispy, baked
savoury snack that comes in
unexpected shapes, with no
artificial colours or flavours.
Fifthly, the ‘big night in’
trend goes from strength to
strength. There are key annual
events this year, such as
Britain’s Got Talent, as well as
sporting occasions such as the
European Championships in
June and the Olympics in July.
Popular brands like McCoy’s
and Hula Hoops fit in
perfectly with the trend and
sharing formats are flying off
the shelf for retailers.
Prawn Cocktail sales to date
have been incremental to the
category, followed by 78% of
Thai Sweet Chilli and
60% for the recent
Pringles Great
British Flavours.
The most
recent flavour
innovation,
Smokey Bacon,
launched last
year, has seen a
strong rate
of growth.
Another important launch
for the brand was the Pringles
Xtreme range. Pringles
experienced some of its
highest repeat rates
of sales in recent
years following
the launch of
Xtreme and sales
have since exceed
expectations as
the popularity of
‘extreme’ flavours
has continued
to boom.
those looking for bigger,
bolder flavours.
Promotional activity remains
a key way to drive sales. Kettle
is currently offering long-count
cases of 24 bags for the price
of 18 in 55p price-marked 40g
bags. This offers retailers the
opportunity to try Kettle chips,
while enjoying the enhanced
margins the free stock delivers
for them.
How can wholesalers
grow sales? Sales can be
improved by changing
the layout in-depot to
be category-specific, by
developing a premium fixture
and introducing branded bays.
does pricemarking work?
of consumers are positively encouraged to buy an item when
it is price-marked (Him!, July 2011)
36%
Betterwholesaling.com March 2012
p34-35 snacksCS4V2.indd 35
35
23/02/2012 21:17
...Walkers has created the opportunity to bag some tasty sales with the introduction of a 49p price flash
on single bags of your five core flavours communicating value to consumers. Research shows that price
marked packs can help achieve positive price perceptions in-store, with an impressive 44% of consumers
positively encouraged to buy an item when price marked1.
For news and information visit www.pepsico.co.uk/trade
Send us your tweets @PepsiCo_UKTrade #hurray49pWalkers
Walkers and the Walkers logo are registered trademarks © 2012. Recommended retail price only. Source: 1: HIM PMP Research August 2011. 2: Nielsen, Total Impulse, Scantrack, MAT 31.12.11.
44243 49PMP DPS.indd 1
23/02/2012 16:49
hot beverages
drink up
Nikki Allen looks at how wholesalers can cash in on those sectors of the hot beverage market that are booming
Consumers live in
the Age of Starbucks.
Coffee
Coffee-shop chains
Premium
continue to dominate
is king
high streets all over
the country, offering
pricey but high-quality
coffee, tea and other
speciality hot drinks – the UK has become
a nation of posh-coffee lovers.
This goes some way to explaining the
growth of premium instant-coffee brands
in spite of tightened purse-strings. According to IRI data for 2011, while regular
instant-coffee sales were flat, super-premium brands were up a massive 44% while
premium rose by 4.3%. Major suppliers
have been cashing in on the trend with the
addition of luxury variants to their bestselling brands. Kraft Foods, for instance,
introduced Kenco Millicano last year, a
premium wholebean instant coffee that
has already made its way into more than
two million UK households and is worth
over £10m (Nielsen).
On the back of this success, Kraft Foods
then announced last month the addition
of Carte Noire Instinct, an instant wholebean variant, to its Carte Noire range.
38
“The wholebean instant category
really took off in 2011,” says Melissa
Neild, brand manager for Carte Noire at
Kraft Foods. “We believe that Instinct
will encourage consumers to trade up to
better quality, higher-value coffee, fuelling further growth in the super-premium ­segment.”
However, while quality is paramount
and suppliers urge wholesalers to offer
a range of premium and super-premium
coffees in clearly signposted sections,
value for money is still a strong driver.
Nestlé – which produces Nescafé, the UK’s
biggest player in instant coffee – launched
price-marked packs for six of its bestselling coffees including Nescafé Original
and Gold Blend, in a move to communicate
value to shoppers.
44%
2011 rise in sales
of super-premium
instant coffees
It might be a British
institution, but it
Tea
turns out even tea
Variety over hasn’t been immune
tradition
to the economic
downturn, with
volume sales slipping
0.2% last year (Kantar
Worldpanel). In a move to combat these
flat figures, a host of new launches, promotions, advertising and innovations has
been rolled out by the three major brands
that dominate the UK tea market: PG Tips,
Tetley and Yorkshire Tea.
To communicate value to shoppers,
price-marked packs are key, according to
John Sutcliffe, convenience, foodservice
and independent channel sector manager
at Taylors of Harrogate, the makers of
Yorkshire Tea. “Price-marked packs cover
our standard Yorkshire Tea, Hard Water and Yorkshire Gold ranges. They are
proven within the channel and we intend
to maintain this strategy going forward,”
he says.
Normal tea represents the lion’s share
of convenience-store tea sales, taking 79%
of the market according to Unilever. But
tea tastes have changed over recent years,
March 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
p38-39 hotsCS4.indd 38
22/02/2012 16:50
CATEGORY GUIDE
product lAUNCHEs
1/
Nescafé Original is back with
a new TV advert designed to
brighten up people’s mornings – the first
new advert for the brand since 2008.
Nescafé is investing £3m in the campaign
including TV and outdoor advertising, to
raise the brand’s profile this year.
2/
Kenco Millicano is now
available in a convenient
single-serve format. The new packs
contain 10 sticks, which Kraft Foods
says have been designed to suit busy
shoppers looking for a rich aroma in
a convenient format.
Carte Noire has launched its
first wholebean Instant, Carte
Noire Instinct, which is available
now. The launch will be supported by
heavyweight TV advertising in the
spring, as well as high-profile print
and digital campaigns.
4/
5/
6/
Unilever’s PG Tips is expanding
and renaming its The New Ones
tea range. Rebranded ‘Special Moments’,
it will be boosted with a TV, print, radio
and sampling campaign totalling £4m in
value. New variant The Hint of Earl Grey
One was also launched in February.
with many people now switching to
green, herbal, fruit and speciality teas
– and your depots need to reflect these
changes, say suppliers.
The fruit and herbal market is worth
over £54m and has grown 2.8% in the last
12 months, with Unilever’s Lipton Fruit &
Herbal Infusions growing rapidly at 20%
year on year. The company also launched
its Special Moments range last year – a
selection of different blends for different
occasions – which has already
raked in £1m in sales in
the seven months since
the launch.
Tetley is investing in
herbal blends as well,
recently launching pricemarked packs of green
tea and lemon green
tea price-marked £1
for 20 bags.
Mars is extending its Galaxy Hot
Chocolate range with Galaxy
Bubbles – the first low-calorie bubbly hot
chocolate with only 40 calories per cup. The
variant comes in an eye-catching 200g ecopack that uses 83% less packaging than the
Galaxy Hot Chocolate jar.
It might be the
smallest segment
of the hot beverages market, but hot
Small but
chocolate is growing
growing
at a much faster rate
than either tea or
coffee. The category is
growing at 6% and is now worth more than
£90m, according to IRI data. This growth
is being bolstered by the trend for drinking
hot chocolate as a year-round rather than
just a winter beverage, says Bep Dhaliwal,
Mars trade communications manager.
Mars says its Galaxy hot chocolate brand
is certainly experiencing a boost. “Total
Galaxy Hot Chocolate value grew by 7.5%
in January compared to last year,” says Ms
Dhaliwal. “We encourage wholesalers to
stock the full Galaxy range to give retailers a choice of products that will appeal
to a wide range of customers.”
Hot
Chocolate
3/
GSK-owned malted drink brand
Horlicks has given its range a
pack-redesign to highlight both the nutritional value of the drink and its benefits
as a hot drink for any time, not just bed
time. The refresh forms part of a wider
marketing campaign for the brand.
The trend for adding a little luxury in
austere times is also boosting sales, says
Erin Kennedy, marketing manager at
Green & Black’s. “Hot chocolate is seen as
an indulgence product. We advise wholesalers to capitalise on growth by offering
retailers brands such as Green & Black’s
to appeal to premium shoppers, while encouraging mainstream shoppers to trade
up for an indulgent treat.”
Another important factor in hot chocolate sales – as with all hot drinks – is the
consumer trend for Fairtrade products.
Within hot beverages, the strongest
performers are Fairtrade products, with
Fairtrade hot chocolate up 45% in volume,
according to the Fairtrade Foundation.
“This means it’s vital wholesalers stock a
comprehensive range of ethically sourced
products, such as Cadbury Hot Chocolate,”
says Susan Nash (left), Kraft Foods trade
communications manager. l
Betterwholesaling.com
p38-39 hotsCS4.indd 39
march 2012
39
22/02/2012 16:53
toiletries
freshen up
your depot
Budget lines, male grooming products and last-minute buys are what customers are looking for, says NIKKI ALLEN
T
oiletries shoppers are valuable customers to retailers, spending £8.87 per trip compared to the average
shopper’s spend of £5.24, according to supplier research. To help you help your customers improve sales,
Better Wholesaling brings you the latest trends, product news and advice from the toiletries category.
Since Tesco kicked
off its supermarket
price war at the end
Set up a
of 2011, slashing
pound zone prices across thousands of essential
items, the impetus
has been on
wholesalers to mount a rapid
price offensive to help retail customers survive in the increasingly harsh competition.
Toiletries is one category where
wholesalers can help offer retailers
the best possible value, by stocking £1
and price-marked lines on a range of products including the big brands. Specialist
toiletries distributor DCS Central is urging
wholesalers to promote the value message
to retailers, encouraging them to create
dedicated pound-zones in their depots.
“In the wholesale channel, major-brand
toiletries are one of the biggest sellers,
particularly those that are price-marked,
along with everyday household
cleaning and laundry care
products,” says Richard
Jorden, DCS group
commercial director.
“Pampers Nappies and Baby
Wipes are among
products that sell
particularly well
in wholesale.”
Parfetts is one
DCS customer
that has seen the
benefits of creating a
value-based toiletries
display: “Pound-zone
has been a revelation for
us in both wholesale and retail.
We have dedicated pound-zones in each
cash & carry, and have already achieved
remarkable success. This has encouraged us to redouble our efforts to tell our
customers about the initiative,” it says in a
DCS testimonial.
£1 lines
40
Major-brand toiletries are
one of the biggest sellers,
particularly those that are
price-marked, along with
everyday household
cleaning and laundry
care products
More men than ever
are using toiletries,
Male
to the
Grooming according
major manufacturers.
A significant “With men becomopportunity ing more and more
attuned to personal
grooming and aspiring to look their absolute best, the male
grooming category shows no sign of
slowing down,” says Paul Lettice, P&G’s
head of communications. Wholesalers
need to help retailers ensure they have a
leading, up-to-date range of items such as
blades, razors, and accompanying shave
care products, he says.
“Eight out of ten men in the UK choose
Gillette, so it makes sense for wholesalers
to help retailers review their current range
and evaluate whether they are stocking
best sellers to make the most of this huge
category,” says Mr Lettice.
Jane Boret, marketing manager for
Dove Men+Care and Sure For Men at Unilever UK, agrees the sub-category has huge
potential for retailers.
“The male grooming category is currently worth £607.8m in the UK, and
is growing steadily (SIG Data). Whilst a
number of segments are performing well,
male grooming still has a long way to go
before maturity, and presents a significant
opportunity for retailers to close the gap
between men and women.”
Toiletries are often
distress or top-up
buys, say manufacturers, meaning
wholesalers have a
Simplicity
key opportunity to
and visibility
help retailers meet
the needs of customers who are after an immediate replace-
Lastminute
buys
March 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
p40-41 toiletriesCS4.indd 40
23/02/2012 13:49
CATEGORY GUIDE
ment. Tom Hazelden, Unilever’s retail
execution manager for the convenience
sector, points out that with items such
as toothpaste, shower gel and deodorant
used every day, shoppers look to replace
them as quickly as possible.
“Top-up purchases form a large part of
toiletries sales, so simplicity and visibility
are key to the fixture,” he says. Wholesalers should advise retailers to use point of
sale to advertise their range, as 18% of
shoppers are unaware that toiletries are
even sold in their local store, he adds.
P&G’s Paul Lettice points out that
men in particular will normally only
ever remember that they need a blade
or a razor while in stores, making visual
encouragements key for top-up and
distress purchases.
Opportunities for impulse purchases
also exist alongside occasions and seasonal events, says Mr Hazelden.
“Wholesalers should keep an eye
out for promotional opportunities such
as Fathers’ Day, Mothers’ Day and
Movember to help retailers boost sales
of appropriate purchases.” l
product lAUNCHEs
1/
P&G is relaunching its entire range
of Pantene haircare products
to give consumers better results and a
simplified portfolio. Products will get new
packaging and be restructured into three
collections: Fine Hair, Normal/Thick Hair
and Coloured Hair.
2/
3/
P&G’s Herbal Essences brand
has revamped its entire portfolio,
with a formula upgrade and a packaging
make­over. The new-look packaging
focuses on the natural ingredients in
the shampoos and will run across all
stock-keeping units.
4/
5/
6/
Unilever is taking its Lynx brand
into hair-care. The Lynx Hair range
comprises five shampoos and six styling
products. Lynx is also launching its first
ever fragrance for women with Lynx
Attract, a body spray available in For
Him and For Her variants.
top tips: boost your sales
l highlight toiletries “Execution
in-depot needs to be continuously
considered,” says DCS’s Richard Jorden.
“Working on display space and secondary
siting solutions are crucial to highlight the
toiletries sector.”
l focus on brands Toiletries,
especially health and beauty categories,
are dominated by the big brands. Focus
on the major brands to grow your business
and give more space to these than
speciality products.
l Use pos Use point-of-sale material to
help customers navigate the fixture, aiming
to make it as easy as possible for retail
customers to find what they are looking for
l lay out logically Clearly divide
your fixture into product groups – this can
be a complicated category, so it’s vital your
display is laid out logically
l ask for advice
Ask for advice from
distributors on
merchandising.
When Bestway
worked
together with
SHS Sales
& Marketing
and Johnson &
Johnson toiletries
bays at five depots, it led
to a 41% increase in sales.
£608m
Size of
the male
grooming
category
A selection of Aussie’s shampoos
and conditioners are now available
in larger sizes. Aussie has also added Aloe
Vera to its entire shampoo and conditioner
range, which will be highlighted on-pack.
Miracle Moist, Aussome Volume, Mega
and Colour Mate Shampoo larger packs
will be 500ml, and conditioners 400ml.
Unilever Vaseline has relaunched
its hand-care range and introduced
an anti-bacterial variant. The range will
include three new hand creams: Vaseline
Healthy Hand & Stronger Nails, Vaseline
Healthy Hands & UV Protection, and
Vaseline 2-in-1 Hand Cream + Anti Bac.
P&G is relaunching its Always
Daily Panty Liners brand. Now
called Always Dailies, the range will
educate consumers about the benefits of
all-day morning freshness, with support
from TV advertising. P&G says the focus
on all-day freshness will create ‘a whole
new occasion for panty liners’.
Betterwholesaling.com
p40-41 toiletriesCS4.indd 41
march 2012
41
23/02/2012 13:50
latest products
Spring’s new looks
STEFAN APPLEBY reveals this month’s top product launches and redesigns
Limited edition
JTI is to introduce two limited-edition
packs for Amber Leaf which will be available in 25g and 50g pack formats. The packs
comprise two different leaf formations.
Mid-priced Amber Leaf is the best-selling
roll-your-own tobacco brand, with a 32%
share of the roll-your-own market.
0800 163503
Range extension
Following on from J2O’s ‘Mix A Flavour’
on-pack promotion last year, the brand is
launching a new, limited-edition flavour.
Papaya Punch will be supported by
point-of-sale material across all channels
and a £3 million TV ad campaign. The
new flavour replaces Glitter Berry.
0845 755 0345
42
Price-marking
On-pack promotion
Sterling Rolling, JTI’s roll-your-own
brand extension, which was launched in
January, is available in limited edition
price-marked variants until the end of
March. The 12.5g pack will be available
at £3.27, while the 25g pack will be
marked at £6.40.
0800 163503
New multipacks from Red Bull will flag the
launch of the company’s Red Bull Racing
Spy app, which ties in with the launch of
this year’s Formula One season. The
packs will also have a new design and
will be supported by a TV ad.
Packaging
Advertising
Range
extension
Originally launched on Lambert & Butler
King Size 20s last year, Imperial Tobacco
is widening the scope of its Glide Tec
packaging to encompass the King Size
Gold and Menthol 20s variants. The
packaging will replace the ‘holographic
packs’ on Gold and Menthol packs.
01179 636636
01344 418396
Imperial Tobacco is to launch an additive-free version of its Drum roll-your-own
brand this month. With RRPs of £3.60 for
plain packs and £3.56 for price-marked,
the premium blend tobacco will be backed
by a new site, www.drum-tobacco.co.uk, for
consumers to share tips and feedback.
01179 636636
march 2012 Betterwholesaling.com
p42 productsCS4.indd 42
23/02/2012 19:14
len-
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Adele, Sean Connery and Barack Obama
John McNaught is based at 3663’s
Nottingham depot and is the company’s first
site sustainability champion. He assists
employees to reduce their carbon impact
and will lead a series of sustainable and
environmental activities and initiatives that
will result in a greener depot and workforce.
What did you want to be
when you were growing up?
Like so many children,
I wanted to be a fireman.
The fire brigade visited the
school where I was a pupil
in a red fire-engine and after
they demonstrated how to
extinguish a fire, I thought
that was going to be the job
for me.
What’s your proudest moment in your career to date?
One of my proudest moments
was when I provided a kettle
boiler for the homeless at a
drop-in centre in Nottingham. It can help the homeless
enjoy hot drinks or soups
during the winter months.
In the months of December
and January, I like to assist
the homeless where I can.
I believe more people need to
be involved in assisting the
vulnerable in society, particularly the homeless. There are a
lot of people that need dropin centres to encourage them
to straighten out their lives.
Which actor would you
want to play you in the film
of your life? Sean Connery.
I like action movies and all
of Sean Connery’s films. In
my opinion, he was the best
James Bond.
How would your colleagues
describe you? To my face,
they would describe me as
What was your first actual
job? My first job when I left
school was as a tyre fitter,
for Watts Tyre Company in
Pembrokeshire. I was there
for 11 years and became a
foreman. I enjoyed the job because I could converse with a
lot of people at the depot and
would occasionally be called
out to help local farmers.
Editor-in-chief Guy Campos
020 7689 3360 /
[email protected]
CONTRIBUTORS Nikki Allen, Tom Ferguson,
Nigel Huddleston, Mike McGee, Glen Munro,
Lindsay Sharman
PRODUCTION Rob Buckley, Andrew Richards
What music is on your
iPod? I don’t have an iPod.
I like classical musicians
like Beethoven and Strauss.
I also like opera and saw
Madam Butterfly at the Royal
Albert Hall in London, which
was magical.
How do you prefer to relax?
I enjoy listening to music at
home. I have a cracking selection of CDs and like everyone
else, I am mad on Adele. l
020 7689 0600
editoriAL
If money were no object,
what would be the first
thing on your shopping list?
I would buy a Victorian house
in Pembrokeshire, which is
where I want to retire. It’s
on the coast and the view is
spectacular.
Who do you consider to be a
good role model for the next
generation and why?
I think I would say the
American president
Barack Obama, who is
an inspirational character
and promotes environmentally friendly ­issues.
What’s the first thing you
do when you get into work
each day? I turn on my computer, check my emails and
start making any necessary
telephone calls.
contacts
a cheeky, bubbly person.
My father was a naval officer,
but my mother had a very
vibrant personality, which I
tend to reflect.
[email protected]
advertising
Sales & Production
Coordinator Eszter Endredi
020 7689 3380 /
[email protected]
Account Director Mike Baillie
020 7689 3367 /
[email protected]
Account Manager Jeremy Fordrey
020 7689 3366 /
[email protected]
11 Angel Gate, City Road, London, EC1V 2SD
Account Manager Alex James
020 7689 3370 /
[email protected]
Account executive Chloe Cardon
020 7689 3372 /
[email protected]
Head of Face to Face Kate Dickenson
020 7689 3368 /
[email protected]
Face to Face ­Executive
Caroline Cronin
020 7689 3369 /
[email protected]
Marketing Executive Ceinwen Jarvis
020 7689 3352 /
[email protected]
Finance Manager Nicola Holmes
020 7689 3356 /
[email protected]
Managing Director Nick Shanagher
020 7689 3382 /
[email protected]
If you are experiencing distribution problems with this magazine, contact [email protected]
Printed by: Southernprint, Poole, on 80gsm Galerie Fine Gloss paper
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