The palm oil debate is complex, but Iceland has made a positive difference
Following Iceland’s ‘banned’ Rang-tan advert, many got caught up in the palm oil debate over Christmas as social media did its work, ensuring more saw it than any of the others. But, as it so often does, social media fired the public off on a dangerous tangent. The ad was inspired by Richard Walker’s trip […]
Inexperienced and ignorant buyers are choking the life from suppliers
Retailer buyers have dumbed down to a new depth in the view of many suppliers. Cost-cutting to stay cheap has meant fewer buyers handling bigger ranges through more channels. But now experience is being replaced by cheap youth, too. Many suppliers are complaining they can’t get hold of anyone who is over 23. I’ve heard […]
Advantage Amazon and D2C – retailers face a double threat
The consumer goods industry shake-up is affecting everyone, and its challenges are creating pressure forces in all directions. Discounters put pressure on supermarket retailers, online retailers put pressure on discounters, wholesalers are pressured by them both. To combat this, retailers large and small merge and diversify as best they can, but the lowest common denominator […]
Suppliers are still playing catch-up on price rises
What an excellent performance analysis of the top 150 food and drink suppliers, published recently by The Grocer. There isn’t a positive side to this data for suppliers. The piece refers to £1.6bn input costs (think raw materials) last year to these manufacturers. They tried to pass it on and stay even but of course […]
Will the Tesco-Carrefour tie-up be just another buying group?
Can Tesco really have announced a tie-up in the style of a buying group? It has worked for three years now to take buying back to the principled old days – only this time with lashings of data support. No longer just a blunt instrument to bludgeon suppliers into loss making decisions, their focus has […]
It's all change in the reset era
If your category offers a way for retailers to reach their customers with a shopper-winning, loyalty-driving range, that’s fantastic – right? Not if you’re a supplier trying to push your single brand message through all the retailers. In fact, it’s the biggest threat in decades. Beer is interesting right now. The ‘grocery retail’ opportunity presented […]
It's price increase panto season for suppliers
It’s one year on from the ‘Marmitegate’ cost price wrangle with Tesco. The anniversary is marked by a wave of suppliers thinking again about their next cost price increase. Bookings of our one-day CPI training programme are up 50% with suppliers wanting to exercise their pricing muscles. Last year, even under the shroud of the […]
Time to delist the retailer media sales houses
The classic ‘cut and thrust’ between account managers and buyers is changing. Striking the balance of meeting the customers’ needs while developing your employer’s bottom line involves flexible but focused negotiation. This means getting something in return when giving the customer a version of what they ask for. But retailers’ focus on front margin has […]
Ways to manage two years of uncertainty
Here’s a shocker: I’m predicting that in the next two years the retailers who meet shoppers’ needs best will gain market share at the expense of those who lose focus. And there’s more. I believe the suppliers who best meet the needs of those retailers will have the largest share gains. Marketplace uncertainty is here […]
New suppliers are kept out by buyers but it should be an open invitation
How is it that Waitrose has captured the market in being approachable to new suppliers? It gets the true innovation to market first every time. Even though the big four desperately need to differentiate, getting a meeting with any one of them requires you to be a savvy experienced supplier. These established suppliers recycle the […]
