|
Title |
Published |
Brief
Summary |
|
Change
proves good for Tesco Ireland
|
July 2010 |
Tesco Ireland’s conversion to the
‘Change for Good’ stocking model last year may have caused the retailer more
controversy than expected, but after a difficult 2008 and 2009, Tesco’s Irish
operations are now firmly back on track. |
|
The NAM
Role being sidelined by recent events....? |
July 2010 |
With trade concentration
increasing, and major customers undergoing fundamental change at all levels
(think CEO rotation, possible sell-off of Sainsbury’s and Asda, for a start),
all at a time of unprecedented financial pressure on supplier-retailer
relationships, it is possible that the NAM role may be in danger of being
sidelined… |
|
All
Change in UK
Retail... |
June 2010 |
Given Sir Terry Leahy’s shock
announcement of his plans to retire in March 2011, coupled with recent changes
of CEO at Asda and Morrisons, the question arises whether the CEO of Sainsbury’s
might feel inclined to square the circle by moving on, in the event of Qatari
completing their takeover of the company… |
|
Finding a Gap in UK
Retail? |
May 2010 |
Given
the current rate of change in UK
retail, in the midst of unprecedented economic and political change, it is
perhaps time for all retailers to reassess their ‘degree-of-fit’ in UK retail.. |
|
The
Battle Against Obsolescence in the High Street |
April 2010 |
Given the inevitable drift of
business to new delivery systems like downloading, in categories such as DVD
sale and rental, along with retailing of CDs, books and even games, it is
important to distinguish denial from planned demise in a product or category
lifecycle. |
|
GSCOP - The
New Buzzword with a Sting for the Underprepared |
March 2010 |
In practice, the GSCOP is a template
for all supplies of all categories via all retailers, and has significant
implications for those outside mainline grocery channels. |
|
Consumer-needs vs Shopper-needs:
the Balancing Act in Retail? |
Jan/Feb 2010 |
In order for suppliers and retailers
to optimise the potential joint-opportunities that a fundamental change of this
magnitude represents, it is crucial that they each understand and integrate the
consumer marketing and retailer marketing programmes of their trading partners.
|
|
The
Independent Retailer as a 'Living Billboard' for the Brand |
December 2009 |
The recent collapses of chains
like Borders, added to the 23 casualties last year and over 20+ liquidations
anticipated in the New Year, have obviously resulted in increased trade
concentration and the risk of higher levels of dependency on the major
multiples. |
|
Why BOGOF?:
Counting on BOGOFs to lose Money … |
November 2009 |
In the current economic climate,
suppliers and retailers may be tempted to make more use of multi-buys, in order
to reduce stocks of slow-moving items, and at the same time create some category
excitement in-store. |
|
How Low
Can You Go… |
November 2009 |
Pricing and promotions, and their
impact on Ireland's retail market |
|
Political Retailing in Times of Unprecedented Change? |
October 2009 |
As we continue to undergo fundamental
political change worldwide, the impact of politics upon retailers and retailers’
influence upon political change is becoming a more important factor in
supplier-retailer relationships. Moreover, the political climate is changing in
ways that complicate the supplier-consumer relationship. |
|
Money Making Machines That Happen to Sell Groceries (and Financial
Services)... |
September 2009 |
Essentially, as ‘money machines that
happen to sell groceries’, the grocery multiples have debugged much of the
mystique associated with food provision, meeting consumer needs by bringing to
our tables a variety of foods that were traditionally kept scarce and priced
accordingly by specialist retailers. |
|
Cross-Border Shopping, Threats and Opportunities? |
August 2009 |
Recent market data suggests that the
trend of cross-border shopping from the Republic to Northern Ireland may be
abating, but will this trend carry over to the supply/wholesale sector? |
|
Death on
the High Street - a Rebirth Opportunity for suppliers? |
August 2009 |
It is obvious that fundamental
and possibly irreversible change is taking place in the High Street. The
recession has simply accelerated the process of custom moving out of town and
online, at the expense of High Street locations. |
|
Category Management, the Jury Goes Back
Out? |
July 2009 |
Probably the most effective
innovation in the history of applied marketing, category management had come a
long way in fifteen years… |
|
A Larger Slice of a Smaller Cake? |
June 2009 |
The recession is
about absorbing slack or excess that has built up in the system over the past
fifteen years. This means that the cake is now smaller, ‘fair share’ will be
less, and any increase will be at the expense of the healthier competition that
have survived the initial phases of the recession and are now serving an
increasingly savvy consumer. |
|
Tesco
Ireland Cross-Border Pricing - a global rehearsal? |
May 2009 |
Essentially, Tesco have decided to try
to reduce the loss of business from their Irish border-area stores to their own
and rival retailers via Irish shoppers travelling across the border to avail of
lower prices in the North. In fact, it is estimated that 4% of Irish purchases,
representing €550m, are currently being made in this way. |
|
Managing Customers Profitably |
May 2009 |
In recent years there has been a
growing focus on understanding the profitability of customers. Alarmingly, as
companies learn more about the value of their relationship with their customers,
they quite often also become aware that some customers are unprofitable. |
|
Making Sense of the Savvy Consumer in
Recession…. |
April 2009 |
Consumer are now beginning to make
some sense of the past six months of financial turmoil, are developing
increasing confidence in their common sense when making purchasing decisions,
and those who still have jobs are working longer and harder, and possibly for
less money. |
|
Parapharmacy - a commercial
opportunity for all?
|
March 2009 |
As part of an inevitable global
trend accelerated by recession, pharmacy deregulation and the resulting increase
in self-medication, parapharmacy represents significant opportunities for all
parties involved in the provision of consumer healthcare, everywhere. |
|
RecessionKAM: Managing Major Customers in the Downturn |
February 2009 |
With business
news worsening daily, it is tempting to await a return to some stability in the
market before setting a trade strategy and moving forward. Apart from the
futility of awaiting a return to ‘normal’, any delay can represent a lost
opportunity. |
|
Certain
Basics in Uncertain Times |
December 2008 |
A general response to the global
financial crisis has been confusion at most levels. This will be followed by
fear in the New Year, as it becomes evident that the knee-jerk reactive moves by
the system have failed to produce adequate results… |
|
Fair-Share Negotiation in Troubled Times |
November 2008 |
How to make profitable deals
with more powerful trade partners in an economic downturn. |
|
Denial-based optimism?
Or
real opportunities ahead in troubled times... |
October 2008 |
While other suppliers are awaiting a
return to some semblance of ‘normal’, we believe that there are real trade
opportunities available for some suppliers in the short-term. |
|
Deductions, an Opportunity for All? |
September 2008 |
Given
that deductions can represent 7-10% of a supplier’s sales, and as net margins
continue to fall, then any improvement will not only have a significant impact
upon cashflow and profitability, but will also have a major impact upon the
equivalent incremental sales-profit relationship. |
|
When a Buyer Wants ‘Too Much’…
|
August 2008 |
With financial pressures causing
some retailers to attempt to compensate for falling sales and profits at the
expense of suppliers, it is important that both sides agree to establish and
preserve the ‘status quo’ in a trade partnership. |
|
More Than a Smart Bull-Market NAM? |
July 2008 |
It can seem that anyone can
succeed in a bull-market, although in practice it often appeared to be the other
guy, over the past few years… The downturn has already produced casualties, and
it is unrealistic to believe that the next three years will show any significant
improvement. |
|
Deducing the Alliance Boots options from available
clues... |
June 2008 |
Given the fact that Alliance Boots has
passed into private equity ownership, resulting in less performance data being
released into the open domain, suppliers nevertheless need to build a reliable
trading strategy and establish practical working parameters for managing what is
in many cases, one of their largest customers. |
|
Hindsight Account Management... |
May 2008 |
Given recent moves by the
OFT in seeking evidence of possible collusion by suppliers and retailers in
fixing shelf-prices, there is a real danger that the NAM/KAM role could evolve
into bureaucratic, over-cautious attempts to avoid failure, at the expense of
proactive business development. |
|
Power-play in Supplier-Retailer Relationships…? |
April 2008 |
Faced with customers that exploit
market share to impose unfair terms and conditions, suppliers soon find that
relatively little help is available from Government agencies.... |
|
Alliance Boots Terms – A Pivotal Opportunity For
All? |
March 2008 |
The recent move to impose new trade
terms by Alliance Boots obviously represents a major precedent in
supplier-retailer relationships... |
|
If You Don’t Count, You Won’t Count... |
Feb 2008 |
Profitable
customer management has become more demanding in terms of results driven. In the
light of such complexity, it is worth bearing in mind that the only constant is
money.... |
|
Cost & Value Optimisation in Trade Partnership
|
Jan 2008 |
Given the increasing difficulty in
securing trade price increases to cover cost price inflation in the face of
retailer resistance, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to
calculate and demonstrate the real value of a supplier’s brand to a retail
customers’ financial performance. |
|
Making the Numbers Count at the
Interface…
|
Dec 2007 |
Given the build-up in the global
credit-squeeze and the pre-Christmas slowdown in UK retail, 2008 will have to be
played very close to the financial edge… |
|
Mutual Independence – optimising the
supplier-retailer working relationship |
Nov 2007 |
Given
the choice of brands and products available to retailers, coupled with media
fragmentation making it difficult to build brand equity, it seems idealistic to
expect to achieve a state of mutual interdependence in a supplier-retailer
relationship. |
|
A Market Bellwether, When Tesco ‘Slows Down’? |
Oct 2007 |
Whilst Tesco’s competitors would be
unwise to take any comfort from a ‘hiccup’ in UK growth, it is perhaps useful to
explore the extent to which Tesco can be used as an overall indicator or
bellwether for the UK retail market. |
|
The Private Equity Consumer? |
Sept 2007 |
Bearing in mind that the private
equity retailer’s ‘long term’ objective is to re-sell the company to the stock
market within a 3-5 year timeframe at a minimum premium of 50% above the
purchase price, complete with ‘Tesco-class’ ratio performance, then any longer
term initiatives have to be subordinated to that need. |
|
Four Shopper ‘Mind-Sets’ |
August 2007 |
Nielsen study identifies four
shopper ‘mind-sets’ that determine what consumers buy in the supermarket. |
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