category guidance - better wholesaling · bocking talks about soft-drinks trends cover story 14/17...

betterwholesaling.comaugust 2012

BETTER COMMUNICATION BETTER SALES BETTER PROFITS ExclusivEcaTEgoRyguidancE

CATERING FOR A NEW CUSTOMER BASE

FWD conference P8

Buying power P22

Virtual wholesaling P20

Imperial ambitions P10

SIlVER

SERVICEsilver

serviceFOODSERVICE FOCUS

p3_cover AugCS5.indd 1 26/07/2012 20:02

OV6318

Untitled-6 1 17/07/2012 16:49

Betterwholesaling.com AUGUST 2012 05

WELCOME AUGUST/2012

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Contents

LINDSAY SHARMAN, who writes about juice in this issue, is a former editor of Retail Newsagent, news edi-tor 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.

PHILLIP ADCOCK is managing director of Shopping Behaviour Xplained, where he keeps up to date with new technical and business developments. He pioneered the creation of the

ShopMate EPoS system and is also author of Supermarket Shoppology, which provides an understanding of the psychology of shopping.

STEPHEN BURNETT is managing director of The Retail Data Partnership, which works with retailers to maximise efficiency and profitability using EPoS. The group already has 500

Booker retailers using the system and can set up links with any wholesaler. For more information, visit www.retaildata.co.uk

Everyone loves a bargain - but what does a good promo-tion look like to a caterer? How about a foodservice outlet? For some wholesalers, competitive pricing and promotions across a core range is key – get the basics right and the rest will follow – while for others, rewarding loyalty towards branded products will whet their caterers’ appetites more.

How about frequency – what’s the right amount of time between promotions? Many wholesalers have sales brochures, but many are seeing the benefits of investing in more regular promotional activities. Imperial Cash & Carry prints a weekly brochure for its retailers, which despite being expensive to produce, enjoys a great return on sales (p10).

The foodservice channel is also demanding more regular promotions and UK buying group Confex has just rolled out a weekly email alert for its foodservice members, helping them to offer more regular promotions (p24).

Some manufacturers say there’s a need to encourage food-service customers to ‘think more like retailers’. Are enough of your foodservice and catering customers driving sales with basic merchandising and impulse tactics?

These are some of the questions we’ve explored in this issue’s cover story (p14) with some fascinating results – I hope you find them useful to your business.

What does a good promotion look like?

[email protected] IN TOUCH

Leader

editor

Analysis

6A LANDMARK YEARThe group records its best ever results

08/CHAINED MELODYThe importance of adding value to supply chains

09/SUCCESS WITH FRESH FOODIn-depot category specialists are driving sales

Spotlight

10/11IMPERIAL AMBITIONSCustomer service – to the next level

12/WINNING ON THE WEBStephen Burnett on the benefits of electronic tools

13/EARNING SOME JUICY PROFITSBritvic’s Clare Bocking talks about soft-drinks trends

Cover story

14/17VALUED SERVICEOur panel of experts analyse five key areas of foodservice

Features

18/19DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?Your customers may see your depot differently

20/21A VIRTUAL REALITYSaving money and building business with e-commerce

22/28BATTLE OF THE BUYING GROUPSToday’s Group, Sugro UK, Confex

and Landmark discuss what they are doing to support wholesalers

Category guide

30/32JUICES, WATERS & BREAKFASTSmall is beautiful for juice, while breakfast is all about the on-the-go opportunity

34/36BACK TO SCHOOLThe student essentials that you should stock this term

38/LATEST PRODUCTSThe latest launches and promotions

43/BACK PAGE15 minutes with Graham Fletcher, depot manager at Restaurant Wholesale

p5_contentsCS5.indd 3 26/07/2012 19:25

Life is getting better with age for Land-mark Wholesale,

which is looking forward to adding up to £90m to its earnings after welcoming four new members to its £2.5bn business – export-agent Lynton Exports and foodservice-wholesaler Lomond Fine Foods joined the group from Sterling on July 1, while G-A-P, a spe-cialist in car-care products, and delivered-wholesaler First Choice are expected to join on January 1 next year.

Martin Williams, managing director for the group, told Better Wholesaling: “We believe we can offer a more personalised support package – and we’re confident that our own-brand products are better than others.”

The new members have joined during the groups 40th anniversary, but times

haven’t always been so good. “We lost a few of our members in 2010, which resulted in a 15% drop in revenue, but we’ve stepped up our game ever since. Today, we’re enjoy-ing our best ever growth year – sales are up 27%.”

Landmark boasted a record turnover of £2.5bn in 2011, up 18.6% from 2010. It has 140,000 customers, divided into retail (46%), catering (22%) and foodservice (32%), which now account for 62%, 9% and 29% of sales respec-tively.

£1bn of 2011’s sales came from the foodservice sector. “We are seeing rapid growth

in foodservice and this may even take over retail as

our biggest customer in the future,” says Mr Williams.

Own-brand is another key area for the

group, enjoying a 68% increase in sales since Janu-

ary 2011. The best perform-ing products include tobacco brand No.3, spirits range Prince Consort, energy drink

LSV and White Storm cider. “Every single one of our

own-brand categories is in growth,” explains Chris Doyle, business development director for the group. “We are seeing 88% growth from 44% of range.”

Landmark pushes its own-brand by sending ‘core range advisors’ to its retail customers to advise on what they should be stocking: “No one else is do-ing this,” says Mr Doyle.

But being able to personal-ise offers locally is vital, says Landmark’s group vice-presi-

dent Sam Wilcox, managing di-rector of AF Blakemore & Son: “It’s important for us to be able to do things our own way, as well as the Landmark way.”

However, being part of a strong symbol group is key to the survival of any whole-saler in the current climate, explains Mr Wilcox.

“It’s tough out there dealing with fuel prices, supplier price hikes and salary increases, but if you are a professional, forward-thinking whole-saler, you need to be part of a group.” l

The Landmark Group is finding that life really does begin at 40, writes ELiT RowLand

news analysis

symbol groups

06 AuguST 2012 Betterwholesaling.com

news analysis

Fast landmark Facts

members (by January 2013)

billion foodservice turnover

Split between cash & carry and delivered

growth in 2011

36

£2.5

45/55%billion total turnover

18.6%£1

a landmark year

p6 newsaCS5.indd 4 26/07/2012 17:57

Confectionery

®

Confectionery

*SMARTIES Finger Puppets, MILKYBAR Kid bar & ROWNTREE’S Jelly Aliens (impulse) new to market, ANIMAL BAR existing product. ** Retail pricing is at the sole discretion of the retailer.

*** Kantar WorldPanel Out of Home Usage 12 m/e Feb 2012.. ® Reg. Trademark of Société des Produits Nestlé S.A.

Kids confectionerytreats +20%***

Display togetherin the kids fixture

**

**

Wholesalers are in the business of creating value,

James Bielby told mem-bers of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD) at its Teamwork in Distribution conference this summer.

The FWD chief executive wants government to see wholesalers – the “distribution partners to more than one million small businesses” – as part of the solution to the UK’s economic woes.

Brandon Lewis, the MP for Great Yarmouth, agrees: “Wholesale is one of the most important industries in the UK,” he told the conference.

Mr Lewis said that whole-sale kept the wheels moving on the fragile economy. It is part of the nexus of small and medium-sized enterprises that creates jobs and prosperity, and which the government should support.

What the FWD and its mem-bers want in return is a more amenable regulatory environ-ment. But the issue of creating value frames another debate that is just as important.

Too many manufacturers see the supply chain as a cost,

partly because the language used to describe its operation has been contaminated.

This is the view of John Gattorna, a former visiting professor at Cranfield, whose latest book, Dynamic Supply Chains, argues that we should talk of ‘value networks’, as this is how supply chains help to generate revenue.

The trade’s view of how effective wholesalers are at adding value is shaped by two things. The first, according to Dr Gattorna, is that too many chief executives think of supply chains in terms of reducing costs. The second is that too many suppliers think that ‘good’ looks like Walmart or Tesco.

On the second point, it is useful to think about Dr Gat-torna’s model, which says there are only four types of supply chain, which depend

on the relationship with the customer, which ranges from ‘tight’ to ‘loose’, and on the ‘high’ or ‘low’ predictability of demand. If you have a tight relationship with the customer and predictable demand, you have a ‘continuous replenish-ment’ model, loose and low and it is ‘agile’, loose and high and it is ‘lean’, tight and low and it is ‘fully flexible’.

At the conference, manu-facturers urged wholesalers to make demand more predict-able. Wholesalers in turn reminded them that their customers often wait until the last possible minute to order.

In his book, Dr Gattorna notes that suppliers see complexity and want to tackle it with an op-erational sledgehammer. As a consequence, they are busily standardising and re-engineering proc-esses and installing new technologies designed to reduce complexity in the way they deal with customers.

“However, these enterprises rarely become easier to deal

with from the customer’s perspective. It would be much more productive if they were to accept and confront this inherent complexity and then set out to master it.”

The much-touted solution is collaboration, but Dr Gattorna warns it is very resource-inten-sive and can only be practised selectively. You have to col-laborate with those parties that are vital for your business – the rest have to take their chances. His book is a ‘how to’ guide that will help operators

design better proc-esses and learn

quickly from the mistakes of others.

More im-mediately, wholesalers

will gain by more effectively

promoting how they add value. This means better case studies.

It also means that you should take Mr Lewis’s challenge and invite your local

MP to your depot to show him or her first-hand that whole-sale creates jobs and wealth. l

Rather than try to master it, suppliers must accept wholesale’s complexity, writes NICK SHANAGHER

NEWS ANALYSIS

SUPPLY

Too many manufacturers see

the supply chain as a cost

08 AUGUST 2012 Betterwholesaling.com

NEWS ANALYSIS

PROMOTING VALUE NETWORKS

Brandon Lewis (top) and FWD conference delegates (above)

p8 newsaCS5.indd 4 26/07/2012 18:10

Appointing category experts for fresh produce will help

wholesalers to drive sales, as both independent retailers and foodservice operators are looking to extend their fresh offering, industry experts said at the Federation of Wholesale Distributors’ conference last month.

Guy Farrant, managing director for Booker, said that the group is planning to put more “effort and authority” into the fresh category, as retailers continue to demand more. “We are see-ing very good growth in fresh, includ-ing fruit, vegetables, meat and bakery products.”

The group has taken on 100 butchery apprentices, who will become the new

butchery managers. “We’ve also appointed 35 greengro-cers,” explains Mr Farrant, who says that having category specialists is the key to driv-ing sales.

“Specialism is where you can make money – we have now appointed five wine spe-cialists to help our customers to select the wines of the fu-ture.”

Chris Etherington, (pictured) chief executive of P&H, is also seeing more retailers looking to increase their fresh produce range to compete with the multiples:

“Retailers view enhanc-ing their fresh offer as

key to competing with multiples effectively. Suppliers that invest in their chilled offer will be best placed to

maximise penetration of the sector.”

The leap into fresh was supported by research-consul-tancy Him!, which has found

that fresh-produce shoppers in an independent c-store bought up to 12% more than other customers and visited the retailer an average of five times a week, compared with three times for others.

Demand for fresh produce is also growing among food-service operators, according to Roger Suddaby of research and insight consultancy Sales Out. He says that consumers still want to be healthy when

they eat out: “The key drivers in the foodservice channel are high-quality fresh and chilled produce.”

Using data gathered from wholesale partners, Mr Sud-daby noted a 10% increase in fresh produce in the foodservice channel over the past year. l

Category specialists are the key to driving sales of fresh food, writes Elit Rowland

fresh ideas

news analysis

food produce

Wholesalerinsight

Hyperama’s principal marcus singh has given the Nottingham-depot’s fresh fruit and vegetable offering an authentic ‘market’ feel, with a specially-selected greengrocer.

“Our fresh category supervisor is a really big character,” explains mr singh, “Just like the bubbly trader you might find in a real market, he’s passionate about his work and our customers love him.”

Betterwholesaling.com aUGUSt 2012 09

fast facts

10%Demand for fresh has increased by 10% in foodservice

12%Fresh-produce shoppers buy up to 12% more

Category specialists are key to driving sales

p9 newsCS5.indd 4 26/07/2012 16:17

wholesaler spotlight

Nikkita Mulchan-dani is taking the concept of ‘connect-

ing with customers’ to a new level – over 85% of her cash & carry customers are Turkish and she believes that learning the language is key to great customer service: “I’m learning a few words here and there – but it makes a big difference and the customers really appreciate our making the effort.”

Ms Mulchandani, retail club manager for Edmonton-based Imperial Cash & Carry, has been working closely with her father John and her uncle Kali, joint managing direc-

tors, to deliver a customer-oriented approach. Not only can she greet her independent retail customers in their own language, she also has Turkish signage around the depot and is considering Turkish transla-tion for the group’s website. “We’re even thinking about introducing a range of Turk-ish wines.”

Imperial, which is celebrat-ing its 25th anniversary this year with the slogan ‘Under-standing Your Business’, has seen continuing year-on-year growth and now boasts a turnover of £62m.

Responding quickly to cus-tomers has been the key to the company’s success, according

to Ms Mulchandani: “We keep our finger on the pulse of our business and have the power to change things quickly; my uncle and dad are always on the depot floor and if there are

any problems, they can sort them out straight away.”

But there are challenges ahead and Kali Mulchandani is keen to support his custom-ers in fighting the multiples: “The big supermarkets are coming into our high streets – we need to react by getting our retailers to act more like multiples by responding to promotions and making sure they have the right lines.”

One of the main ways in which the group is pushing best practice is its retail club, which has 140 members after running for almost two years.

“We want to help retailers to be more competitive,” says Ms Mulchandani. “It’s hard

Plasma screens and language skills are helping Imperial Cash & Carry to enjoy year-on-year growth

an imperial world

imperial cash & carry

10 aUgUsT 2012 Betterwholesaling.com

The big supermarkets are

coming into our high streets – we need to react by

getting our retailers to act

more like multiples

p10-11_wholesalerCS5.indd 12 26/07/2012 18:01

for them with Tesco Express opening up around the corner, but many are proud of being independent and don’t want to lose their fascia. Our club is aimed at helping them to stay competitive, without giving this up.”

Communicating information from suppliers is also important. Earlier this year, Imperial finished a £170,000 renova-tion of its depot, including a conference facility, in which it regularly holds supplier-retailer evenings designed to bridge the communication gap between the two groups.

“We recently had speakers from JTI to help some of our retailers deal with all the to-bacco legislation, which can be quite difficult to understand,” she says. The conference cen-tre has its own, separate en-trance lobby, designed to give the business a more profes-sional feel. Ideas for the future include supplier-sponsored events. “We’re thinking about screening live Turkish football matches with a ‘supplier team talk’ at half-time”.

As part of the renovation, Imperial has also invested in large plasma screens on which suppliers can advertise new products. There are also TVs near the till points: “Most retailers spend at least five minutes at the check-out so it’s a great op-portunity for our suppliers to profile new products – we plan to roll out even more screens by the end of the year.”

Technology aside, Imperial is also a leader when it comes to building award-winning displays and isn’t afraid to take on a challenge.

“Last year, we put together the largest E&J Brandy display in the world for its new 35cl line – we ended up selling so many cases, E&J gave us tick-ets to California as part of the supplier incentive scheme.” The group regularly builds enormous fixtures around

new products, particularly during trade days.

And as well as support-ing the best sellers, Imperial prides itself on having a more specialist offering compared to a regular cash & carry, which often means taking a punt on what’s going to be the next big thing. “Our retailers live off brands but we mustn’t forget that one of the most established products in the past 10 years – Boost energy drink – was championed by the convenience channel. We were one of the first wholesal-ers to stock it.”

Imperial built another show-stopping fixture to cele-brate Boost’s 10th anniversary last year, which saw retailers queuing out into the car park: “We have quite a spacious car

park and it was packed – we had a ‘buy three cases and get one free’ offer and it turned into a shopping frenzy: at the start of the day, we had a huge display, but by the end, it was all gone.”

To keep promotions ‘fresh’ and customers engaged, Im-perial puts together a weekly brochure of special offers. “We’ve noticed that when we don’t do a weekly brochure, our sales go down. It’s expen-sive, but worth it.”

Imperial also uses digital marketing to support sales, including an online offer of the month on the group’s web-site, which receives 150 unique visitors a week: “We make sure that the online offer is also in our promotions leaflet and that it’s displayed effectively

in-depot. If we do that, we get a good uplift in sales.”

Last summer, Imperial began texting customers and had captured 550 numbers by the start of this year. “Text messaging enables us to respond quickly to changes in the market and get the best possible deals out to custom-ers, fast. We are adding to our database all the time.”

Although Imperial’s whole-sale business is performing well, Ms Mulchandani and her cousin Rahol, have plans to expand and diversify its online offering.

“We are launching a new direct-to-consumer retail website called The House of Drinks, catering for higher-end products,” he says. “We’ve noticed a significant polari-sation in the drinks market – people are either trading up or down. Our website will hopefully capture that upward trend and in the long-term, we are looking to take the website to the global consum-er market.”

The rise of the third genera-tion is driving innovation and Ms Mulchandani has even more plans in the pipeline, in-cluding developing the retail club, expanding the group’s use of social media and developing ways to market customer insight.

“We are looking to roll out a data-analysis package that will reveal monthly, category-specific customer behaviour patterns.” l

£170kMoney spent

renovating the depot this year


FAST FACTS

staff at its depot

live SKUs

turnover in 2011

retail, on-trade and off-trade customers

30

4,000Buying group: Today’s Group (for 25 years)

Products offered: mainly beers, wines and spirits but also tobacco, confectionery, soft drinks and impulse.

£62m3,500

p10-11_wholesalerCS5.indd 13 26/07/2012 18:02

Wholesalers need to encourage retail customers to take a smarter approach

to business if they want to survive, says Stephen Burnett

[email protected] your say

I don’t understand wholesal-ers that aren’t using electronic tools more widely to serve their

customers. In fact, there are many wholesalers that don’t even have price files available electronically for retailers.

You might ask what the point is of doing this when it’s only retailers that will benefit. Well, for a start, evidence indicates that wholesalers that offer retailers easy-to-use electronic-ordering links will get more purchases than those that don’t. One of our retailers saves the cost of two staff members by using an electronic ordering system – so why aren’t more people doing it?

We all know retailers that have gone out of business in the past few years and bad business management could be to blame – we’ve come across a few retail-ers that didn’t even realise that they were selling products below margin. Convenience retailing has been one of the strongest sectors in the recession, so you can assume that the retailers that know what they’re doing and are aware of how their businesses are performing will survive.

It’s important to have accurate knowl-edge of best-sellers and the margins at which to sell. An electronic point of sale (EPoS) system will warn retailers if they are selling at below RRP or a given mini-mum margin. In some instances, it can make a profit difference of at least 3%.

Again, as a wholesaler, you might ask “What’s a retailer’s EPoS system got to do with me?” Savvy wholesalers know that the retailers they supply are busy people running complex operations in a competitive environment. The more independent retailers that go bust, the less business there is for wholesalers, so it’s vital to encourage retail customers to use technology to find the products, promotions and services they need at prices that will draw customers back again and again. Even better, wholesal-ers can feed content into the system so that customers have instant access at till points to products, prices and events.

The future of wholesalers depends on retailers surviving. Without proper data about prices, best-sellers and margins, along with attractive promo-tions and excellent service, how well will independent retailers stand up to the onslaught of the multiples? To build a long-term relationship with a retailer,

wholesalers must use as many commu-nication channels as possible, including emails, SMS and even social networking. Electronic messaging also plays a role in sharing information direct to tills, telling retailers about special offers, new products and services where they want it – on the shop floor. l

Stephen Burnett is managing director of The Retail Data Partnership, which works with retailers to maximise efficiency and profitability using EPoS. The group already has 500 Booker retailers using the system and can set up links with any wholesaler. For more information, visit www.retaildata.co.uk

The more independent retailers that go bust, the less business there is for

wholesalers


p12_columnCS5.indd 10 26/07/2012 17:19

BW: How are you working with wholesalers to grow sales?CB: We have worked hard to ensure we understand the impulse market and we offer a lot of support with range, pro-motions, price-marked packs (PMP) and point-of-sale mate-rial, not just in-depot but also with retail clubs. We are also in discussions with wholesalers regarding their catering propo-sitions, an area that accounts for 35% of soft-drink sales in the cash & carry sector.

BW: What are the trends in the cash & carry channel?CB: In our current tough trad-ing environment, some food-service operators are switching from delivered wholesale to cash & carry, which presents an exciting opportunity – but what’s the best way to mer-chandise to caterers? And how can wholesalers support this growing foodservice and cater-ing customer base?

Most wholesalers under-stand retail really well, but

foodservice is more complex and can range from high-end bars and restaurants to cafés and sandwich bars. Wholesal-ers that understand who they are targeting can really make the most of this opportunity.

BW: What have been the group’s main achievements?CB: Our ‘Transform Your Patch’ campaign is designed to transform outdoor spaces all over the country. Every drink purchased represents one square centimetre of real land transformed in a park, playground, skate park or five-a-side football pitch.

We have had some great displays at depot-level as part of the campaign, which has

generated a lot of excitement and theatre.

BW: What major challenges have you faced? CB: We are working with wholesalers to cater for their changing customer bases. Understanding the difference in shopping habits between retailers and caterers can be very difficult. Some retailers are multi-site operators while foodservice operators and caterers can have smaller-scale businesses. Working with our key wholesale partners to support their diverse customer bases and drive sales is critical.

BW: How do you plan to extend your portfolio over the next six months? CB: We are using our research and insight to find the best possible packs at the right price points for shoppers in the independent sector and are launching more PMPs in 330ml cans and 500ml bottles. Pepsi Max, 7Up, Juicy Drench

and Lipton Iced Tea will be at 99p for 500ml, which is part of our plan to roll out more PMPs below £1. For foodservice and catering customers, we have recently run a successful promotion with J20 that offered free glasses with J20 purchases to help pubs and bars to achieve the perfect serve. We are also trying to communicate how it should be served.

BW: What development opportunities are there for wholesalers in this market? CB: Wholesalers are responding to the changing make-up of their customers. 35% of the soft-drinks market for the cash & carry sector is made up of foodservice customers and it’s growing. For Britvic, the wholesale channel accounts for 25% of all our soft-drink sales and we are really keen to work closely with all our customers to continue to drive impulse sales across the independent sector. l

Clare BoCking

Elit Rowland talks with Clare Bocking about catering for a changing customer base

The wholesale channel accounts for 25% of all our soft-drink sales

industry spotlight

WHolesale direCtor, BritviC soft drinks

bocking trends£1,290mturnover

Best-selling SKU in wholesale: 330ml can Pepsi

Product news: now offering a full range of PMPs

fast faCts

Betterwholesaling.com AUgUST 2012 13

p13 industry CS5.indd 1 26/07/2012 18:05

SERVICE,


COVER STORY

p14-17 coverstory CS5x.indd 12 26/07/2012 19:00

Wholesalers know retail – they’ve had plenty of experi-ence. But when it comes to

serving the needs of caterers and foodservice outlets, the rules change. Wholesalers are faced with the chal-lenge of serving a new customer base, with different needs and shop-ping habits.

Last year, sales to foodservice, catering and hospitality customers in the cash & carry channel grew 6.9% compared with 5.7% for retail cus-tomers, so depots have an exciting opportunity to cash in. But with such a diverse and complex cus-tomer base, where should whole-salers begin? Is it best to specialise or offer broader solutions?

You must be versatile if you want to survive in foodservice, according to Matthew Oxley, trading director for foodservice at Today’s Group. “Wholesalers need to be adaptable – long gone are the days when they could just focus on one sector. This is where DBC failed – it put all its hopes into the cost sector [schools, prisons, etc]. But in-stead of trying to be a specialist, you need to spread the risk.”

One of the biggest challenges with taking on foodservice is knowing how to cater for the varying needs of different out-lets, from top bars and Michelin restaurants to truckers’ cafés and burger vans.

“Suppliers and wholesalers know retail well, but there is a

huge amount of white space when it comes to independent caterers,” says

Mr Oxley.

Cash & carry wholesalers also have something to think about when it comes to engaging with foodservice customers in the depot. “What does good merchan-dising really looking like for a caterer?” asks Clare Bocking, wholesale director for Britvic Soft Drinks. Wholesalers need to

encourage their catering and foodservice customers to think more like retailers to grow their sales.

She adds: “There is a real opportunity for operators to capitalise on products around meals – for instance, having a ‘one for the journey home’ mentality by offer-ing snacks or soft drinks near the check-out point.”

Today’s Group’s Matthew Oxley agrees that there is an opportunity for suppliers to assist consumers’ demand for meal-deal-type promotions: “More suppliers need to look at selling solutions rather than stand-alone products.”

Most caterers and chefs will have a core range they regularly need, and offering linked deals among these essentials is a good way to entice customers.

“We offer a discount when customers buy branded sugar and branded beans to-gether – it’s a great way to entice custom-ers,” says Tom Gittins, business develop-ment manager for wholesale buying group Confex. Focusing on getting competitive pricing on the core range is also an impor-tant part of securing long-term custom-ers. The group has own-brand versions of commodity lines and agrees fixed prices on products for up to 18 months.

“Oil is the biggest ingredient we deal with – every foodservice and catering cus-tomer needs it. We knew that the best way to guarantee a good price for our members was to roll out our own brand.” In June, the group introduced its own-brand oil, which has already sold out. “If you can give your members the best price on commod-ity lines, they will be more willing to take on other products and supplier brands.”

Despite the influx of foodservice and catering customers into the cash & carry sector, the opportunities may be short-term, Mr Gittins warns: “The cash & carry is a temporary solution for operators that are looking to make savings. Once the econ-omy picks up again, foodservice customers will return to the delivered channel.”

For others, foodservice customers are very much in touch with retail, and to some extent, dependent on it. Matthew Oxley says: “Independent restaurants and other outlets use a plethora of wholesalers to get what they need, including delivered foodservice, cash & carry and even high-street retailers. The beauty of caterers is that they look at what’s happening in retail and look forward to it becoming available in their channel.”

Whether your business operates in the delivered or cash & carry channel, a key ingredient to succeeding in foodservice is to work closely with customers to under-stand their businesses.

“It’s important to understand the needs of your caterers – we work closely with top chefs and are supporting the British pastry team in the world championships in France next year, which helps us to understand the benefits and challenges faced by the people that use our products,” explains Fraser Chynoweth, foodservice sales director at Tate & Lyle Sugars, which then passes that information further down the channel.

“The Savoy’s executive pastry chef told us that he uses cane instead of beet sugar, because it doesn’t form scum when it’s boiled – we can pass this on to our wholesalers, who can in turn advise their entry-level catering customers.”


PLEASE?SERVICE,Caterers are coming to a depot near you, but do you have the right products and promotions to keep them coming back? ELIT ROWLAND reports

Wholesalers need to encourage their catering

and foodservice customers to think more like retailers

to grow their sales

6.9%Growth in food-service cash &

carry purchases

FEATURE


COVER STORY

RICHARD MAUD-ROXBY HELENA SPICER CHARLES MANNERS

managing director, research firm Maud-Roxby

senior foodservice analyst,research consultancy Mintel

director, catering consultancy Turpin Smale

RICHARD: Fast food is the biggest growth area in foodservice, as the economic climate is forcing end-users to trade down to lower-cost, more consistent meals. This means the age profile has also changed and while fast food used to be primarily targeted at the younger generation, it’s now for a broader age group. The outlets performing particularly well are those that have introduced a ‘healthier’ offering, helping to cater for a wider customer base.

HELENA: We are seeing growth slightly outside the traditional fast-food concept – more towards fast and casual dining, which leans more towards higher quality restaurants offering quick and healthy options. There is also growing consumer demand for fresher fast foods. KFC responded to this with its ‘daily delivery’ and ‘hand-coated chicken’ message during its advertising campaign last year, dispelling any preconceptions that the chain offers anything other than ‘real’ chicken.

RICHARD: The coffee market is doing re-ally well because in spite of the recession, it offers a small, affordable indulgence. Independents can gain a competitive advantage by making sure they include Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance-certified products in their offering. The organic trend has died because consumers can’t really afford it any more – but people and businesses are still willing to invest in fairer-traded products.

CHARLES: Food trends to take note of include ‘smaller bites’, which cater for the growth of affordable snacking on-the-go.

Loose-leaf tea is growing fast, as are gluten-free products. Recipes and products based on known historical connections also help to build excitement around a product.

Wholesalers can help café operators by identifying local products and premium ingredients that have a story and interest.

Better Wholesaling’s expert panel provides a summary of what’s happening in the five key profit categories

RICHARD: The number of pubs has declined, but the rate of decline has slowed considerably. We estimate that in 2011, there has been a reduction of 1,200 outlets, with most closures being ‘drinking’ rather than food-led pubs. Due to a continuation of discounting and promotional activity, the chains have performed reasonably, while tenanted and free houses have suffered reduced volumes.

Independents can compete with branded chains by offering better value wine lists – a menu item which always seems to see a significant mark-up. Introducing cheaper alternatives can help to entice diners who are looking for more value.

RICHARD: Hotels have had quite a difficult time recently, apart from in London. The budget chains are enjoying growth as end-users move to more affordable options. The vending market is performing very well, as the lack of restaurants in budget hotels means customers opt

more for ready-made sandwiches and snacks. The bigger chains performing

well use digital technologies to promote lower-cost options.

MARKET UPDATE

15,400outlets

Purchases valued at £2.4bn (wholesale price)

Market share increased by 0.7% to 18.3% in 2011

Volume growth 2.5%-3% in 2011

1Fast foodHealthy options and wider demographics

41,700outletsVolume decline of 6% in 2011

Market share dropped by 0.3% to 13.5% in 2011

3HotelsBudget chains and vending machines

45,800outletsPurchases valued at £1.6bn (wholesale price)

Market share of 12.3% in 2011

2Restaurantsand pubrestaurantsFood, value wine and discounting

12,300outletsPurchases valued at £774m

Market share of 5.9% in 2011

Volume maintained

4Coffee shopsand sandwich barsSnacks are in but organic is out

£2.4bnFast food

wholesale food purchases in

2011

Wholesalers can help café operators by identifying

local products and premium ingredients that have a story and interest




FEATURE

director, catering consultancy Turpin Smale

RICHARD: Another end-user category hit by consumers cutting back on spending. Large-ticket items have declined and vol-ume is down by about 5%.

HELENA: The leisure market continues to contract in the face of waning consumer confidence and rising household bills, dragging down the overall performance of the leisure-venue catering market. However, innovations and modernisa-tions that bring leisure-venue catering in line with wider eating-out market trends have been proving beneficial to a number of operators.

A number of venues are attempting to better integrate their catering offer into the overall leisure experience. Exam-ples of this in action include the Tate Galleries’ Tate and Tea events and linking limited edition menus to exhibitions, such as The Or-angery’s (Kew Gardens’ brand) Vanilla Tea.

“We cater for the lunchtime food market, which includes cafés and coffee shops. People hardly ever take their full lunch-break anymore – they just want to grab something that’s easy to eat on the go or at their desks. We sell a lot of bread, especially French bread, ba-guettes, paninis and cakes. Our fresh soups also do well, since they have a 28-day shelf-life.”

“All our food is British and organic. We source our meat from fresh suppliers, our potatoes come from Mash and our organic beer is from Meantime brewery. We use Penta Foods for our soft drinks, sauces and tea bags because they specialise in British products. It’s important to us and to our customers that everything we do is British, even if it means paying 26p for an

egg instead of 6p – our customers are prepared to pay more for provenance.”

“Coffee is a £5bn market and growing – the branded sector grew 13% last year. All-day dining offers a foodservice outlet a good opportunity to fill the gap between meals with

coffee and a snack – pub chain Wetherspoon’s, which has 880 outlets in the UK, is doing this really well and is now the third largest retailer of coffee because the outlets are open all day and offer a lower-cost alternative to the larger coffee chains.” l

“Our biggest customers are chefs and we have a wide-ranging offering including locally-sourced produce. Our core lines are cooking oil, flour, sugar, ketchup, chopped tomatoes and caster sugar. We’ve also built a strong own-brand range and we will be rolling out a fine-dining brand and a Latino brand as we see these as growth areas.”

“The foodservice customer has different habits to a retailer. Caterers tend to be very loyal shoppers – they find a brand they like and stick to it. As a result, they are more likely to be looking for giveaways that tap into that loyalty. Deals on branded products are also fuelled by the growth of de-skilled foodservice outlets, which buy the brands they use as consumers.”

“We use A-Z and CaterKing because they have very competitive prices on the ingredients that we use most. We’ve noticed a price difference of as much as £7 per box compared with some other wholesalers. We sell a lot of traditional English breakfasts and get everything delivered, so the most important values to us when choosing who to buy from are competitive pricing and a reliable delivery service.”

“A trend that we’re seeing at the moment is the increase of oriental buffets, and our Chinese customers are now branching out into Thai and Malaysian cuisine, partly due to consumers wanting to try spicier dishes. We only stock oriental beer and our most popular brands are Ts-ing Tao, Chang and Singha. The ingredients used in hot pots are also selling well.”

VOXPOPS: WHOLESALERS

FOODSERVICE OUTLETS

SUPPLIER

buyer, Lomond Find Foods

general manager, Canteen, Baker Street, London

foodservice sales director, Tate & Lyle Sugars

commercial and NPD director, Penta Foods

trading director for foodservice, Today’s Group

general manager, Village Bistro Café, Kent

director, Wing Yip

PAUL ELLWOOD

ALBAN BEBA

FRASER CHYNOWETH

AZHER RUBBENS

MATTHEW OXLEY

MR HASSAN

BRIAN YUP

5%Decline in volume in the leisure

market

20,100outletsPurchases valued at £926m (wholesaler price)

Market share of 7% in 2011

5Leisure andentertainmentIntegrated catering to buoy a declining market


Ever stopped to think how your warehouse or cash & carry outlet looks through the eyes

of your customers? Chances are that they see it very differently to you. The latest eye-tracking technology can follow what your customers see and provide dramatic insights into how to make your depot floor more customer-centric.

All too often, retailers put informa-tion about special offers in traditional in-store locations, such as header panels above gondola ends and high-level hang-ing signs. But very often, this is not the best place to locate them. Time and time again, our eye-tracking analyses have

clearly illustrated that shoppers pay more attention visually to things located below eye-level.

This awareness of things lower down comes from how we as humans have evolved – long before we became homo sapiens, we actually travelled about

the earth on all fours. When we slowly changed into homo erectus and stood up on our hind legs, our view of the world literally changed.

Even today, the natural position for our balance mechanisms is with our heads bent 30º forwards so we’re looking down. So as we walk around the cash & carry, we are still mindful of potential threats and meals that are below us, and so we look down for them, more than looking up at the fluorescent tubes over-head.

In every trial we have undertaken, a promotional message located between waist and chest height has returned higher shopper recall and driven more sales


see what they saw

shoppology

30ºAngle shoppers

look at when walking in-store

Seeing your depot through your customers’ eyes can help to drive sales, says PhilliP Adcock

p18-19 shopologyCS5.indd 24 26/07/2012 16:36

than the same message positioned above eye‑level.

Another key discovery from eye‑tracking is that a significant percentage of shoppers, including those in cash & carries, can’t actually read your messages. More than 70% of adults in the UK wear glasses or contact lenses and our research has shown that the percentage wearing eyewear while shopping is somewhere be‑tween 30% and 40%, with the remainder leaving glasses in the car, on the desk and so on. As a result, they are inadvertently shopping partially blind. So your carefully‑crafted shelf‑edge messaging in 12‑point Arial text is illegible to some of your cus‑tomers, particularly if they are older.

A further use of eye‑tracking allows users to identify and order the ‘customer decision hierarchy’ in‑store at the crucial point. In other words, you can arrange information so that customers have what they need to be able to choose one product over another.

For example, in a recent study, a cli‑ent had invested in a large, freestanding display unit to promote a new line of gardening accessories that failed to return many sales when they hit the shop floor. Our research identified that the client had misjudged the hierarchy of shopper needs in terms of the information they were displaying.

Originally, the client had focused on how easy it was to use the products. Un‑fortunately, they had overlooked the fact that shoppers didn’t know what the prod‑

ucts were for. This information was provided in smaller text on the product packaging. To significantly raise the appeal of these items, the client simply re‑aligned the com‑munications on the point‑of‑sale material to see an increase in both interest and sales.

I always ask clients if they know not what they want to communicate to shop‑pers, but more what information shoppers need to receive. Once they’ve identi‑fied their key messages, they can go to work understanding where best to locate the messaging.

Looking at how promotions are visually received and then mentally processed by shoppers is also important – did you know that there are certain rules you should follow when it comes to designing in‑store promotions? Many are to do with how the human brain processes numbers. To begin with, the more digits in a price, the harder it is to remember (£10 is much more memorable than £11.99), so think about how long you need customers to retain numeric information: £11.99 is okay on a fixture, but £10 would be more effective as a message located in the car park. Sec‑ondly, ½ is easier to understand than ‘half ’ and ‘save ⅓’ is often too difficult to really respond to. l

Phillip Adcock is managing director of Shopping Behaviour Xplained, a leading shopping behaviour and emotions research agency that combines technology with human psychology. Phillip is also author of Supermarket Shoppology, which provides an understanding of the psychology of shopping. It is available through Amazon, published by Shopping Behaviour Xplained Ltd.

19AUgUST 2012

feature

1/ look down: Place your best-promotion or NPD just below eye-level, where shoppers are more likely to look

2/ make it big: Make sure signage is large and clear – 30-40% of shoppers need glasses but may not always have them on

3/ keep it brief: Avoid too many digits in pricing – £10 is more memorable than £11.99, especially on signage that’s read from a distance, such as

in a car park

4/ figures, not words: Stick to numbers – 1/2 has been shown to be more successful at engaging than ‘half’

5/ do your homework: Understand your product – it’s the best way to establish its selling points

five rUleS for better SAleS

Betterwholesaling.com

Another key discovery from eye-tracking is that a significant percentage of shoppers can’t actually

read your messages

A leading distributor of consumer magazines used eye-tracking to under-stand better how much shoppers looked at the cover prices of publications on

in-store fixtures. In interviews, shoppers continually said

that price was very im-portant to them, but

the client wanted to quantify this

importance. The eye-tracking revealed that in-store, less than 10% of shoppers really looked at the

price as part of the selection

process. They based their purchas-

ing decisions on other factors, so the client recognised that there

was room for price increases, without a sig-

nificant impact on sales.The research also uncov-

ered a number of previously unknown insights that were more significant than price: men and women look at differ-ent things on the covers of magazines – some looked at the faces of other people adorning the front covers, while others looked at the titles that were printed on the covers of the articles inside those publications.

This had major ramifications for retail merchandising strategy, as it transpired that most magazines weren’t displayed in the best ways to promote themselves to shoppers.

Another important finding was the way in which shoppers browsed the contents of magazines before deciding whether or not to buy them. While protecting client confidentiality, it’s fair to say that almost all the self-promotion on the covers of these consumer titles was pretty much in the wrong place – a finding that surprised many in that particular industry.

eye-trAckiNg iN ActioN

Almost all the self-promotion on the covers of these consumer titles was in the wrong place

10%Shoppers

who looked at prices

p18-19 shopologyCS5.indd 25 26/07/2012 16:38

Online sales are set to add an impressive £16bn to UK wholesale companies’ revenue

this year, boosting it to £109bn, according to research commissioned by cloud-based solutions provider NetSuite. More than a quarter (27%) of wholesalers and distributors plan to use online sales channels over the next year – while three quarters agree that failure to invest online could be risky for their businesses.

The survey says mobile business is also a growing area of focus for whole-salers, with revenue expected to reach £80bn in 2012, up 20% from 2011.

A host of wholesalers and distribu-tors have backed this trend in the past few months, and they are taking a share of the online market by invest-ing in pioneering virtual solutions for their businesses.

But how important are these virtual tools to wholesalers, what tangible benefits do they bring and how can wholesalers learn from the retail indus-try about how to make the most of the ever-growing virtual world?

In July’s issue of Better Wholesaling, Alex Fisher, group managing director of wholesale food supplier 3663, said that the benefits of e-commerce spread even more widely than boosting direct sales. He explained that an e-commerce

platform allows wholesalers to achieve not just a 20% increase in sales per customer, but a 62% reduction in the cost of providing an order and a better uptake of new offers.

Having been in a position to learn from 3663-owner Bidvest’s Australian operations, where the web application FindFoodFast has transformed the com-pany’s business, Mr Fisher is keen to see something similar emerge in the UK.

FindFoodFast and FindHospitality-Fast are virtual branches for customers, giving them advant ages including more control over their ordering, greater convenience and the creation of order templates based on past purchases. Stock levels, order status, invoices and credits are all updated every 10 minutes to provide information that’s as accurate as possible.

For Bestway, investment in its virtual

digital

20 AUgUST 2012 Betterwholesaling.com

a virtual realityWholesalers are saving money and building business using e-commerce, writes Nikki AlleN

T5-point action box to come

£80bnExpected

wholesale online revenue in 2012

p20-21 virtualCS5.indd 20 26/07/2012 17:43

bars and restaurants

will, for the first time, have

access to a range of quality beers

from participating local brewers from around the UK.

“We have brought a whole new dimension to wholesaling in the licensed trade by using the sort of technology consumers have been

familiar with for years,” says Mr Heal. “Moving

forward, we see no reason why we can’t further improve the

dialogue between brands, retailers and the end customer by targeted campaigns through social media sites and mo-bile applications.”

Looking ahead, smartphone shop-ping and mobile commerce are the next big areas to watch in the retail and wholesale sector, according to industry insiders. A total of 10% of Tesco’s traffic comes from mobile devices and 60% of the grocery giant’s customers have smartphones, according to its grocery home shopping COO Barney Burgess.

Multiples and retail symbol groups, including Spar UK, are looking into the potential of smartphone marketing and shopping applications. The retail indus-try has cutting edge, exciting online and virtual solutions that continuously im-prove the entire shopping experience for customers – and it looks like wholesalers are keeping pace. l

levels and, most importantly, automate the sales pro-cesses,” he explains.

“The vast reductions in admin that the cloud can offer mean that businesses are actually able to grow margins through direct sales – poten-tially a crucial additional sales chan-nel in these uncertain economic times.”

Perhaps one of the most interesting and innovative develop-ments in virtual whole-saling in recent months has been the launch of Ooberstock, a new ‘intelligent wholesale business’ for the licensed hospitality sector. The virtual drinks wholesaler went live at the end of May, promising to deliver greater transparency, lower prices, improved customer choice and more flexibility with delivery times.

More than 4,000 pubs, bars, clubs and hotels have already signed up to the service, says Arran Heal, the company’s managing director.

“Customers like the flexibility, value and transparency we offer as, for the first time, they can have access to the brands they prefer to sell, rather than the brands traditional wholesalers would rather offer them as part of their normal package,” he says.

In June, Ooberstock also announced a partnership with the Society of Independent Brewers in a move to give independent pubs and bars across the UK greater access to craft beers. The venture means that freehold pubs,

feature

business is already a fundamental part of the company’s strategy. In May the wholesaler launched a new, fully transactional website following a major six-month re-evaluation of its on-line offering.

“The considerable investment behind our new web initiative has ensured that we are now at the leading edge of online wholesaling in this country and are best placed to continue to add customer-friendly services as we continue to de-velop them in the future,” says Dawood Pervez, Bestway board director with responsibility for Bestway Wholesale’s online presence.

“Bestway’s online customers are now able to view a range of 17,000 SKUs and check out the latest promotions, deals and weekly offers on the website,” he says. Multi-buy deals are available on the site, as is buying history to help custom-ers ensure they can see their buying patterns and keep up to date with prices and availability.

Palmer and Harvey has also invested time and money over the past year in the ‘most convenient possible online solu-tions’ for its customers. The company launched a pocket-sized barcode scanner in December 2011, making online order-ing easier for independent retailers.

“The barcode scanner has gone down a storm, and some customers who used to spend up to seven hours a week going through brochures and placing their orders are now completing their order-ing in around 10 minutes,” says Palmer

and Harvey marketing director Rich-ard Hayhoe.

“Because it’s so easy to stock up, retail-ers are ordering more and we’re seeing online customers spending 29% more than offline customers. Online custom-ers have also been especially keen to take advantage of promotions,” he adds.

According to Roman Bukary, head of manufacturing and distribution industries at NetSuite, the benefits of e-commerce are huge.

“Placing their businesses in the cloud allows wholesale and distribution companies to integrate their databases, maintain a real-time view of all stock

The vast reductions in admin that the cloud can

offer mean that businesses are able to grow margins

Betterwholesaling.com AUgUST 2012 21

27%of wholesalers and distributors plan to use online sales channels over the next year

10%

Wholesalers can achieve a 20% increase in sales and a 62% reduction in ordering costs using an e-commerce platform

60% of Tesco customers have smartphones

Business conducted by mobile is up 20% from 2011

Online customers are spending 29% more with P&H’s pocked-sized barcode scanner

fast facts

of Tesco’s traffic comes from mobile devices

A host of wholesale and distribution

companies are investing in pioneering online ordering

p20-21 virtualCS5.indd 21 26/07/2012 17:44

BUYING GROUPS FEATURE

What are Landmark’s main growth areas? Cigarettes

are doing well, but licensed is

flat because of duty fraud. Ambient

grocery and foodservice are the main growth areas and our own-brand products are driving growth within those categories – we saw 68% growth in own-brand last year. One of our plans this year is to drive our own-brand soft-drinks sales during this summer’s big consumption events.

What have been your main achievements in the past year? In 2010, we had four members leave: one went bust, one left and two sold up. That equated to a 15% decline in our business. It was a difficult year and we spent time consolidating and growing the business.

After reassessing our priorities, we decided to focus on two key areas moving forward: own-brand sales and recruiting new members. As a result, we can sit here today quite comfortably – we had five new members join us in January, plus two more in July and we expect a further two to join in January next year.

Having hit the bottom of the pit in 2010, we’re pleased to be able to say that we’ve followed our plans through. Our plan for the future is to continue to have clear strategies and a clear focus. We will carry on reinvesting and helping our wholesalers to help their customers.

Something we are particularly excited about for 2013 is the launch of an online ordering application for our members, which we are in the process of testing.

How profitable is the cost sector? Despite the risk involved, the cost sector can be quite interesting to supply for. For instance, if are you looking after a prison, you become a real one-stop-shop, catering for everything from food and drink to deodorants and even prayer mats – which we have supplied in the past. For a school contract, baked beans are always important, and for universities, cereals

and alcohol are popular. Although the cost sector can be profitable if you get it right, it’s quite a difficult sector to control your margins in, especially when suppliers put up prices.

What trends are you seeing in the foodservice channel? The foodservice market is made up of over 250,000 outlets and we cover all sectors in the market, including schools, nursing homes, pubs and prisons. Over half of Landmark Wholesale’s customers are caterers.

The main trend we have noticed is that foodservice customers are also looking for more of a one-stop-shop, so we are seeing greater demand for alcohol. We are also seeing good growth in our own-brand value range – Caterers Kitchen Everyday – supporting the continued rise of value.

Managing directorMARTIN WILLIAMS

ELIT ROWLAND talks trends and challenges with four of the UK’s top buying groups

GET SOME REAL PURCHASING POWER

Something we are particularly excited about

for 2013 is the launch of an online ordering app

FAST LANDMARK FACTS

The company acquired seven new members in 2012

Membership breakdown:

Retail 46% Catering 22% Foodservice 32%


Q&A: LANDMARK WHOLESALE

68%own-brand growth

Seven

p22-26 buyingCS5.indd 22 26/07/2012 20:24

Martin WilliamsManaging DirectorDirect Dial: 01908 [email protected]

If you want to join a Winning Team and hear more about the Trading, Marketing and Financial bene� ts of joining Landmark Wholesale, contact:

Andrew ThewlisFinancial DirectorDirect Dial: 01908 [email protected]

www.landmarkwholesale.co.uk

Landmark WholesaleFirst Choicefor Independent Wholesalers

* based on rebated income to Members Vs declared turnover

Lynton Exports

We feel that Landmark Wholesale is the bench mark for others to follow and are therefore pleased to be a part of a Team that are undoubtedly offering the best service available to Companies such as our own.

We were looking for a professional Foodservice Buying Group to help us with our Trading and our Marketing. We certainly found it with Landmark Wholesale.

“ “

y UK’s Leading Wholesale Group at £2.5b Turnover

y Landmark Foodservice turnover is £1b+

y 40 years of Experience

y Excellent Terms

y Rebate 2½ times more income to our Members than our biggest competitor *

y Powerful Marketing and Promotions

y Extensive Retail and Catering Own Brand ranges

y Award Winning Lifestyle Express Symbol Group

y Industry Leading Data and IT Systems

David SandallManaging Director, Lynton Exports

Kevin MooreOperations Manager, Lomond Fine Foods Ltd

“ “G-A-P

Our newest Members:

Cele

brat

e

with

TH

118798.001_Landmark_Berrer_Wholesaling_Ad.indd 1 23/07/2012 17:19

How is your business performing? We achieved 14.3% growth

in 2011 and have welcomed 23 new

members since the start of 2011, bringing

our total turnover to £1.67bn. This year, which is our 40th anniversary, we have launched our Green Wholesaler Awards to recognise members that are being socially responsible and also launched our first fully-customisable promotions brochure – CaterSaver – for the foodservice channel.

Which areas of your business are you seeing growth in? Foodservice is a massive growth sector for us – we’ve seen it grow 23% and it has driven much of our overall growth of 11.6%. Our business strategy over the past few years has been to develop this side of our business. We are also seeing double-digit growth within the chilled and frozen categories, and also in the snacking, energy products and on-the-go subcategories.

How are you helping wholesalers to grow sales? What contract caterers really want is an everyday low price – promotions are great but a solid price for up to two

years is a stronger selling point. Because we have a lot of volume, we can contract commodity lines, such as potatoes, cheese and rice, and guarantee customers a specific price for a fixed period of time. Once our members get those core lines in place, they can sell other products on the back of them. We work with 191 official Confex suppliers across all product categories, enabling members to be competitive throughout the independent wholesale channel. How can wholesalers keep up with the constant demand for value? We have developed the Simply own-brand to cover a core range of products across ambient, chilled and frozen. The brand was launched in 2010 and now accounts for £4.25m of group turnover. Our plans to expand should see turnover double in the next 18 months. We have responded to the changing retail environment during the downturn with the introduction of regular promotions focusing on £1 and price-marked ‘value bag’ products.

What are your plans for the next year? 2013 will see further expansion with a move to purpose-built offices in Moreton-in-Marsh. We will roll out our E-Supersaver member programme to include another 50 members while expanding our central

distribution to include chilled and frozen products. Our ambition over the next year is to continue to achieve double-digit growth for our members and suppliers.

This year we launched the CaterSaver promotions brochure, which gives members the flexibility to add prices and control their margins. We appreciate that not every wholesaler will stock the products we recommend, so they can take products out and put something different in. Its versatility means it’s been taken up by all our members.

A great example of it being tailored to specific customers’ needs is with Newport-based Euro Foods. Although fish is one of its key offerings, it selsl a lot of other products on the back of it that it gets from us. CaterSaver allows it to include a page on its own specialist fish offering. This format is proving very popular with suppliers because it’s realistic – if it wasn’t fully-customisable, we wouldn’t get 100% take-up.

BUYING GROUPS

Case studyTailoring solutions to our customers


CONFEX

Business development manager

TOM GITTINS

311membersMembership breakdown: Retail 47% Foodservice 53% (94% delivered and 6% cash & carry)

Business performance: £1.67bn (+14.3%)

Own-brand: Simply

Fastest growth area: foodservice (23%)

85% of members are using a new email newsletter that gives members weekly promotions, and last-minute deals and NPD news from suppliers

FAST CONFEX FACTS

p22-26 buying.indd 23 26/07/2012 19:18

Preferential Trading Terms Over 190 Official SuppliersWide range of product categoriesMonthly Promotional ProgrammeBespoke Product brochuresCentral Distribution facility with net net pricingNo membership fee

Confex bW.indd 1 25/07/2012 15:08

BUYING GROUPS

How is your symbol group performing? We have a non-fascia symbol

group called Sweetbreak and a

retail estate of nearly 1,500 stores, all running

promotions using our free point-of-sale. We launched the Nearbuy symbol

group 18 months ago and currently have 18 members, but we plan to grow this with the recent announcement of our Nisa membership. We are looking for-ward to tapping into its expertise in the independent retail sector, and to enjoy-ing the benefits of its chilled, frozen and extensive alcohol offering. We also hope to develop our IT solutions and market-ing support with their help.

How are you helping wholesalers to grow sales? Something we’re particularly good at is educating our members – our website contains the top 10 and top 50 best-sellers in the independent channel for key categories including confectionery, soft drinks, crisps and snacks, and chewing gum. We also include free-of-charge PoS and information on merchandising. Our best-sellers charts are collated independently, so we can give our members an impartial view.

How important is technology to your business? We have been running an online ordering service since 2005 for our contract-supply customers and believe that technology is an important part of our business. We have centralised our intranet functions to improve communication and administration

processes. This has also made things easier for our suppliers, which regularly supply us with news, new products and promotions.

How are you responding to the constant demand for value? In February last year, we introduced Quidzin – a value range which proved to be the right initiative at the right time. The range saw good growth across our wholesale members throughout 2011 and continues to grow in 2012. The £1 multipack format

promotion is still growing strong and we expect this to do well

throughout 2013.

Do you have any plans to broaden your membership? We are seeing many of the other buying groups

branching out into foodservice, but we believe there is a strong

market for us as a retail specialist. We don’t have any plans to broaden our membership to other channels – we know what we are good at, we just want to get better at it.

What are your plans for the next 12 months? We want to continue to grow the business of our existing members by investing in more training, and introducing technologies that can help to improve how our range and promotions are communicated to both members and their retail customers.

SUGRO UK

managing directorPHILIP JENKINS

1,500Sweetbreak stores (non-fascia) 61

18Nearbuy fascia stores

Sugro UK joined Nisa in July to grow its fascia-store offering

FAST SUGRO UK’S FACTS

Members (100% independent retail)


2005The year

Sugro UK began to

offer online ordering

p22-26 buying.indd 24 26/07/2012 19:17

For more information visit our website: www.sugro.co.uk

Sugro UK Whitewell House 69 Crewe Road Nantwich Cheshire CW5 6HX. Telephone: 01270 628728 Fax: 01270 623069

Sugro Ad SWA May12_Layout 1 29/05/2012 14:02 Page 1

BUYING GROUPS

How is your business performing? Our symbol

estate has grown by over 50%

compared with 2011 and our retail

club also expanded by over 23% during the same period. We are on target to increase our symbol group by at least a further 25-30% next year. We segment our best quality stores into our symbol estate and those that aspire to this initially join our retail club. This unique approach provides our members and suppliers with genuine sector-leading retail environments that deliver sustained sales growth.

How are you supporting wholesalers to increase their sales? We support wholesalers with a comprehensive range of highly competitive period promotions, as well as a rapidly expanding retailer estate. In May this year, we circulated over 45,000 copies of our category advice brochure, Plan for Profit, to the convenience sector and our online version is attracting new retailers every day.

Are you keeping up with the move towards digital solutions? Many of our members have already made huge

investments in technology and have created excellent electronic links with their customers and suppliers. We have introduced a number of new electronic interfaces with wholesalers and suppliers this year in order to speed up information passing and trading. We have a new unique communication tool that is to be launched in the autumn. More details will follow later in the year.

What were your main achievements in the past year? Our separation from Nisa and relocation to Doncaster required a huge amount of hard work from the whole team to make the transition without disrupting

our core business. The support of our members made the process a

great deal easier to manage. Our transition to a cloud-based IT platform has also been a significant achievement for all those associated with our business.

This year, we have also been awarded the titles Best

Impulse Retailer and Best Wholesaler for Availability by

research-consultancy Him!.

What are your plans for the future?We recognise foodservice, retail development and on-trade as major opportunity areas for our business. Therefore, they will receive our particular focus. We are also investing in developing our foodservice business as well our on-trade division.

We are also looking to develop our technological interface and are working on a number of new initiatives (currently under wraps), which we will launch in the autumn. l

TODAY’S GROUP

managing directorBILL LAIRD


25-30%Minimum target for

expansion of the Today’s

Group symbol group next year

200 memberdepots

£5 billion turnover

Retail club expanded

23%

Twoindustry awards won in 2012

Symbol group estate growth 50%

The company recruited five new members in 2012

FAST TODAY’S GROUP FACTS

p22-26 buyingCS5.indd 25 26/07/2012 19:53

www.todays.co.uk facebook.com/todaysgroup @TodaysGroupwww.todays.co.uk facebook.com/todaysgroup @TodaysGroupwww.todays.co.uk facebook.com/todaysgroup @TodaysGroup

‘‘ ‘‘Now we’ve picked up their votes, isn’t it time we

picked up yours?

Discover why the UK’s leading wholesalers vote for the UK’s biggest and best buying group.Call 0844 247 0700 and be part of the success story.

Today’s Retailers win CTP Best Convenience Retailer for Impulse Categories 2012. As voted by Consumers.

Today’s Members win Him! Best Wholesalers

for Availability 2012.As voted by

Independent Retailers.

TOD0011_SWAVotesAd_A4_AW3.indd 1 26/07/2012 16:40

At a time when healthier living is increasingly popular with consumers, the juice and water

categories present an opportunity for wholesalers to grow sales.

The latest figures from researcher Nielsen show that the chilled-juice cat-egory is worth £1.1bn and is growing at 4.1%, with orange juice making up 46% of the market.

Bottled water is also growing as a category. IRI data shows a 6.4% increase in volume and it is now the third largest category within soft drinks, with a 18.6% volume share, behind juices at 20.1% and cola at 23.6%.

The first key trend for wholesalers to note in the juice category is health. Research from Trop-icana found that people who include

juice in their diet tend to lead healthier lifestyles.

Although larger, sharing packs are suc-cessful in the grocery channel, for foodser-vice and convenience customers, smaller, on-the-go formats are a better way to tap into this trend. Tropicana is the number one on-the-go brand, with Original Orange and Orange with Juicy Bits in the 330ml format in first and second place respec-tively in chilled, single-serve juice.

“Consumers want chilled juice in a con-venient format for consumption on the go and this presents one of the biggest growth opportunities for the wholesale channel,” says PepsiCo UK wholesale director Kieran South.

“Smaller formats are very attractive for customers that have limited chill-er space.”

A second trend is the breakfast occa-sion – 57% of orange juice is consumed in the morning and according to Tropi-cana, one third of shoppers would buy a breakfast meal-deal if it was available. Tropicana advocates cross-category promotions as a way of shifting more units of juice, but also of boosting sales of related products, like porridge and breakfast cereals.

For wholesalers, promoting breakfast items together with chilled juice is also a way to educate customers about offering such deals to their own customers.

Still in line with the trend for healthy eating, juices with no artificial colours or preservatives are another trend to capitalise on. Coca-Cola Enterprises has expanded its Ocean Spray range to meet consumer demand for natural products.

“Products made from 100% juice have seen greater demand in recent years, as consumers seek healthier products for themselves and their families, and four in 10 new products now launched contain no additives or preservatives,” says Bruce Scott, cross-franchise brands senior manager at Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola’s Appletiser is newly avail-

able in a 350ml on-the-go format, it is set to appeal to more of the female target market.

A final trend in the juice category is exotic juices. AG Barr’s portfolio includes Rubicon, KA and Sun Exotic, and the company says this trend is due in part to the popularity of exotic juices in Asian and Afro-Caribbean cultures.

Adrian Troy, head of marketing for AG Barr, says: “Exotic juices are also ex-tending into the mainstream consumer market, where people are looking for something a little bit different.” Rubicon, the largest exotic juice brand, is growing at 37%, according to AG Barr.

All these trends are reflected in the amount of supplier activity in-depot designed to grow sales.

“PepsiCo has been work-ing in partnership with its wholesale custom-ers to create a series of special offers, reward schemes, meal-deals and engaging, on-pack promo-tions that will enable them to offer value and drive sales,” says Kieran South.

He cites the recent £1 price-marked pack as an example of an initiative that has been promoted at depot level to pass value on to retail customers.

AG Barr also has a long-term price marking strategy, demonstrating

FOR JUICY PROFITS SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

JUICES, WATER AND BREAKFAST

The juice, water and breakfast categories are growing thanks to on-the-go formats, says LINDSAY SHARMAN

Consumers view sparkling water as a bit of a treat

and often serve it on special occasions

l GO SMALL: Stock up on smaller, on-the-go formats, which are attractive for retail and foodservice customers that have limited chiller spacel CROSS-PROMOTE: Encourage retailers to use cross-category promotions with breakfast-related products, such as bacon, eggs and juice – one third of shoppers would buy a breakfast meal-deal if it was availablel PRIORITISE THE BEST-SELLERS: 330ml Tropicana Original Orange chilled is the number one on-the-go brand, and Orange with Juicy Bits is number twol THINK HEALTHY: Products made from 100% juice are in greater demand, as consumers seek healthier, family-friendly products. Exotic juices are also entering the mainstream market

TOP TIPS FOR JUICY RESULTS

JuiceBreakfast and health


p28-30 breakfast CS5.indd 38 26/07/2012 18:35

CATEGORY GUIDE

the profit opportunity this presents for impulse outlets.

New products also have a role to play in the success of the category and pro-moting launches in-depot will highlight this to customers.

Recent new products launched include Grapetiser, an addition to the Appletiser brand. A total of £3m is being invested in the brand in 2012, presenting an op-portunity for wholesalers to encourage their customers to experiment.

Similarly at Heinz, the launch of LOL, a sparkling drink blending 75% fruit with 25% carbonated water, is an opportunity for wholesalers to encourage customers to try something new. LOL is already available in Aus-tralia and New Zealand, and is aimed at teenagers.

Britvic’s latest activity focuses on new packaging with a more contemporary design for the three core flavours of J2O. Supported by a marketing campaign that includes TV advertising, the brand looks set for growth.

“We want the brand to be as special as it was in 1998, so by optimising the pack designs, we’re in a great position to launch the TV campaign,” says Kate Fletcher, commercial director, impulse, at Britvic.

And growing sales of juice within the wholesale channel is simple,

according to Kieran South. “Ef-fective merchandising is key

to driving incremental sales and frequency of pur-

chase,” he says.

WaterSparkling and on-the-go

As with juice, convenient formats for on-the-go consumption are driving growth in the water category. Sales of smaller

packs are growing at 8.2%, according to Nestlé Waters.

Sparkling water is an additional trend. Although it is traditionally associated with meal times and special occasions, consum-ers are increasingly looking to treat them-selves with sparkling water at other times.

Paul Condron, head of brand market-ing at Highland Spring, says: “Consumers view sparkling water as a bit of a treat and often serve it on special occasions. This has manifested itself in growth in on-the-go consumption as shoppers look for something a little different in their weekly routines.”

Paul also predicts a further growth in flavoured water over the coming months: “Flavoured waters grew more than 13% last year, making it one of the fastest growing drinks on the soft-drinks fixture.”

BreakfastBiscuits and bars

Every year, people in the UK miss 2.6 bil-lion breakfasts. Far from being the most important meal of the day, breakfast seems to have slipped

down the pecking order, as people’s lives have become busier.

Leading suppliers have done their best to help push breakfast back to the fore, recognising that missed breakfasts mean that the opportunity for consumers to eat

on the go is immense.One of the key trends has been the introduction of the new

breakfast-biscuits segment. Spearheaded by Belvita, which is now worth £18.7m in retail, the segment has grown further thanks to the introduction of Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain biscuit and a Special K snack biscuit, available this month.

Biscuits are ideal for the convenience channel, says

Sanjeev Khanna, head of spe-cialty for Kellogg.“Convenience is a breakfast bat-

tleground,” he says. “It’s here you’ll find the biggest opportunity to grab a share of the out-of-home breakfast occasion.”

Wholesalers need to advise retailers that making the most of the occasion is about placing products in the right places. “It’s also important they are sited cor-rectly in-store – so multi-site with other breakfast impulse options like coffee or fruit,” he adds.

Nick Stuart, United Biscuits – makers of Go Ahead! bars and bakes

l RANGE: Stock the best sellers but don’t forget to trial new productsl DISPLAY: Stock a range of products sold in counter display units to enable your customers to take advantage of the on-the-go breakfast opportunityl DEPOT DEALS: Create promotional days in-depot that offer discounts for a limited time to drive salesl VISIBLE VALUE FOR MONEY: Offer your customers deals that match their needs and deliver visible value for money such as PMPs and on-pack promotionsl TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS: Talk to your customers on a regular basis and adapt your ranges to meet their need to give a point of difference

TOP TIPS WHOLESALER

£1.1bnValue of the chilled-juice

categoryBetterwholesaling.com AUGUST 2012 31


Susan Nash, communications manager at Kraft Foods, says that Belvita’s growth helps highlight how important the new category is. “Breakfast biscuits are really being accepted at the breakfast table,” she says.

Quaker’s Oat So Simple Morning Bars have grown significantly over the last 12 months, supported by the brand’s ‘just add water’ porridge pots.

It’s not just biscuits and bars that the convenience channel should be looking at for those on-the-go consumers. Despite the rise of on-the-go offerings, cereals re-

main important and are the most popular breakfast food.

Wholesalers have reported a grow-ing popularity in the hot cereals market in 2012 – and a turn towards healthier breakfasts, such as fruits and yoghurts. Hot breakfasts have grown by 70% in the past 10 years, with hot cereals being a key driver in this growth.

Launched last year, Quaker Oat So Simple pots are worth £8m at retail and have grown dramatically following activities from maker PepsiCo, including large-scale outdoor advertising. l

JUICES, WATER AND BREAKFAST

PRODUCT LAUNCHES

The most recent additions to PepsiCo’s juice portfolio are Tropicana Creations flavours Orange & Raspberry and

Orange & Pineapple.

Rubicon Mango and Guava, a range of 500ml still PET products, has been launched by AG Barr. The launch is aimed

at on-the-go and lunchtime consumption.

Heinz has launched LOL, a lightly sparkling drink aimed at teenagers that blends 75% fruit juice with 25% carbonated

water. It comes in 250ml cans in three flavours, RSP £0.99.

AG Barr has added a new Strawberry Still flavour to its KA Still range. The brand will be supported by an outdoor ad

campaign and point-of-sale materials.

SoBe V Water, a zero-calorie vitamin water, RRP £1.19-£1.29, has become the first UK soft drink to contain the

plant-extract stevia, for the benefit of health-conscious consumers.

From May, Britvic’s J20 has had new packaging on its three core flavours: Orange & Passion Fruit, Apple & Raspberry,

and Apple & Mango.


70%Growth in hot

breakfasts in the past

10 years

To help add value to retailers and encourage them to pass on these deals to their customers, PepsiCo will be of-fering an exclusive in-depot promotion: when retailers buy four cases of 330ml Tropicana Orange Smooth, Orange with Juicy Bits, Orange and Mango or 330ml Copella apple juices, they will receive redeemable £5 coupons.

PEPSICO PROMOTION


Your customers will need more than just alcohol to cater for September’s influx of new students, writes NIKKI ALLEN

STUDENT PLACEMENT

FRESHERS’ WEEK

Freshers’ week has caused some controversy with health officials in the past couple of years, due

to high intakes of alcohol amongst students celebrating their first tastes of university life.

In March this year, Bristol University proposed to reduce its Freshers’ Week from five days down to three in an at-tempt to ‘undermine the excessive drink-ing culture’. But students’ clamoured against the suggestion and Freshers’ Week will remain the full five days at uni-versities across the UK in late September.

When it comes to helping your retail and catering customers stock the right products for universities and students ahead of one of the biggest events on the

university calendar, it’s not all about beer and beans on toast, though. So what are the product categories that wholesalers need to focus on to boost sales?

Snacks are a hugely important category for the student market, suppli-ers say. “Due to the hectic lifestyles students lead, it’s increasingly com-mon for them to snack regularly throughout the day, in between lectures and studying, especially when they’re struggling

to find time to eat a substantial meal,” points out Ivan Cross, snacks market strategy and planning director at United Biscuits UK.

This provides wholesalers with a great opportunity to stock a range of prod-

ucts that meet students’ needs for a quick and convenient

boost of energy. “There are a num-ber of key snacking

trends amongst students that wholesalers need to be aware of to be able to take full advantage


p32-34 freshers.indd 32 26/07/2012 18:43

CATEGORY GUIDE

of the sales potential on offer,” adds Mr Cross. “For example, with students often skipping proper nutritious meals, health has a very important part. It’s increas-ingly important for retailers and caterers to ensure there is a range of healthier options on offer to them.”

“Healthy eating and product quality are major influences on students’ purchasing decisions when buying for themselves,” agrees Helen Cridge, trade marketing manager at FrieslandCampina, manufac-turer of milkshake brand Yazoo. “Yazoo meets these trends – it consistently

tastes great, is a healthier alternative to some other soft drinks and offers value for money,” she says.

Another key area for students is products that offer energy boosts. “Stu-dents are a key consumer group for the energy-drinks category, as long days and long nights, whether studying, playing sport or partying, all produce moments of need where an extra boost is required,” says Tom Smith, Red Bull trade communi-cations manager.

“The variety of occasions for consuming energy drinks makes the category a huge-ly profitable one for retailers and whole-salers within a student environment. Not only are the products delivering on a

NEW PRODUCTS

United Biscuits has relaunched Wheat Crunchies with a new logo, improved taste and bigger size, as well as a new

Cheddar & Onion flavour (RRP 49p).

Heinz is revamping its range of 500g Big Soups (RRP £1.99) with six new flavours, including Steak & Potato, from the

start of August.

Red Bull 473ml has been revamped to feature stunt rider Travis Pastrana and a quick response code that leads consum-

ers to digital content (RRP £1.99).

McVitie’s has added a Crispy Bacon variant to its Cheddars savoury biscuit range, which is made with real cheese

(RRP £1.41).

Lenor and Bold have launched limited edition British-themed packs

featuring Union Flags (RRPs £3.37-£9.69).

United Biscuits has added 25% extra weight to its handy packs of Hula

Hoops, Skips, NikNaks, Discos and Wheat Crunchies (RRP 49p).

Uncle Ben’s and Dolmio have launched with University College

Birmingham the ‘See It For Yourself ’ campaign, aimed at helping chefs save time.

The variety of occasions for consuming energy

drinks makes the category a hugely profitable one for retailers and wholesalers


p32-34 freshers.indd 33 26/07/2012 18:39

FRESHERS’ WEEK


required need, but the key brands within the category really cut through to the stu-dent market by using exciting marketing strategies to ensure brand awareness is at a constant high,” he adds.

With this in mind, Red Bull runs a Stu-dent Brand Manager programme, basing reps at key universities around the UK to “ensure students are experiencing all the brand attributes of Red Bull, whether they’re the captain of the sports team, the party purveyor or one of the cool kids on campus”.

Meanwhile, Vimto is running a marketing campaign during Fresh-ers’ Week that is specifically aimed at students. Tens of thousands of students are set to see Vimto advertising vending machines at Manchester, Edge Hill and Liverpool John Moore’s Universities dur-ing their Freshers’ Weeks.

It comes as little surprise, though, that the biggest trend by far for increasingly hard-up students is affordability. “For students, price is of key impor-tance, so ensuring there is an extensive range of pricemarked packs available that visibly dem-onstrate value for money is essen-tial for wholesal-ers looking to make the most of the student mar-ket,” says Mr Cross. “UB offers a range of products that respond to this demand, from £1 sharing bags through to 89p pricemarked packs for a number of KP Nut variants.”

FrieslandCampina’s Helen Cridge adds: “Pricemarks are a growing trend for shoppers, especially students, who are looking for great value on the go. With our investment, this is something that

independents and wholesalers can really capitalise on.”

While price is a key focus for students, added value is also of great importance, say suppliers. Mr Cross says: “Products adver-tising free extra weight, offer students further visible value for

money and the reassurance that they are getting a good deal.” Stocking products offering on-pack

promotions is a great way for wholesal-ers to help their customers provide good value to students, say suppliers. “On-pack promotions offer a valuable way for retailers and in turn, wholesalers, to drive sales with students,” says Mr Cross. “Pro-motions with big names, such as McCoy’s PDC Darts sponsorship, which offers consumers the opportunity to win VIP tickets to the Premier League darts play-offs, demonstrate that trusted brands like McCoy’s are keen to offer students more than just a tasty snack to enjoy.”

To help your retail and foodservice customers get the most out of Freshers’ Week, say suppliers, it’s vital for you to stock the right ranges. Paul Lettice, head of trade communications at Procter and Gamble, says availability is the primary concern in the household and laun-dry categories.

“Stocking the brand leaders, such as Ariel, Bold and Daz, helps customers easily identify the product they need and will always guarantee a solid return on investment.”

Adds Mr Cross, “Wholesalers should consider new products, but ensure that firm favourites and best sellers remain fully stocked. Students want and will buy big brands they know and trust.”

You should also regularly talk to your customers and adapt your range to meet their needs. To give your store a point of difference, consider creating promotional days in-depot that offer discounts for a limited time in the run up to Freshers’ Week to drive sales.

“If wholesalers focus on having a fully stocked and targeted core range as the centre of their business, they can easily use promotions and new additions to give your consumers that little extra variety boost,” concludes Mr Lettice. l

“Freshers’ Week is a really busy time for us, as the population of the city al-most doubles when universities go back. The students will tend to eat in their college canteens for at least the first few weeks of term, so it is definitely alcohol that brings the profits in for us rather than food.”

NATHAN HIGGINSThe Ranch Pub, Cambridge

FOODSERVICE VIEWPOINT

It comes as little surprise, though, that the biggest

trend by far for increasingly hard-up

students is affordability

The start of the academic year can be a challenging time for first-year students missing the comforts of home, but one way universi-ties can help them feel more immediately settled is by offering nourishing and comforting meals through their catering services.

A host of universities across the UK are now taking into ac-count the importance of getting the right foods for students at this time of year. “Our hospitality services are committed to

providing a broad range of high-quality, value-for-money foods for students,” says a spokeswoman for Oxford Brookes University’s catering department. “We make sure we provide a range of healthy options at all campuses and use Fairtrade, organic and local sourcing as much as possible as we know this is important to students.”

Meanwhile, Keele University offers a meal-plan system for students that ensures not only that they get the foods they find comforting, but also that they are convenient and cost-effective. The scheme is open to all students and for £25-50 per week allows students to choose where and when they dine on campus.

CateringUniversities are looking for quality

“We offer students concessions on entry prices and both our bars are avail-able for hire for university events. We re-cently switched to plastic glasses because it stops the problem of glass breaking on the floor and people treading on it.”

PHIL DAVIDSONThe Bridge Pub, Oxford

p32-34 freshers.indd 36 26/07/2012 18:41

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***STOCK ALL THREE AND STAY AHEAD OF THE PACK!STOCK ALL THREE AND STAY AHEAD OF THE PACK!

McCoys Grab Bag ad final.indd 1 16/07/2012 10:03

STEFAN APPLEBY on the top new products, promotions and make-overs of the season

Summer specials

Heinz has added five flavours to its range of sauces specifically designed for the foodservice market. Lager & Lime BBQ, Fiery Marrakesh, Flamin Cajun, Rocky Mountain Maple and Steakhouse Supreme are available now.

Walkers Deep Ridged aims to build on the success enjoyed by Walkers Crinkles following its launch last year. Available in three flavours – Flame Grilled Steak, Mature Cheddar & Onion and Salt & Malt Vinegar – the crisps come in outers of 24.

020 8573 7757 01664 4100000118 930 6666

0845 758 1781 0117 300 41580800 138 0813

Mars Chocolate’s Sweet Sundays promotion will give shoppers the chance to exchange four special packs from Mars’ Bitesize portfolio for Sunday cinema tick-ets. It will be supported by a £3.3m mar-keting campaign including TV advertising.

Advertising

latest products

On-pack promotionRange launch

New flavours

KP Jumbo Salted Nut Mix and Unsalted Fruit & Nut Mix are available now, RRP £2.40. The 90g bags add to the £10m KP Jumbo Nuts range, which is growing at 9% year on year.

latest products

38 august 2012 Betterwholesaling.com

New flavours

Sampling campaign New pack size

A UK-wide sampling campaign for Lipton Ice Tea, targeting a core audience of 18-24 year olds, aims to drive further sales for retailers. The campaign will see one million samples given out in cities including Liver-pool, Southampton, Swansea and Glasgow.

Imperial Tobacco’s new Golden Virginia 8g Handy Packs, containing zip-lock to-bacco pouches, rolling papers and filter tips in flip-top boxes, replace the 12.5g Handy Packs from this month. The £2.50 RRP is the market’s lowest-priced RYO offering.

p38productsCS5.indd 36 26/07/2012 17:21

What did you want to be when you were growing up? I wanted to be a turf ac-countant (a bookie) because I enjoyed working with numbers. I did this for a while when I was 18, but eventually gave it up because I didn’t like the bad weather – a few years ago, bookies used to operate on-site, not behind a desk in an office like they do now.

Before that, when I was about three or four, I wanted

to be a pilot and fly a Light-ning aeroplane – I used

to go with my mum to air-shows in Don-caster and even had the chance to sit in a cockpit.

What was your first ever job?When I was in my early teens, I had a paper round but it all came to an end because of a faulty alarm clock that kept going off earlier than I had set it. One morning, when it started buzzing at 2am, I was so knackered, I ended up throwing it at the wall. When my mum came in and saw the hole in the wall, she said I didn’t have to do it any more.

How would your colleagues describe you?

They would say that I had a good sense of humour, was fair but tough and a stickler for time, and don’t suffer fools gladly. I’m also very reliable, dependable and ‘one of the boys’.

Who would play you in the movie of your life?Michael Caine – I don’t look anything like him but he’s quite a funny guy. My fa-

vourite Michael Caine movie is Get Carter – but I’m also a big fan of Matt Damon and the Bourne series. I’m really looking forward to the latest installment, which is out in a couple of months.

Who inspires you?My son – he’s 27 and he is a microbiologist working at Sheffield’s children’s hospital. He changed his degree at university from food technol-ogy to microbiology and I’m really proud to see him working with children – it’s quite a rewarding job. He also makes time to be sporty in his spare time. I’m not sure where he gets it from – his mother isn’t very sporty and I’d have a heart attack if I went near a gym.

What do you do in your spare time?I’m a Manchester City season-ticket holder and I used to go to games regularly with my son. But now that he’s moved out, I go with my wife. She wasn’t that keen to start with but after I took her to Wembley Stadium, she’s been a full convert. It’s nice to do something like that together. l

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I wanted to be a bookie but eventually I gave it up because I didn’t like the bad weather

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Photo: Lions Gate Entertainm

ent

Graham Fletcher is the depot

manager of Restaurant

Wholesale’s Manchester branch. In July, the group opened its latest site – a 35,000sq ft depot in Barking, East London with state-of-the-art facilities, including new lighting and climate control. The business recently announced plans to open an extra two depots per year in the UK.

Mr Fletcher (left with his wife) is a fan of Michael

Caine (above) and once wanted to fly a Lightning plane.

p39 back CS5.indd 43 26/07/2012 16:56

Untitled-1 1 25/07/2012 11:12

category guidance - better wholesaling · bocking talks about soft-drinks trends cover story 14/17...

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