SLR August 2018

WE GET RETAIL BECAUSE WE’RE RETAILERS TOO!

AUGUST 2018 | ISSUE 184

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CATMAN PLAN

Building a proactive category management strategy

RECORD MONTH

Woodlands Local records most profitable month yet

THE ITALIAN JOB

SLR visits Milan to learn from the best of the Italian convenience and grocery sectors.

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LANDMARKTODAY’S MERGER

Two wholesale giants join forces

SCHOOL DAYS

Making the most of back to school

MENZIES SOLD

Retailers optimistic around sale of Menzies

Win Rubicon Street Drinks! Ten retailers will win £50 of stock p25

August 2018

Contents

Contents ISSUE 184

NEWS p4 p5 p6 p8 p10

p20 p22 p24

Multiples Tesco set to take on Aldi and Lidl with its own chain of discount stores.

Consolidation The Boards of Today’s Group and Landmark Wholesale propose merging the two buying groups.

New Stores David’s Kitchen sets its sights on a third branch, planned for Kirkcaldy.

Card Payments Regulator to launch investigation into competitiveness of card-acquiring services market.

News Extra Wholesalers The Landmark/Today’s merger reflects the increasing need for scale in the modern wholesaling industry.

Product News Mondelez upwraps a sleigh-load of NPD as the countdown to Christmas kicks-off.

Off-Trade News Heineken ploughs £6m into a bid to make alcohol-free beer – especially its 0.0 brew – cool.

Newstrade John Menzies sells its news distribution business to private equity firm.

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INSIDE BUSINESS p26 Research Digest A round-up of the latest business insights of interest to retailers. p28 Woodlands Local The latest news from SLR’s very own convenience store in Falkirk. p34 Hotlines The latest NPD, including a trend-bucking range extension from McVitie’s. p54 Under The Counter More rants and raves from SLR’s curmudgeon-in-chief.

FEATURES p36 Category Management Guide Advice from industry experts on getting the most from four key categories. p46 Young Adult Brands The millennial generation represents a huge opportunity for retailers willing to build a targeted offer around their very specific requirements. p48 Breakfast Healthier options consumed on-the-go are driving growth in the Breakfast category. p50 Beer Costcutter Category Manager Rachael Grist explains how to capitalise on the trend for craft and premium beers. p52 Back To School As the summer break ends a new sales opportunity opens up for retailers – and it’s all about offering healthier soft drink alternatives.

COMPETITION p25 Barr Soft Drinks Your chance to win five cases of Rubicon’s new category-boosting Street Drinks range.

ON THE COVER p14 The Italian job: learning lessons about convenience retail on a study tour of stores in Milan.

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AUGUST 2018 | SLR

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News MULTIPLES Will Tesco muscle-in on the discounters?

Hot weather gives frozen sales a boost The latest frozen food retail statistics show that frozen food continues to perform well, with value growth across almost every category in the 52 weeks to June 18, 2018.

The numbers, provided by Kantar Worldpanel, value the retail frozen food market as a whole at over £6.1bn with 5.4% value growth year-on-year.

So far this year, the pizza category continues to lead, followed by savoury food. Ice cream is also doing well. The recent hot weather caused a spike category, with over 16.6 million UK households choosing to pick up an ice cream as temperatures soared.

Coast to Coast champs raise £49k for GroceryAid Thirty-seven industry colleagues have raised an amazing £49,000 for GroceryAid by completing the Welsh Coast to Coast Cycle route.

The sum will help fund 212 CBT counselling sessions for those suffering with mental

Tesco plans discount chain Tesco is going head-to head with Aldi and Lidl, as speculation mounts that the supermarket giant is gearingup to open a new chain of discount stores.

The Mail on Sunday has reported that up to 60 stores could be launched as soon as September, most of them replacing Tesco Metro outlets.

It is rumoured the stores will be called Jack’s, following an attempt by a Tesco subsidiary to trademark the name. The company was founded by Jack Cohen in 1919.

The new stores will carry around 3,000 SKUs, compared to the 25,000 found in an average Tesco Extra.

Industry insiders are speculating that the stores may adopt a Costcostyle format, following Tesco’s £4bn buyout of wholesaler Booker at the beginning of the year.

The company has remained tight-lipped on the matter but said a medium-sized Metro store in St Helens near Liverpool is to reopen under a new name. Meanwhile, workers at another Tesco Metro in Liverpool earmarked for closure have

been offered jobs at a new store due to open in the next five weeks, the Guardian reported. The company is also recruiting for new-format stores at two of its mothballed sites in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.

Tesco is still far and away the nation’s biggest grocer with over 27% market share. However, it has been losing ground to the discounters as consumers move away from big weekly shops to more regular top-ups.

Tesco’s most recent foray into discount was with its Victor Value brand in the 1980s. Victor ended in defeat after four years, over fears from management that it was undermining the main brand.

Speaking to the Mail, Grocery Insight’s Steve Dresser said: “There is an opportunity to look at any [Metro] stores still struggling and say, ‘let’s see if we can try something else here rather than closing them and losing them to a competitor’.”

health issues.

The 358km route, starting in Caernarfon and ending in Swansea, took cyclists through some stunning scenery including Snowdonia National Park and the Brecon Beacons. Riders endured a total of 5,500m in climbs.

Convenience to break £47bn barrier by 2023 The UK convenience channel is set to grow by £7.1bn in the next five years to reach £47.2bn by 2023, according to new IGD forecasts.

The convenience channel will benefit from strong store growth over the period, helping to fuel the channel’s compound annual growth rate of 3.3% to 2023.

Patrick Mitchell-Fox, Senior Business Analyst at IGD, said: “New store development will continue to be a key engine for the channel over the next five years, with the co-operatives, symbol and multiple retail

BUSINESS Effects of Palmer & Harvey collapse still being felt

PARCEL SERVICES

P&H problems persist for McColl’s

PayPoint and eBay make Collect+ deal

McColl’s Group has blamed November’s failure of Palmer & Harvey for a 2.7% drop in like-for-like sales, as revealed in its H1 interim results (26 weeks to May 27, 2018).

Boss Jonathan Miller said the period was one of the most challenging the business had ever faced, and that the supply chain disruption caused by P&H’s collapse was “unprecedented”.

As a result, a new supply partnership with Morrisons covering 1,300 stores (agreed in August 2017) was accelerated and should be completed this month.

As the Group emerges from its logistical nightmare, and helped by the good weather, sales figures are beginning to improve, with like-for-

likes for the first seven weeks of H2 down 0.8%.

Total H1 revenue was up 19.2% to £601.7m (2017: £504.8m) driven by the successful 2017 acquisition of around 300 c-stores from the Co-op.

Profit before tax was £2.3m (2017: £4.5m), following £3.5m of downward adjusting items (2017: £2.3m) and £2.4m of property profits (2017: £0.0m).

The revival of the Safeway brand, covering around 400 lines, has seen an approximate 5% rise in own-label participation year-on-year in stores supplied by Morrisons.

Moving through H2, the company plans to improve the quality of its estate via store refreshes and acquisitions.

PayPoint and eBay have reached an agreement that will enable eBay sellers and buyers to access the Collect+ network for click and collect parcel services.

The deal sees eBay become the first multi-carrier partner for Collect+ signed by PayPoint. eBay customers will also be able to have their deliveries to Collect+ locations made by their own choice of carrier service.

The new service will initially roll out to 2,500 selected stores within the Collect+ network from September A new parcels retailer app will be launched at the same time to improve in-store operations.

segments leading the way.”

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News WHOLESALERS Industry consolidation continues as buying groups propose merger

Landmark Wholesale and Today’s Group join forces The Boards of Landmark Wholesale and Today’s Group have agreed to merge the two buying groups, to form new company Unitas Wholesale.

The proposal is subject to approval by members of both groups. Members have a month to make their decision, with voting closing on September 6.

The merger intends to create a larger, more effective and efficient group with enhanced scale that is capable of fending off the threat created by the widespread industry consolidation that has seen the likes of Tesco encroach into the wholesale channel with its buyout of Booker.

Current 2018 joint business agreements between the two groups and suppliers remain in place until the end of the calendar year. Unitas’ new trading team will start talking

to suppliers about 2019 terms from November, when the merger – if approved – is expected to be formally completed.

Darren Goldney, Managing Director of Today’s Group, said the

recent wave of consolidation was potentially threatening the future of independent businesses.

“This merger acts to ensure the sustainable and future success of our members, many of whom have a multi-generation legacy of service

to independent businesses, be they convenience stores, catering outlets or many of the other businesses we serve,” he said.

Landmark boss John Mills added: “Our focus now is to maintain the excellent job we already do for our members and their independent customers and continue our positive relationships and momentum with our supplier partners.”

Goldney concluded: “This is a tremendous opportunity which will step change the platform upon which independent business and their supplier partners can thrive. Unitas will create a new and exciting opportunity for suppliers, independent wholesalers and the thousands of independent businesses that we collectively serve.”

Scotmid gives something back to ‘CommuniTea’ Scotmid has backed a new Crimestoppers Scotland initiative that celebrates the charity’s 30th anniversary. The ‘CommuniTea’ drop-ins invite people for a cuppa and a chat to find out about how they can speak up about crime, 100% anonymously.

With Scotmid’s support, Crimestoppers volunteers are equipping community groups all over Scotland with tea hampers, filled with free food and refreshments for the events, which will run until the autumn.

Nisa brings back Come Rain or Shine campaign Nisa has relaunched last year’s Come Rain or Shine marketing campaign, with a wide range of summertime offers supported by instore and online activity.

Products on offer as part of the promotion include summer staples such as crisps and nuts, table sauces, salad, soft drinks

CASH MACHINES Move that could make ATMs unprofitable scrapped

Link makes u-turn on ATM fee cuts Link, the UK’s main cash machine network, has dropped plans to cut the fee that banks pay each other when one of their customers withdraws cash from a rival’s free-touse machine.

Back in January, Link announced a phased 20% reduction in socalled interchange rates over four years, from around 25p to 20p.

The idea was to try and reduce the total number of cash machines in operation. It also meant that retailers operating an ATM would lose around 1.25p per transaction per year, potentially making the machines unprofitable.

The first cut was implemented at the beginning of this month (July) when the ATM interchange fee was reduced from 25p to 23.75p. On Monday (July 16), and in response to a 6% year-on-year fall in the volume of ATM transactions, the Link Board announced that the next reduction

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in January 2019 would go ahead but that it had decided to cancel the third reduction, due in January 2020, and put on hold the fourth reduction, due in January 2021, pending a further review next year.

Link Chief Executive Officer John Howells commented: “Link is committed to maintaining the UK’s extensive coverage of free-to-use cash machines for many years to come. However, many consumers are turning to alternatives to cash more quickly than expected and usage of ATMs is now dropping at 6% per annum.

“Link will therefore adjust interchange to maintain freeto-use coverage in line with our commitments to the public and to our participants. Link will continue to monitor the cash machine network carefully and will not hesitate to make further changes as needed to protect UK consumers.”

STAFF TRAINING

and beers, wines and spirits.

MRH partners Bolt Learning

sale including gondola end kits,

Forecourt operator MRH has rolled out a new online training initiative nationwide, following the completion of a successful three-month trial.

Produced in partnership with Bolt Learning, the full online induction process into ‘working on a forecourt’ gives staff access to eight modules which form an essential part of their induction training. The modules cover topics from Fire Safety and Pump Basics through to Customer Service and Active Selling.

Katie Jenkins, Head of Customer Proposition for Bolt, said: “MRH colleagues will now have easy access to quality online training modules, whenever they need it, giving them the knowledge and skills to ensure that stores are safe, customers are happy, and sales will grow.”

Nisa has created point of hanging signs, shelf talkers and posters, to help drive sales of promoted lines.

The campaign is supported by social media posts, Facebook Live videos and a dedicated Come Rain or Shine webpage featuring summer recipes and the chance to win prizes.

Gulf looks to drive sales collectibles promo Gulf Retail has unveiled a new collectibles promotion, which rolls out nationwide this month for an initial eight-week period.

The ‘Gulf Collectibles’ range of 1:64 scale models includes a Chevrolet Corvette C6.R, Ford Mustang and Audi R8, each one available in Gulf racing colours and presentation box.

The five Gulf Collectible cars are available for £1.99 each with 25 litres of fuel purchased at any participating Gulf service station.

The promotion will be extended if demand is high.

AUGUST 2018 | SLR

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News NEW STORES Food-to-go specialist plans third outlet

Lifestyle Express expands online training for retailers Lifestyle Express has celebrated the first birthday of its Lifestyle Learning Academy training platform with the addition of three new modules to further

David’s Kitchen sets its sights on Kirkcaldy store

support its retailers.

The latest modules, produced in partnership with online training providers Bolt Learning, are Active Selling, Food Safety Level 1 and Food Safety Level 2.

Retailers can also use the learning platform to allocate and track staff training and progress using an online filing cabinet to record which training sections have been completed and prove compliance.

Scots UK’s friendliest people to shopworkers New research has found that Scottish people are the friendliest in the UK towards retail and hospitality staff.

In a survey of over 2,000

David’s Kitchen has lodged a planning application for a store in Kirkcaldy.

The site, on the town’s Oriel Road, is currently occupied by a fast-fit car service centre which, unsurprisingly, offers plenty of parking spaces.

Kirkcaldy railway station and Dundee

University’s Nursing College are both five-minute walks away.

However, it is also under 200m to an Aldi store, which sits literally around the corner.

The new store plans to offer grocery shopping as well as a café, on top of the food-to-go range that

David’s Kitchen is renowned for.

Its Glenrothes store recently picked-up the Food-to-Go Retailer of the Year trophy at the 2018 SLR Rewards. The brand’s other store, in Falkirk, is also an SLR Rewards winner, bagging the Soft Drinks Retailer of the Year prize.

consumers conducted by business insurer NFU Mutual,

CRIME NFRN President raises awareness of scale of problem

ILLICIT TOBACO

65% of Scottish shoppers said

Justice Minister hears independent retailers’ crime concerns

Selling fake fags is mug’s game

that they are always friendly to staff as they have a hard time – the highest percentage out of all UK regions.

The survey also found that an overwhelming majority of Scottish consumers (91%) agree with Daniel Johnson MSP’s proposed legislation that would provide better protection for retail workers.

Summer sun continues to shine on retailers Retail sales growth expanded at a healthy pace in the year to July, albeit at a slightly slower rate than in the previous month, according to the latest monthly CBI Distributive Trades Survey.

The survey of 111 firms, of which 50 were retailers, showed that sales also stayed above average for the time of year. But orders placed on suppliers fell, disappointing expectations of continued growth.

The outlook for the coming month is less upbeat, with retailers expecting sales volumes

NFRN National President Mike Mitchelson (pictured left) spelled out the impact that retail crime has on independent retailers when he met with his local MP, Justice Minister Rory Stewart last month.

Mitchelson told Stewart how every retailer had the right to feel safe in their shops and live their lives free from crime when the Justice Minister visited his Brampton store and post office.

He also explained how police budget cuts and the lack of beat officers meant that retail crime victims were not getting the response times and service that they deserved.

The meeting came one month after Mitchelson urged NFRN members to raise awareness among all MPs of retail crime.

In his inaugural speech to Annual Conference delegates in Torquay on

June 12, he said: “I would like every MP – all 650 of them – to receive a visit from at least one NFRN member between now and Annual Conference next year.

“And while we are doing this, let’s arrange meetings with Chief Constables and – in England and Wales – with our Police and Crime Commissioners too and send a very clear message that rising instances of retail crime and poor police responses can no longer be tolerated.”

JTI has removed its tobacco gantry from N&N News in High Wycombe following a prosecution for selling counterfeit tobacco products. The store’s owner, Chandrasegaram Mughaya, was given a suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay £1,650 in costs.

This is the second occasion that JTI has removed a gantry from a retailer in the English town for illegal tobacco sales. In December 2016 the company acted against Micklefield Superstore.

To protect their business any retailer with information on those selling illegal tobacco should contact the HMRC Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887 or Trading Standards on 03454 04 05 06. You can also speak anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

and orders to flatten out.

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News CARD PAYMENTS Investigation into competitiveness of service providers

Yazoo supports FareShare Yazoo has this year donated 33,000 bottles of flavoured milk to 15 FareShare depots.

FareShare saves over 13,500 tonnes of good surplus food annually from across the supply chain and redistributes it to nearly 7,000 charities and community groups across the UK via its 21 regional centres.

Yazoo has sent a range of formats and flavours to these charities to provide a nutritious snack as part of their services to people in need – such as children’s breakfast clubs, day clubs for older people, domestic violence refuges, homeless shelters and drug and alcohol rehab units.

Lidl trials sale of ‘past-itsbest’ produce Lidl is to sell ‘Too Good to Waste’ fruit and vegetable boxes, containing items that are no longer in pristine on-shelf

Payments regulator to look into card-acquiring services market The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is to carry out a market review into card-acquiring services.

The regulator wants to ensure that the supply of card-acquiring services is competitive and works in the interests of retailers and consumers.

The draft terms of reference set out the PSR’s proposed approach to the market review, which includes looking at: Q the nature and characteristics of card-acquiring services; Q which companies provide cardacquiring services and how their market shares have developed historically; Q how merchants buy card-acquiring services; Q whether there are any credible alternatives to card-acquiring services for some or all merchants;

Q

the outcomes of the competitive process including the fees merchants pay and the quality of service they receive.

Hannah Nixon, Payment Systems Regulator Managing Director, said: “This is about making sure that

payment systems work well for everyone, and we will look to make changes if we think improvements should be made.”

The draft terms of reference for the market review is open for consultation until September 14, 2018.

condition, but are still perfectly good to eat.

The trial is taking place in 122 Lidl stores and has been designed to tackle fruit and vegetable waste. If rolled out nationwide, the initiative could help save 10,000 tonnes of surplus produce a year.

The boxes will be packed by a team of dedicated Freshness Specialists and priced at £1.50 for approximately 5kg of mixed fruit and veg.

Coke pilots reversevending machines Coca-Cola has launched a trial deposit-return scheme (DRS) that invites the public to recycle any 500ml plastic bottle via a reverse-vending machine. The machines are installed at four Merlin Entertainments sites, and dispense a voucher giving 50% off entry to 30 participating Merlin attractions including Alton Towers and Legoland Windsor.

Coke was originally opposed to DRS but performed a sharp u-turn in February last year when it threw its weight behind the Scottish Government’s proposals

CHARITY Scotmid supports MND charity

CHARITY

Rugby legend Calder asks Scotmid customers to give 5p4Doddie

Donations from Nisa’s charity hit 10k milestone

Scotmid has got behind motor neurone disease charity the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation by stocking Gen!us Craft Lager.

Five pence from the sale of every can will be donated to the charity, which was formed after Scots rugby legend Doddie Weir announced his diagnosis of the disease in 2017.

Finlay Calder (pictured right), former Scotland teammate of Weir’s and a trustee of the Foundation, called on Scotmid customers to give #5p4Doddie.

“This is a smart way of raising funds for an incredibly worthy cause,” he said. “Doddie is literally a giant of Scottish sport and I’m certain people will want to support his foundation in every way possible.

“With Gen!us now stocked in Scotmid stores, there’s another way to support Doddie’s fundraising and I would encourage customers and

rugby supporters to give it a try.”

The UK’s first ‘light’ craft lager (3% ABV, 72 calories per 330ml can), Gen!us was launched in April and is an official Fundraising Partner of the Foundation.

Scotmid’s Local Sourcing Manager Stephen Brown (pictured left) commented: “Our stores are situated at the heart of Scottish communities and Doddie is an icon of Scottish rugby, so, as soon as we were made aware of his charity’s partnership with Gen!us, we wanted to support it by stocking the product.”

Donations made through Nisa’s Making a Difference Locally charity have hit the 10,000 mark, following a bumper month of donations to support local causes.

In June, 170 donations were made by Nisa retailers and via trustee donations totalling over £215,000. This brought the total number of donations since the charity’s formation to a whopping 10,079.

Donations have ranged from £50 to £100,000 and have funded everything from defibrillators to sailing boats, to day trips for care home residents.

Making a Difference Locally was established in 2008 to help independent retailers support their local communities and is celebrating its 10th birthday this year.

to boost recycling rates.

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£50

News Extra

Industry Consolidation

NewsExtra FINE-TUNE YOUR STORE WITH ADVICE FROM INDUSTRY EXPERTS – P36 WHOLESALERS Buying groups join forces to combat threat from mults

Convenience Matters with the SGF How to keep the cost of running a business under contol is probably the number one issue for convenience retailers in Scotland and indeed across the UK. We have just had some very positive engagement with the Low Pay Commission about the 2019 rates for the National Living Wage. We are sure that our arguments will ensure that the Commission takes a very cautious approach in terms of its recommendation to the government.

However, there will definitely be an increase. More cost.

More challenges. More pressure. It all adds up.

The Scottish government is currently consulting about introduce a £50 fee for anyone who needs to renew their Personal Licence to authorise the sale of alcohol in-store.

Unlike in England and Wales, Scottish retailers must renew their licence every 10 years (with a ‘refresher’ requirement at the five-year stage).

Upwards of 80% of convenience stores in Scotland sell alcohol, so it’s vital that the premises manager has a personal licence.

Many stores want to ensure they have adequate cover so will invest in training-up other staff colleagues to obtain a Personal Licence.

The renewal course has to be paid for – we think the total cost of a course will be around £200 per staff member.

Overall there are about 60,000 personal licence holders in Scotland. If they all had to renew at a fee of £50 this would mean passing on a cost of about £3 million to businesses and individuals.

Our response to the consultation will tell the Scottish government not to impose this additional cost burden on retailers. It’s only £50 but it all adds up.

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Landmark-Today’s merger latest major consolidation to reshape the industry The merger between Landmark Wholesale and the Today’s Group reflects the increasing need for scale in the modern wholesaling industry.

The merger of Landmark Wholesale and Today’s Group is the latest in a long line of significant consolidations as the wholesale industry reshapes itself to cope with increasingly strong competition.

The Boards of the two companies unanimously agreed to take a proposal to merge both groups to a wider voting process for approval by their members.

The objective of the proposed merger, according the companies, is to create a larger, more effective and efficient group “dedicated to supporting independent wholesalers, who in turn support thousands of independent retailers and small businesses.”

Following the announcement of their plans to merge, and widespread speculation on how the group’s various fascias will be treated, the Managing Directors of Landmark Wholesale and Today’s Group John Mills and Darren Goldney issued a statement to clarify the position.

It read: “Both buying groups have their own fascias – Today’s Extra, Today’s Local, Today’s Express, Today’s Drinks, Day Today, Day Today Express, Lifestyle Express, Lifestyle Extra and Lifestyle Value – which have been invested in by our retailers and wholesale members to create contemporary store formats that satisfy the needs of their customers on a daily basis.

“We would like to reassure these retailers that the fascias will continue as they are, however they will benefit from the support of a stronger, scaled-up Group working closely with suppliers to do an even better job.”

To be known as Unitas Wholesale to reflect “the principle and desire to work together, focus on common goals and identify ways whereby all parties can win”, the merged group hopes it can create an alternative route to market in the face of other consolidation happening within the wholesale sector.

“We believe that this consolidation is narrowing the options for suppliers and potentially threatening

the future of independent businesses as multiple chains expand into the wholesale channel,” said Goldney. “This merger acts to ensure the sustainable and future success of our members, many of whom have a multi-generation legacy of service to independent businesses, be they convenience stores, catering outlets or many of the other businesses we serve.”

John Mills added: “As member-owned organisations and in line with the principles of ‘every business matters, no matter how big or small’, the two groups will decide whether to progress with the proposed merger via a full membership vote process by 6th September 2018.

“Following this date, we will enter into a period of consultation and selection with the management and staff of both groups to create the structure to support Unitas Wholesale. We would expect the transaction to formally complete by November 2018.”

Current 2018 joint business agreements between the two groups and suppliers will remain in place until the end of the calendar year and Unitas’ new trading team will commence discussions with suppliers regarding 2019 terms (joint business plans, for example) from November, with operational alignment occurring throughout 2019 via a process of integration.

In the meantime, it will be business as usual for both groups and there will be no further detail until the members’ vote closes on September 6.

“Our focus now is to maintain the excellent job we already do for our members and their independent customers and, importantly, continue our positive relationships and momentum with our supplier partners,” said Mills. www.slrmag.co.uk

GroceryAid is the trading name of the National Grocers Benevolent Fund. A registered Charity Reg. No 1095897 (England & Wales) & SC039255 (Scotland). A company limited by guarantee, registered in England & Wales no 04620683

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Comment

GREAT IDEAS ARE ONLY GREAT IF YOU ACT ON THEM Valuable life lessons can come in many varied and often unexpected forms, so it pays to keep your eyes open for them as they can be easy to miss. A case in point is a simple yet very powerful lesson I learned last month while on a study tour with, among others, the high profile and highly successful Coventry retailer Paul Cheema.

As part of an ACS-organised trip we visited Milan to have a nosy around a bunch of stores of all shapes, sizes and types to see what lessons we could learn from our Italian retailing cousins. Over dinner on the first night we were discussing the value of study tours and Paul made it very clear that he viewed study tours as the fuel that keeps his business moving forward.

I’m paraphrasing here (as I didn’t have a notepad with me for dinner), but he basically said that one of the most useful things that any local retailer can do to improve their store is go out and see the inside of other stores.

We discussed how pretty much all retailers see the value in study tours – but far fewer actually get round to doing them. We can all come up with a hundred excuses why we can’t afford to take the time out of the business. Paul’s view is that you can’t afford not to take the time out of the business to see how others are moving retail forward and take from them what you can.

The discussion reminded me of that famous Monty Python scene about dismantling the apparatus of the entire Roman empire and how we should “get off our arses and stop talking about it”. All too often we talk a good game but don’t turn it into action.

Paul, however, is a man of action. The next day we visited countless stores, some of them breath-taking, and as a group we discussed some of the ideas that we would be taking home to improve our own stores – and we found a lot of great ideas. Meanwhile, Paul has been on the phone throughout the day to his brother back in Coventry at the store. He was so impressed with the colourful, inviting fresh fruit and veg displays outside so many Milan stores that he decided he should do the same with his store. That day.

So, by about 5pm that day his brother had found a nice table and some rustic baskets and had built a five-metre fruit and veg display outside the front of his store and was already beginning to rack up the sales. We hadn’t even had our first Aperol Spritz by the time Paul had turned a nice idea into reality.

I’m sure I’m not alone in having a long list of great ideas I really want to implement in my store but haven’t quite got round to yet. It’s time to start getting round to them.

ANTONY BEGLEY, PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

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EDITORIAL Publishing Director & Editor Antony Begley 0141 222 5380 | abegley@55north.com Web Editor Findlay Stein 0141 222 5389 | fstein@55north.com Editorial Contributor Karen Peattie

ADVERTISING Advertising Manager Robert Aitken 0141 222 5302 | raitken@55north.com

DESIGN Design & Digital Manager Richard Chaudhry 0141 222 5388 | rchaudhry@55north.com

EVENTS Events & Operations Manager Cara Begley 0141 222 5381 | cbegley@55north.com

CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTIONS Scottish Local Retailer is distributed free to qualifying readers. For a registration card, call 0141 222 5381. Other readers JUNE obtain copies by annual subscription at £50 (UK), £62 (Europe airmail), £99 (Worldwide airmail).

55 North Ltd, Waterloo Chambers, 19 Waterloo Street, Glasgow, G2 6AY Tel: 0141 22 22 100 Fax: 0141 22 22 177 Website: www.55north.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/slrmag DISCLAIMER The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material lost or damaged in the post. All text and layout is the copyright of 55 North Ltd. Nothing in this magazine JUNE be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher.

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Scottish Local Retailer is produced monthly by 55 North Ltd.

© 55 North Ltd. 2018 ISSN 1740-2409.

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QUALIT Y BLEND

Cover Story

Milan Study Tour

MILAN STUDY TOUR: SCRAPBOOK SLR joined an ACS-organised study tour to Milan last month to learn from our Italian retailing cousins and see first-hand how the convenience and grocery retailing industries are coping with change on the continent.

BY ANTONY BEGLEY

T

here are very few things that a local retailer can do that are more productive than spending time in other stores. Nothing beats seeing how others are approaching the challenges of running a store in 2018 and – while it can be difficult to justify time out of the business – it is invariably worth the effort.

Particularly if the stores you plan to visit are in the stunning Italian city of Milan.

SLR was lucky enough to be invited to join a brief study tour to the historic city organised by the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) last month and it proved to be a remarkably insightful trip. To be more precise, the trip was organised by ACS Commercial Director Paul Chamberlain as a recce for an official ACS study tour to Milan later this year.

Nonetheless, the trip offered the opportunity to visit over a dozen stores in a short space of time and get a real flavour for how food retailing is progressing in the city.

Several well-known retailing figures including Coventry Nisa retailer and ACS Board member Paul Cheema were also on the trip. As was former Nisa CEO and Co-op COO Neil Turton alongside a number of suppliers.

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Milan Study Tour

Cover Story

STUDY TOUR: AN OVERVIEW Depending upon how you look at it, our planning for the order of the store visits was back to front as the first store we visited early on the Thursday morning – a sort of four-floor food and drink department store called Eataly – was possibly the most impressive food store I’d ever seen. Think Whole Foods and Fortnum and Mason combined, but better. Much better.

Not only was the store fitted out and designed to the very highest standards, the range of products available was simply phenomenal and the merchandising was sublime. Most of the entire ground floor is given over to fresh fruit and veg while there are separate entire floors dedicated to fish, fresh and cured meats and wine. There’s also at least one restaurant on every floor and what was most surprising of all, given the sheer size of the store and the eye-watering pricing model, was the fact that on a Thursday morning around 9am it was absolutely packed with shoppers and diners.

Tables outside the store also allowed shoppers to grab breakfast or lunch in the Milanese sun or simply sip an espresso or glass of wine. The entire experience is a joyful one for the shopper.

After such an impressive start it was always going to be difficult to maintain the standard but to be fair to Paul Chamberlain, he had managed to find another 10 or 11 stores that, while not quite to Eataly standard, were still show-stoppers in their own right. From a small 1,500sq ft store beneath an office block to an entire store dedicated to CBD cannabis-derived products, from a typical supermarket to world-class ice cream shop, we saw some genuinely stunning examples of how retailing is done differently in Milan. Not completely differently, but differently enough to be able to fill a good few pages of a notepad with ideas to bring home.

Over the next few pages we offer you a scrapbook of photos from the trip to share some of the experiences and hopefully offer some ideas that may be of some use in your own stores.

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2

3

4

5 EATALY: An emporium of excellence 1 A four-floor paradise for shoppers seeking the highest quality food and drink.

2 Every floor has at least one dining area.

3 An al fresco dining area allows shoppers to enjoy the Milanese sunshine.

4 The longest fish counter we’ve ever seen offers a bewildering array of fish and seafood.

5 An entire floor of wine offers local, regional, national and global wines.

6 The ground floor, laid out like a fruit and veg market, sets the tone.

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Milan Study Tour

Cover Story

1

2

Even from just a couple of days in Milan, it’s fair to say that the standard of retailing is surprisingly high. Yes, it’s a completely different market to the UK with a lot more sunshine and a lot more focus on fresh fruit and veg and chilled produce in particular, but there were nonetheless plenty of lessons to be taken from the trip and shared over the next few pages. It was a particularly enlightening experience to visit the various stores with Paul Cheema, a top-notch retailer with an infectious passion and drive for turning great ideas he finds into reality in his own store.

By the end of the first day’s tour Paul had been so taken with all the beguiling and inviting fresh fruit and veg stands outside so many of the city’s stores that he had his brother replicate the idea outside his own store in Coventry – that same day. From a nice idea at midday, Paul and his brother had turned it into a reality by 5pm with a fivemetre display in place outside the store, fully stocked and up for sale!

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Milan Study Tour

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Cover Story

ESSELUNGA: This mid-range supermarket is a world away from a standard UK supermarket.

1 For some historical reason, Tennent’s Super Lager remains a firm favourite in Italy, apparently.

2 The frozen aisle foregoes Findus Crispy Pancakes for a superb array of frozen dish and seafood.

3 ACS Commercial Director Paul Chamberlain admires the predictably impressive fresh aisle.

4 Not many branded wines available here; most of it is local/ regional and very, very little of it is not Italian.

5 Self-scanning is also making in-roads in Milan.

6 Well, it is Italy, so you might expect 10 full metres of dried pasta.

7 Garlic, sir? Which of the half dozen or so varieties would you be after?

8 The dried and cured meats section is extensive and appetising.

9 They do supermarkets differently in Italy...

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8 9

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Cover Story

1

Milan Study Tour

2

EXPRESS EAT & SHOP: This small c-store under an office block stocks an exceptional range of premium lines.

1 The current trend for veganism is clearly alive and well in Milan.

2 Not for Italian officeworkers is a clock of mild cheddar – take your pick from dozens of artisan cheeses.

3 Express Eat & Shop – but fast doesn’t have to mean fast foods.

4 Fresh and chilled is beautifully presented.

5 Yep, you’ll never struggle to find pasta in Milan.

6 Apparently, the typical Italian officeworker takes his or her salad leaves seriously.

7 CBD is a growing market in Italy too.

8 Lost in translation – some c-stores looked less appealing during the study tour.

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Milan Study Tour

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News

Products

Cadbury reveals reducedsugar Dairy Milk Mondelez has announced that

ProductNews

Cadbury Dairy Milk will be available in a 30% less sugar format, with new bars available from 2019.

The company said the move underscored its ongoing commitment to tackling obesity in the UK. The product is the result of two years of tinkering with the structure of chocolate by boffins at Bournville in a manner that sounds very similar to Nestlé’s experiments, which led to the underwhelming Wowsomes bar.

If successful with consumers, the process will be extended across other Dairy Milk lines.

Squeeze out more oral health sales with new Aquafresh PMP Aquafresh has extended its bigger better value 125ml range

TARGETING THE MILLENNIAL POUND – P46 ENERGY DRINKS Lucozade changes name to lure thirsty gamers

Lucozade is now Larazade for new Tomb Raider tie-in Lucozade Energy has turned into Larazade to mark a new partnership with the upcoming release of the Shadow of the Tomb Raider computer game, which features Lara Croft.

The name change aims to drive additional sales by targeting the UK’s 27 million adult gamers.

Lucozade Energy Orange and Original flavours have been transformed into Larazade for a limited time only, with more

than 80 million promotional bottles available now.

A new limited-edition flavour, Larazade Croft Apple has also been released. Aside from Tesco, Croft Apple is available exclusively to independent retailers.

The three Larazade flavours feature a competition, giving adults the chance to win prizes every day.

These include XBox One X’s, Tomb Raider games, over £40,000 of cash prizes and guaranteed ingame currency with every bottle.

with the introduction of an Aquafresh Triple Protection £1 price-marked pack.

The new PMP is available from wholesalers from August onwards.

Aquafresh is currently growing at 7.5% in convenience and is one of the top three brands for everyday toothpaste.

Purdey’s taps into trend for ‘natural’ energy drinks Britvic has announced a positioning revamp for Purdey’s, supported by a seasonal campaign that aims to grow demand for healthier energy drinks and drive sales this summer.

The brand is keen to tap into the growing Natural Energy subcategory, predicted to be worth £288m in total retail sales value by 2022.

The new brand descriptor – rolling out on packs now – sees the brand repositioned from “multivitamin fruit drink” to “multivitamin energy”. The change aims to resonate more clearly with existing consumers and Purdey’s stockists, as well

CONFECTIONERY

CHEESE

Haribo tinkers with Supermix

Dairylea’s super-cool super-cheesy promotion

Haribo has updated its bestselling Supermix to include peach, lemon meringue and vanilla flavours.

These sit alongside current favourites raspberry, blackcurrant and apple. Packs contain four well-known shapes: little jelly men, sheep, ice cream cones and bottles.

The shapes’ colours are more vibrant than previously, and the flavours creamier.

An updated pack design completes the overhaul.

Dairylea is giving families the chance to win “super cool or cheesy” prizes with its latest on-pack promotion.

Running until the end of September, the promo offers over 1,000 instant win prizes including tablets, bikes, and karaoke kits.

To find out if they’re a winner, consumers need to purchase a promotional pack then enter the barcode online.

The promotion features on packs of Dairylea Dunkers, Snackers and Lunchables. It is supported by digi-tal and social media activity.

Rebecca Prout, Senior Brand Manager for Dairylea, commented: “Being the leading snacking cheese brand, with a 65% share of snacking kits and 33% of kids snacks, we’re championing these segments with a unique promotion that will help retailers drive cheese sales throughout the summer and during the back-to-school period.

“The concept is based around the cool and cheesy things in life (and varying opinions of which!) and we hope this promotion will create fun discussions in everyday family life!”

as bringing new consumers into the healthier energy category.

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Products

News

Copella cops a new look Copella, PepsiCo’s apple juice brand, is championing its quality, provenance and taste with a packaging refresh.

The overhaul is supported by

CONFECTIONERY It’s time to get festive...

Sackfuls of Christmas NPD unwrapped by Mondelez

a campaign to celebrate the “true

Mondelez has revealed a raft of Christmas NPD to help retailers cash in this festive season, including advent calendars, novelty gifts, sharing tubs, cartons and an interesting take on selection boxes.

Mondelez has leveraged the popularity of football with its Cadbury Dairy Milk Premier League Advent Calendar (200g, RSP £4, 16 per case). Aiming to excite young adults, it features an on-pack activation with daily Premier League games and goals.

For grown-ups, the Green & Blacks Advent Calendar (238g, RSP £10.99, 8 per case) – the brand’s first – contains a mixture of smooth dark, milk and praline chocolates.

Fans of flightless seabirds will appreciate the Maynards Bassetts Juicy Chews Jar (495g, RSP £5.15, 4 per case), available in a Christmas-themed novelty penguin jar and filled – unsurprisingly – with Juicy Chews. In a similar vein, the Maynards Bassets Wine Gums Frosted Jar (495g, RSP £5.15, 4 per case) comprises a festive snowman jar filled with Frosted Wine Gums.

Maynards Bassetts Frosted Wine Gums (165g, RSP £1.32, 12 per case) is a seasonal twist on classic Wine Gums but topped with frosted coating and festivelyshaped to resemble stars, crackers, stockings, snowmen, Santa and Christmas trees.

The Mondelez sharing range is enhanced with three new products. The retro Sweet Shop Pouch with Cadbury and Maynards Bassetts (350g, RSP £6.29, 8 per case) offers a mix

“We are really looking forward

taste of nature”. Advertising will include an opportunity to see inside Boxford Farm, where the juice is produced.

Danielle Mendham, Copella Brand Manager, commented: to introducing the transformed Copella to existing shoppers, as well as new fans, as we highlight the unique and delicious taste qualities of the juice.”

KP snaps up Popchips KP Snacks has bought Popchips Europe, which owns and operates the Popchips brand in the UK and Europe, for an undisclosed sum.

Parent company Popchips Inc will continue to own and operate

of Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel, Fudge, Eclairs and Lemon Sherbet.

The Cadbury Heroes Premier League Tin (800g tub, RSP £9.99, 6 per case or 400g pouch, RSP £6.29, 6 per case) includes all the Heroes favourites and a QR code which links to games and prizes for all the family.

Maynards Bassetts Mixups (400g, RSP £3.29, 6 per case) incorporates Sports Mix, Wine Gums and Midget Gems into one festive carton.

Finally, for those looking for a cuddle come Christmas, the Cadbury Christmas Selection Box Plush Toy (78g, RSP £5.99, 8 per case) is available with either a festive Freddo or Dairy Milk monkey cuddly toy, and is filled with Curly Wurly, Freddo, Fudge and Dairy Milk Buttons. As is the Cadbury Plush Stocking (197g, RSP £5.99, 8 per case). Designed to create excitement on Christmas morning, it is also available in the aforementioned Freddo or Dairy Milk monkey designs.

the brand in North America and other international markets.

Popchips offers a range of ‘better for you’ popped and puffed snacks. It made its UK debut in 2012.

Will Bowler, Managing Director, Popchips Europe, commented: “KP Snacks will help us build on our strong momentum as we expand the Popchips brand further in the UK and throughout Europe. We believe this will be a fantastic step forward for the brand.”

Sunbites champions the power of a little good PepsiCo has relaunched its ‘better for you’ Sunbites brand, with refreshed packaging supported by a new TV ad, digital and PR activity, a brandnew website and in-store assets.

The brand’s new positioning highlights that there is a little bit of “taste good” and “do good” in every Sunbite, the latter reflected in a partnership with CARE International. This sees the launch of the ‘Light Her Path’ initiative, aimed at giving girls around the world a proper education.

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AUGUST 2018 | SLR

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News

Off-Trade

Costcutter launches range of craft beers and ciders Costcutter has tapped into

Off-TradeNews

the booming craft pint trend and introduced 30 craft beers and ciders to its offering for independent retailers.

The range includes beers and ciders from around the globe as well as locally-sourced small

DRIVING GROWTH IN THE BREAKFAST CATEGORY – P48 CIDER Horseracing deal for ‘100% Irish’ brand

Magners sponsors Gold Cup

batch brews which are available to retailers through Costcutter’s central supply chain as well as direct to store. Grapefruit, liquorice and tropical fruits are some of the flavours available in 330ml cans and 500ml bottles.

Brands range from Wolf Warning lager and Elk Warning cider to Stan’s Barrel Roller cider and Belhaven Grapefruit, Thistle or Mango lagers. McEwan’s and Old Jock are also in the mix.

Prices vary from £1.99 to £2.79.

To create space for the new category, Costcutter recommends retailers reduce the duplications of existing standard beer and cider offers.

Cider brand Magners has been unveiled as exclusive sponsor of the prestigious Cheltenham Gold Cup and as Presenting Partner of the associated horseracing Festival.

The four-year agreement with the Jockey Club will see the first ‘Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup’ run on Friday March 15, 2019, the feature race on the final day of the Festival.

In addition, the agreement, which runs until 2022, also sees Magners become the Presenting Partner across all four days of the event, which will be recognised as ‘The Festival, presented by Magners’.

The Festival is the fourthbiggest sporting event in the UK, in terms of the total number

of visitors. It has broad and increasing appeal in Ireland, with approximately one-third of tickets sold in 2018 going to Irish race-goers, which resonates with Magners’ new “100% Irish” brand positioning. The Gold Cup was won most recently by Native River (pictured).

Jason Ash, Chief Marketing Officer of brand owner C&C Group, commented: “We are truly excited to put our name to the most prestigious jump race in Europe and partner with one of the UK’s best sporting and social occasions as a platform to engage fans and bring Magners to a global audience.”

BEER

Birra Moretti makes time for what matters Birra Moretti has launched its biggest brand awareness campaign in three years, championing the sociable nature of life between friends and family in Italy.

The £2.5m ‘Time for What Matters’ campaign kicks-off with the brand’s first ever TV advert.

The ad, titled ‘Pull Together’ centres around an Italian family that encourages one child, the eldest son who is always running late, to take time out of his hectic schedule to sit and have dinner with them.

A Birra Moretti bottle is sent via washing lines to tap on his window, enticing him downstairs for a sociable nosh-up with his nearest and dearest. The ad airs in 30- and 60-second versions.

The new campaign comes as the Italian beer has experienced a period of sales growth in the off-trade, with volume up 77% and value up 80% in the year-to-date.

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Off-Trade

News

Hooch targets movie-loving millennials Hooch has unveiled its biggestever promotion, which sees the brand give away a movie with every purchase of a promotional

NO ALCOHOL BEER £6m campaign says ‘Now you can’

Heineken wants to make alcohol-free beer cool

bottle or pack. Expected to hit

Heineken 0.0 has launched what it says is the biggest-ever campaign for an alcohol-free beer in the UK. The integrated ‘Now You Can’ campaign includes a £6m investment in TV commercials, cinema, digital and social activity, as well as several off-trade promotions.

The campaign premise is based around the inclusiveness of Heineken 0.0 to all moments and social occasions, which might call for a beer but not for the alcohol.

The first in a series of three adverts, titled ‘Now You Can: Parking’, sees a man drinking a Heineken 0.0 in a “traditionally non-beer scenario”. The ad runs on TV until September 2018.

‘Now You Can: Gym Locker’ and ‘Now You Can: Work Presentation’ will follow.

500ml bottles whilst two codes

10 million consumers, the promo can be found on the back of Lemon Brew and Hoola Hooch bottles, with a simple scratch and reveal mechanic. Individual codes can be found on 70cl and can be redeemed within Hooch 10-packs. The activity is backed with a summer-long social media campaign

Fall in teen pregnancy rate as kids drink less Research from the Portman Group and the British Pregnancy Advisory Service has found that a decline in alcohol consumption amongst 16 to 18-year-olds has contributed to a fall in the teenage pregnancy rate.

Heineken 0.0, which launched in March 2017, is the fastestgrowing brand in the alcohol-free segment, growing 187% in the last year. On top of this, over half of the top 10 bottled beers in the UK gaining the most distribution in the last year have been alcoholfree.

Nic Casby, Heineken UK Brand Director, said: “We have a bold ambition and a great commitment to lead the premium non-alcoholic beer segment and build positive associations around drinking choices – in other words, we want to make alcohol free beer cool.”

The report examined alcohol consumption trends, as evidence suggests that excessive drinking can lower inhibitions, leading to lower use of contraception.

Nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents reported never drinking alcohol. Most of those who did drank at low levels. More than a quarter (28%) consumed 1-2 units on a typical drinking

RESPONSIBLE NAMING Portman Group nixes ironic Brewdog limited edition

Brewdog’s Pink IPA not for girls after all A complaint about BrewDog’s special edition Pink IPA has been upheld by the Portman Group’s Independent Complaints Panel.

Two complainants, both members of the public, believed that use of the phrase “Beer for Girls” on the special edition version of BrewDog’s Punk IPA could appeal to under 18’s.

While acknowledging Pink IPA was meant to be ironic and designed to generate discussion around the gender pay gap, the Panel noted that the dictionary definition of the term “girl” is “a female child” and expressed concern about the use of the term on an alcoholic drink.

The Panel ruled that the phrase “beer for girls” created, however unintentionally, a link between beer and children.

Accordingly, the Panel upheld the complaint under Code rule 3.2(h).

LIQUEURS

occasion, and half (50%) had

Pickering’s thinks pink for gin liqueur debut

between 1 and 4 units. Only

Edinburgh-based Pickering’s Gin has launched its firstever gin liqueur, in response to customer demand for flavoured drinks.

Pickering’s Pink Grapefruit & Lemongrass Gin Liqueur (20% ABV) is available now in 50cl bottles with an RSP of £19.95.

Using the company’s award-winning gin as its base, the liqueur is made with real fruit pulp and juices.

New Commercial Director for William Grant & Sons

around a quarter (27%) reported drinking 7 or more units.

Matt Billinghurst has joined William Grant & Sons UK in the role of Commercial Director UK & Ireland. The appointment follows a top-level reshuffle at the distiller, which saw Neil Barker take on the role of Managing Director (UK&I), while Rita Greenwood stepped up to Managing Director (EMEA).

Billinghurst joins from PepsiCo, where he most recently held the role of Tesco Sales Director, responsible for leading the commercial agenda across multiple categories and markets.

www.slrmag.co.uk

AUGUST 2018 | SLR

23

News

Newstrade

Scottish Sun radio off to strong start Figures published by

News& Magazines

radio audience monitoring organisation RAJAR have been welcomed by The Scottish Sun as demonstrating “the early success of the Scottish Sun radio stations in building an audience since their launch at the beginning of the year”.

News Scotland and Wireless launched the new DAB and online music radio stations on New Year’s Day, broadcasting in central Scotland under the Scottish Sun brand.

The RAJAR figures, the first to include the new Scottish Sun stations, show that from a standing start they achieved a combined weekly reach of 13,000 listeners in the first six months of the year, with each listener spending an average of six hours a week tuning into the stations.

The launch of the new stations followed successful trials of other Scottish Sun pop-up stations, with The Scottish Summer Sun and The Scottish Sun Xmas Radio proving popular with listeners and advertisers alike.

Welcoming the figures,

BREW UP MORE SALES WITH CRAFT AND PREMIUM BEERS – P50 DISTRIBUTION Menzies bows to shareholder pressure to split business

Sale of Menzies distribution arm receives cautious welcome The news that John Menzies has reached a deal to sell its newspaper and magazine distribution division to UK private equity investors Endless has met with a positive but cautious response from Scottish local retailers.

John Menzies has been in the trade since 1833 and the £74.5m deal will allow Menzies to concentrate on its international airport services business. “By selling the distribution business we create a pure-play aviation services business that operates in a structural growth market and is very well placed to take advantage of the many exciting opportunities that exist,” said Dermot F Smurfit, Chairman of John Menzies.

Activist Menzies investor Lakestreet Capital Partners has been urging the company to split up since 2015 and finally helped force the move through recently.

NFRN National President Mike Mitchelson said: “After a period of uncertainty surrounding the future of Menzies Distribution we cautiously welcome the stability that this announcement should bring.

“We look forward to meeting with the new owners in due course to understand its plans, vision and how it sees the future of newspaper and magazine distribution. At the same time, we will take the opportunity to

share members’ concerns about current practices in the supply chain which, hopefully, Endless will address.

“According to its website, Endless exists “to make business better for everybody”, so we look forward to seeing some real improvements in the working relationship between the news wholesaler and its retail customers and would welcome some much-needed investment.”

Richard Bogie, Managing Director of News Scotland and NEWSPAPERS

News Ireland, said: “We are

NEWSPAPERS

delighted with these figures,

Print advertising rises for first time since 2010

Daily Record publisher posts large losses

Despite concerns over the long-term future of the newspaper and magazine industry, national newspapers in the UK are experiencing the best start to a year in almost a decade, thanks to a combination of factors including an advertiser backlash against Facebook and Google.

Print display advertising in the national newspaper market rose 1% to £153m in the first quarter of 2018, the first time there has been an increase since the last quarter of 2010. The growth was delivered by advertisers targeting the Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Express and Metro, whose combined print display advertising rose 2.8% in the first quarter to £77.8m according to research from the Advertising Association and Warc. In the quality market, print display advertising fell 0.3% to £48m – the best quarterly performance in seven years.

Overall for the full year, the report is forecasting the national newspaper market will fall 1.3%, again the best performance since 2010.

Reach, formerly Trinity Mirror, the publisher of the Daily Record, Mirror and Express newspapers has slumped to a first half loss of more than £114m after slashing the value of its regional titles.

Reach wrote down the value of its 160 local papers and websites by £150m. The impairment charge drove Reach to a pre-tax loss of £114.3 in the first six months of the year, compared with a £38m profit in the same period last year.

The UK’s largest publisher of local newspapers said it cut the value of its portfolio from £347m to £197m to “reflect a more challenging outlook for our regional businesses”.

which show significant early success from a standing start at the New Year. We are focused on continuing to build the audience, and the fact that listeners are tuning on for six hours a week on average indicates that we have a strong base from which to keep growing.

“The figures are very encouraging, and the Scottish Sun radio stations are a strong addition to our print and digital products for readers, listeners and advertisers.

Scottish Sun radio is a growing part of our strategy, and the increasing reach of our brands across platforms is creating excellent new opportunities for commercial partners.”

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Barr Soft Drinks Competition

Inside Business

WIN £50

WORTH OF NEW RUBICON STREET DRINKS*

Barr Soft Drinks is giving 10 retailers the chance to win £50 worth of the new Rubicon Street Drinks range.

The launch of Rubicon Street Drinks lets consumers enjoy a whole new world of refreshment. The category-boosting range, from the UK’s No.1 exotic juice brand1, features four unique flavours inspired by authentic street drinks from some of the world’s hottest places.

Sharbat features the traditional Turkish flavour combination of Pomegranate and Rose and Mexico is the source of inspiration for Agua Fresca, comprising watermelon, lime and mint flavouring.

Indian Inspired Nimbu Pani includes lemon, cumin and mint flavours and African influences are found in Bissap, featuring hibiscus and ginger flavouring.

In research, the range performed well with over 70% of shoppers expressing an intent to buy, and 95% of shoppers thought the range was modern, different, adventurous and eye-catching.2

*Five cases of 12 x 330ml Rubicon Street Drinks, comprising two cases of Nimbu Pani and one case each of Sharbat, Agua Fresca and Bissap

CLOSING DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2018 HOW TO ENTER: Complete the form on the right and send to: AG BARR STREET COMPETITION, SLR, WATERLOO CHAMBERS, 19 WATERLOO ST, GLASGOW, G2 6AY T&C’S: This competition is only open to readers of SLR. Only one entry per store is permitted. Entries received after the closing date will not be considered. The prize is not transferable and the judges’ decision is final.

Name: Company/store name: Address:

Daytime phone number: Email Address: Would you like to continue to receive a copy of SLR?

YN

1: IRI Marketplace, Value Sales, Single Flavour Exotic Juice Drinks, MAT to 20.05.18, Total Coverage 2: JVA Quant Research, March 2018, Nationally Representative Sample

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Signature:

Date: AUGUST 2018 | SLR

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Inside Business

Research Digest

FROZEN FOOD MARKET CONTINUES TO GROW The latest Kantar Worldpanel frozen food retail statistics have shown that the frozen category continues to expand with value growth across almost every category in the 52 weeks to 18 June 2018. The statistics value the retail frozen food market as a whole at over £6.1bn, having seen 5.4% value growth yearon-year.

So far this year, the pizza category continues to lead, followed by savoury food, which includes frozen bread savoury bakery and other frozen foods. These two categories are driving growth with a combined increase in value of over £100m year-on-year. The categories also saw 6.4% and 2.6% volume growth respectively (YOY), and now represent 16% of the value of the total frozen food retail market.

Another category performing well is icecream which has seen a 7.7% value and 0.8% volume growth. The recent hot weather sparked a peak in market growth for this category, with over 16.6 million households choosing to pick up an ice cream as temperatures soared. With weather forecasts predicting more sunshine over the next few weeks, it is expected this category will see further growth.

John Hyman, Chief Executive of British Frozen Food Federation said: “This quarter’s results are particularly encouraging with almost across the board value growth as well as exceptional volume growth, the category is outstripping growth of several leading retailers.

“What we’re seeing is testament to the fact that frozen food, particularly ice cream and savoury food such as meat products, is ideally placed to tap into the trends underpinning consumer eating habits. Consumers are still buying traditional products like ice cream, but NPD is driving them to incorporate more savoury products into their daily diets, which is good news for the frozen food industry.

“More and more people are heading to the frozen food aisles where they know they can get restaurant quality products to enjoy at home. Frozen makes it easier to access convenient and nutritious food such as frozen fish, which has also seen a 3.1% value increase in sales over the last year.”

UK CONVENIENCE TO HIT £74.2BN BY 2023 New forecasts from IGD predict that the UK convenience channel will grow by over £7bn in the next five years.

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orecasts by IGD have revealed that the UK convenience channel is set to grow by £7.1bn in the next five years to reach £47.2bn. Strong store growth over the period will help fuel a compound annual growth rate of 3.3% for the channel to 2023.

Patrick Mitchell-Fox, Senior Business Analyst at IGD, said: “Growth in the convenience channel will come from a mix of activities. New store development will continue to be a key engine for the channel over the next five years, with the co-operatives, symbol and multiple retail segments leading the way. However, with the multiples taking a more conservative approach to expansion, we expect there to be an increasing focus on driving sales from existing stores too.

This makes for a very positive outlook for convenience retailing.”

Mitchell-Fox highlighted three factors underpinning the success of the UK convenience channel: “A new generation of shoppers – post-millennial shoppers, born between 1992–1999, have grown up in an era of ‘new’ convenience, shopping

in convenience stores for a wider range of products than generations before them. This generation of shoppers is used to stores with longer opening hours, that offer great quality products. But while they are key to driving growth, they also have high expectations that need to be met.

“Speed of shopping – as shoppers shift away from the weekly shop to more frequent shopping, the need for speed in-store becomes an important advantage for convenience stores. Further enhancing how quickly shoppers can navigate stores and purchase products will be central for the convenience channel. As more retailers globally trial tillless technology, taking payment automatically via shoppers’ own smart devices will be key to enhancing the speed of shopping trips in the next generation of convenience stores.

“Targeting more shopping missions, more effectively – while topping up the weekly shop remains the main reason for shoppers to visit convenience stores, retailers are also focusing on driving other ways to encourage shoppers into store with more enticing ranges of foodto-go and evening meal solutions.”

‘CREEPY OR COOL’ TECH SURVEY REVEALS SHOPPER CONCERNS

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ichRelevance, an expert in ‘experience personalisation’, has published its fourth ‘Creepy or Cool’ survey asking consumers to rate a number of different technologies and trends as either ‘creepy’ or ‘cool’. The annual survey – which was answered by 2,577 respondents across the UK, France and Germany – produced the following lists.

TOP 5 ‘CREEPY’ TECHNOLOGIES ACCORDING TO UK CUSTOMERS: Q Emotion detection technology that adapts your shopping experience depending on your mood (57.98%) Q Facial recognition technology that recognises your preferences (56.83%) Q Retailers know when you’ve been paid (56.45%) Q Voice assistants within your home (Amazon Alexa, Google Home) are ‘always on’ and listening, providing product suggestions based on your conversations (56.35%) Q Targeted ads on your phone based on your proximity to certain shops (45.56%)

TOP 5 ‘COOL’ TECHNOLOGIES ACCORDING TO UK CUSTOMERS: Q Fingerprint scanning to purchase items from the shop floor (50.05%) Q Using voice-recognition technology to search for products (46.32%) Q Smartphone apps that show product information, display videos, or even flag where desired items are located (40.97%) Q Virtual reality goggles that simulate store aisles in your own home (40.59%) Q Digital screens / interactive mirrors / virtual reality glasses in dressing rooms (35.63%) 26

SLR | AUGUST 2018

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Research Digest

Inside Business

DISCOUNTERS NOW ‘THE MAINSTREAM’ AS LOYALTY TO BRANDS FALLS A shopper survey has found that loyalty to food and grocery brands is tumbling as they are “less relevant than 10 years ago” with discounters the main beneficiaries.

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ew research among 1,000 shoppers from retail and shopper marketing agency Savvy has revealed key insights about the rapidly evolving grocery retail landscape and in particular how shoppers view discount and value retailers.

Key findings from the survey are as follows:

DISCOUNTERS ARE NOW THE MASS MARKET Q It’s clear from the results that Aldi and Lidl are no longer challengers sitting on the side lines. During the past three months 55% of shoppers have visited an Aldi, while 53% walked through the door at Lidl.

Q Value has universal appeal with 56% of affluent ABs visiting Aldi during a threemonth period.

Q Forty-two per cent of UK shoppers prefer the shopping experience at retailers like Aldi and Lidl compared to larger supermarkets.

Q A staggering 75% of 18 to 25-year-olds have visited Aldi during the past three months.

The emerging generation of shoppers don’t see these retailers as the ‘new kids on the block’ or even as discounters. They see them

as supermarkets that sell quality products at competitive prices.

Q 60% of UK shoppers say they would like it if Aldi and Lidl opened a store closer to their home.

Q 76% of all shoppers believe that Aldi and Lidl sell quality food and drink and 67% believe Aldi and Lidl’s own label products are as good as leading brands.

Q 67% of shoppers say that retailers like Aldi and Lidl are convenient to shop, while 58% say they enjoy the shopping experience at these retailers.

IMPLICATIONS FOR RETAILERS

Q The Big Four have made good progress in bringing their prices down and restoring competitiveness, however with 69% of UK shoppers saying that retailers like Aldi and Lidl are the best value food and grocery retailers, there’s further work to be done here.

Q Savvy expects the Big Four will raise quality standards further and step up the pace of innovation to drive differentiation of product and try to win back the loyalty of shoppers.

Q Retailers will need to up their game in convenience. Tesco and Sainsbury’s may

RETAIL SALES UP FOR SIXTH CONSECUTIVE QUARTER

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he Scottish Government’s Retail Sales Index (RSI) has revealed that the value of retail sales edged up by 0.5% in the second quarter of 2018.

This is the sixth consecutive quarter of growth in the value of retail sales according to the RSI, and a small improvement on the 0.3% increase seen in Q1.

Commenting on the figures, Ewan MacDonald-Russell, Scottish Retail Consortium Head of Policy, said: “Scottish retail sales continue to show low but sustained growth in 2018. This rise in the value of retail sales is a valuable counterpoint to some of the gloom surrounding the industry – retail continues to play a part in growing Scotland’s economy.

“Nonetheless, it’s disappointing retail sales were only marginally higher than the first quarter of 2018; a period which saw very wintry weather. Furthermore, it’s crucial to recognise that the UK as a whole outperformed Scotland over this period, a trend which has been evident for some time now. The reality is retailers are under enormous pressure right now from a combination of a sluggish Scottish economy, increased costs for consumers, and the ever-increasing burden of government policy.” www.slrmag.co.uk

have evolved the convenience store market through their respective Express and Local formats, however large superstores are not convenient to shop: ranges are vast and can be overwhelming and while retailers think in terms of categories, shoppers do not.

The onus is on the big retailers to make life easier for shoppers, to inspire them with great ideas and great products – not only for events but for every day occasions.

IMPLICATIONS FOR BRANDS Q Shoppers’ perceptions of brands are changing. Over two-thirds (70%) of UK shoppers say they are less loyal to brands than they were 10 years ago, while 66% think brands are less relevant than they were 10 years ago. 62% of shoppers say they typically buy own brand products over branded alternatives. Drill into the attitudes of younger shoppers and the findings paint a bleaker picture for brand owners. Alastair Lockhart, Insight Director at Savvy, said: “We expect life will become significantly more difficult for some brands. A new breed of younger shoppers will only seek out and pay for brands that offer something distinctive.”

‘SOCIAL AWKWARDNESS’ UPSELL OPPORTUNITY? New research has highlighted the bizarre emotions that drive Brits to shop, including a finding that over a fifth (21%) of UK consumers have bought an item from a shop assistant because of ‘social awkwardness’ – often making purchases simply to avoid saying no or having an uncomfortable conversation with retail staff, which perhaps helps explain the success of tillpoint upselling.

The findings come from a new ‘Stress Shopping’ research report conducted by Clicktale among over 1,000 UK shoppers. The findings also revealed that 83% are annoyed by in-store assistants, while 79% are stressedout by assistants making recommendations for products they would never buy. Interestingly, this annoyance also translates online, with 65% of shoppers saying they feel stressed as a result of unhelpful product recommendations on ecommerce sites and mobile applications.

In addition to shopping out of social awkwardness, Clicktale’s research also suggests that consumers are influenced by a surprising range of emotional cues and feelings when deciding to shop. Of those surveyed, 46% admit to shopping to distract themselves from hunger, 74% make purchases because they’re feeling stressed, and 58% buy because they’re bored.

AUGUST 2018 | SLR

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WOODLANDSlocal

Inside Business

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Woodlands Local | Monthly Update

CELEBRATING OUR MOST PROFITABLE MONTH EVER!

Thanks to the temporary closure of the store around the corner, Woodlands Local celebrated its most profitable month since we bought it four years ago!

BY ANTONY BEGLEY

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e’re not kidding ourselves on: we know exactly why July was a good month – our nearest competitor closed for a refit – but we still feel it would be wrong of us not to celebrate the fact that July was the most profitable month we’ve had at Woodlands Local since we first bought the store four years ago. It’s a small victory but a victory nonetheless, and we’ll take any success we can get at this point.

The store was around 23% up on typical sales levels throughout July, which is massive and brought its own (very welcome) problems. Our ordering and staffing regimes had to be slightly reworked to cope with the increased volumes but that led us to tweak our existing structures and systems.

We also introduced a more regimented rota pattern and ordering procedure, but those much needed anyway.

SLR | AUGUST 2018

More positive news comes from the fact that, while sales have fallen since the competitor store re-opened, we’ve settled so far at a level around 6% or 7% higher than we were averaging before. Whether this is a long-term trend and we’ve permanently stolen some footfall or whether the figures fall over the coming weeks and months remains to be seen.

Of course, we also must factor in the effect of weather, the World Cup and to a lesser extent the European Championships when judging the store’s relative performance but all told, it looks like we’re making gentle progress on a lot of fronts.

STAFFING We’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that staffing will always be our biggest challenge but with one of our two supervisors www.slrmag.co.uk

Inside Business

Monthly Update | Woodlands Local

due to return home after her visa expires in October we’ve decided to start planning ahead by reverting to have a full-time manager. Our second supervisor, Kerry, has been promoted to store manager and given responsibility for managing recruitment and building her own team with a focus on energy, commitment and constant improvement.

Within weeks she has already made a significant impact, drafting in a bigger team of full-time staff and drilling them in how we expect everything to be done, down to the tiniest detail. It’s still early days in our latest staffing strategy but the signs so far are good.

We’re already encountering fewer instances of core, basic actions being missed.

ELECTRICAL SHOCK No, we haven’t electrocuted anyone. The electrical shock we suffered was the meltdown of one of the shop’s electrical loops that meant we lost the tills, the Lottery terminal and the PayPoint machine for most of a full day – which cost of thousands of pounds in sales and made a big dent in the weekly performance report.

The problem was fixed later the same day, but it was very disappointing, given that the entire store was rewired and a new threephase supply fitted just a few years ago.

FROZEN SHOCK Another significant cause of stress last month was when a wall socket decided to stop working. Unfortunately, this caused our main catering freezer and two small catering fridges to switch off during the night. All the frozen and chilled stock was lost and we had a full morning without any catering stock to service the hot food operation which, as you can imagine, went down really well with our customers.

An emergency delivery by local supplier AML Foods helped minimise the damage and get things back on track but it never ceases to amaze me how unforgiving customers can be when it comes to things over which you have absolutely no control and which are costing you lots of money. They’ve been able to buy hot food for 360-odd days of the year but it’s the one day that they can’t that seems to be the one that’s most important to them!

PLANOGRAMS Last month also saw us introduce two new ranges and planograms in the store: one for the soft drinks (from AG Barr) and one for biscuits (by pladis). The two fixtures certainly look a lot more enticing but it will be a little while before we can deduce whether or not they have helped grow sales.

Again, interpreting the sales data will be a challenge as we will have to factor in the sustained period of hot weather we had, the effect of the World Cup and so on. But we’ve got to hope that sales have been increased through the activity.

PARKING PROBLEMS A perennial issue we face in the store is the parking area outside. Technically a public road, the five or six spaces we have available are only supposed to be for 30 minutes maximum with no return within two hours.

The sign pointing this out however is very small and in four years of having the store we’ve never seen a traffic warden around to enforce it.

The major problem is that every Friday and Sunday, all spaces are taken up by noncustomers who park there for around two hours while they use the church across the road. This hosts a Slimming World on Fridays, alongside the church service every Sunday.

We’ve tried all sorts of ideas to encourage the churchgoers not to use the spaces and deprive customers of the ability to visit the store for essentials, but our requests have largely fallen on deaf ears. We’ve even had a fair bit of verbal abuse, which you could interpret as being very un-Christian indeed.

So far we’ve resisted the urge to suggest to the slimming club members that parking around the corner and adding a two-minute walk to their trip might not be a bad idea.

Our latest plan is another campaign of approaching Falkirk Council to ask them to install a more visible sign highlighting the 30-minute rule or even just sending a traffic warden around one Friday or Sunday morning. It has never worked so far but we’re nothing if not persistent.

BISCUITS REBUILD IN PROGRESS As reported in the last issue of SLR, we are also in the process of doing a full remerchandise of our biscuit fixture with industry giants pladis. That process is nearing completion and will be able to provide in-store photographs in the next issue with an initial indication of how sales are faring under the new layout.

www.slrmag.co.uk

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Inside Business

Woodlands Local | Soft Drinks Remerchandising

New AG Barr planogram is go!

WOODLANDSlocal

Woodlands Local is working with AG Barr to implement a radical new planogram in the store built around key drivers identified by the soft drinks giant. Last month saw the new layout implemented in the store.

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BY ANTONY BEGLEY

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ast month we explained how we are now working with AG Barr to implement their radical new soft drinks planogram in Woodlands Local and we’ve now had the chance to do just that.

A team from AG Barr visited the store in July to rip the existing fixture up and start again from scratch. Barr’s had taken the Epos data from Woodlands and merged it with their own data sets to AG Barr’s Nick produce what we believe is a Bentley. striking new planogram, laid out according to what Barr’s is calling ‘consumer need states’ [see panel below].

These need states were in turn derived from three key drivers that Barr’s believes sit at the heart of modern soft drinks purchasing and consumption.

While soft drinks sales have been fantastic over the last few months thanks to the weather, we are very hopeful that the new planogram will help us drive even further growth and maintain

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need states highlighted using SEL point of sale

CONSUMER NEED STATES The new planogram is built around six ‘consumer need states’ identified by AG Barr as being the most important sales drivers in soft drinks today. They are as follows: Q Healthy Refreshment – Water and water-plus products perform an important, functional role Q Tasty Hydration – Low calorie products with the health benefits of water and the great taste of a carbonate Q Everyday Enjoyment – The backbone of the fixture needs a good range of great-tasting choices Q Adult Social – Indulgent treats and options for those that avoid alcohol Q Connecting Cultures – Vibrant section to tap into growing demand for exotic flavours Q On The Go – Nearly a third of purchases is an energy drink, so this section must offer the right range of products and flavour choices

SLR | AUGUST 2018

www.slrmag.co.uk

Soft Drinks Remerchandising | Woodlands Local

Inside Business

KEY DRIVERS The six consumer need states have been derived from three key drivers that AG Barr believes reflect changing consumer lifestyles, influences and needs in relation to buying and consuming soft drinks. They are: Q Health & Wellbeing Q Taste & Fun Q Lifestyle & Culture

increases of 18%.

He said: “The trials have shown that our new approach can really drive incremental sales by engaging shoppers and driving loyalty. We’re really looking forward to seeing how Woodlands Local gets on now that the new planogram is in place.”

enhanced volumes once the hot sun inevitably disappears behind some Falkirk clouds, as it has already started to do.

Barr’s Category and Shopping Marketing Controller Nick Bentley says the company undertook the project to help retailers get to grips with a vitally important category. He said: “We’ve taken a long, hard look at the category, together with lifestyle changes that are sweeping across the UK and how they impact on soft drinks consumption.

“It’s difficult for retailers to be an expert on every category within their store and that is where we can help by really understanding your shopper at local level, to ensure your store stands out from the crowd by offering the choice they really want.”

The new planogram has already been trialled in three other stores, very different from Woodlands Local, and Bentley says it has been a huge hit with average sales www.slrmag.co.uk

18% average sales uplift in three trial stores

AUGUST 2018 | SLR

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Inside Business

Woodlands Local | Growing Gum Sales

Making gum increases stick

WOODLANDSlocal

Working with gum giant Mars Wrigley Confectionery over the last year has helped Woodlands Local grow gum sales consistently since the start of 2018 – an encouraging result in an already popular category.

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BY ANTONY BEGLEY

7.9% increase in sales volumes

5%

increase in GP

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chieving sustained growth in any category is satisfying but achieving growth in a category that has historically performed solidly anyway is particularly pleasing – which is why we are permitting ourselves a small pat on the back for having growing sales of our gum category consistently since the turn of the year.

As the chart shows, our monthly gum sales by unit have continued to grow from January right up until the most recent full month available via our Epos system. Sales in the first couple of months of the year were 582 units, growing to 604 in March and April before rising once more to 628 in May and June. Without wishing to count our chickens, the July sales totalled 332 units which bodes well for another solid couple of months’ sales.

Much as we’d like to take all the credit for this performance, we must share it with our partners Mars Wrigley. The company has been extremely active in supporting us with a range of in-store activity that has brought the category to the forefront of our shoppers’ minds, created some excitement around it and found innovative new ways to sell more gum in the store.

The project is still in progress and while continuing to grow the category will undoubtedly become an increasingly tall order we’re up for the challenge, as are Mars Wrigley, and we have

SLR | AUGUST 2018

10.8% increase by value

some more exciting activity coming down the line.

What is already clear however is that by dedicating a little more time and energy to categories that already seem to be performing well can help create fresh new growth.

WOODLANDS LOCAL – TOP 5 GUM LINES (UNITS SOLD JAN-JUL 18) Q Q Q Q Q

Wrigley Extra Original Blue (316) Wrigley Extra Spearmint Green (305) Wrigley Extra White Bubblemint (253) Wrigley Extra Cool Breeze (251) Wrigley Airwaves Menthol & Eucalyptus (186)

www.slrmag.co.uk

# Th i n kSm a r t

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Register your interest now for the UK’s leading tech, data and customer engagement event for the convenience retailing sector.

To find out how to attend, contact events@55north.com To find out about sponsorship and exhibiting and speaking opportunities contact Robert at aitken@55north.com To find out about speaking opportunities contact Antony at abegley@55north.com

Hotlines

Product News & Media Watch

Starburst Minis Mars Wrigley Confectionery Anyone who has struggled to peel the paper from sweet will appreciate Starburst Minis, a smaller unwrapped version of Starburst Original. It is a worth $30m NSV in the US and projected to increase to $85m by 2020. Four pack sizes are available: 196g (RSP £1.39, cases of 12), 152g (RSP £1, cases of 12), 125g (RSP £1, cases of 12) and 45g (RSP 49p, cases of 24).

Baxters Royal Game Soup limited-edition Baxters Food Group Baxters has released a limitededition label for its Royal Game soup to celebrate 150 years in business. The packs, which bear a contemporary label inspired by an original 1930s design, are available now from Booker and Nisa with an RSP of £1.10.

The venison and pheasant soup, first created in 1929, is low in fat, low in calories and a good source of protein.

Green & Black’s singles Mondelez Green & Black’s is targeting the burgeoning premium singles market (currently in growth at 46.7%) with two new bars. Both Green & Black’s Truffle (38.5g) and Green & Black’s Praline (37g) are available now, with an RSP of 89p. The bars are ethically sourced, contain no artificial flavours, preservatives or colours. The brand will be supported with “significant” investment, including PR, social media and instore activity.

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Thins are looking good for McVitie’s Pladis has launched two brand-new additions to its McVitie’s Thins range: Digestives Chocfilled Thins and Hobnobs Thins.

McVitie’s Digestives Chocfilled Thins features two crunchy Digestives Thins sandwiched around a solid chocolate centre.

It bucks the trend for sandwiched biscuits by offering a solid core instead of a cream filling.

Two variants – Milk Chocolate and Double Choc – are available now in 130g packs with an RSP of £1.79.

Also hitting shelves is McVitie’s Hobnobs Thins, extending the Thins range beyond Digestives for the first time. Available now in 170g packs with an RSP of £1.79, it is expected to recruit younger consumers into the category with its modern take on a classic biscuit.

Emma Stowers, Brand Director for McVitie’s at pladis UK&I, commented: “The Thins range is an important innovation platform for McVitie’s. Since the first McVitie’s Digestives Thins launch last year, its popularity has grown quickly and consistently, with retail sales of £17m to date. We’re ab-solutely thrilled to extend the range further with the launches of McVitie’s Digestives Chocfilled Thins and McVitie’s Hobnobs Thins.”

myblu starter kit Imperial blu’s latest next-generation ‘pod mod’ system, my-blu (RSP £19.99), rolls out from September. myblu combines a high-performance vaporiser, which takes just 20 minutes to charge, with the device’s hassle-free Liquidpods. It is the first widely-available pod mod device to feature Nicotine Salts, which results in nicotine being absorbed into the body at a significantly more rapid rate than normal e-liquids.

Frosted Wine Gums Mondelez Mondelez – a key player in the festive novelty market – has unveiled Maynards Bassetts Frosted Wine Gums. Unsurprisingly, this is a seasonal twist on classic Wine Gums but topped with frosted coating and festively-shaped to resemble stars, crackers, stockings, snowmen, Santa and Christmas trees. Hanging bags of 165g RSP at £1.32 and come in outers of 12.

Dolmio Veggie Goodness Mars Food This new pasta sauce contains two of your five-a-day portions of fruit and vegetables in every serving.

Available now, the 340g pouches (RSP £1.99) contain two servings and are available in four varieties: sun-ripened tomato, courgette and basil; sun-ripened tomato, sweet pepper and chilli; sun-ripened tomato, lentil and garlic; and a smooth tomato and hidden vegetables Bolognese sauce.

www.slrmag.co.uk

Product News & Media Watch New Tropicana flavours PepsiCo

Boost + Protein Mondelez

Tropicana has squeezed out two new flavour combinations and given its on-the-go range a new modern look. Watermelon, Apple & Raspberry juice and Mixed Berries are both available now in 300ml bottles with an RSP of £1.61.

The new packaging has also rolled out, supported by a nationwide campaign that includes social, display and in-store activity.

Cadbury has beefed-up its Boost bar with 12 grams of protein to create new Boost + Protein, which is available now. As well as four times more protein than a standard Boost, the new 49g bar (RSP £1.49) contains one-third less sugar. The Boost brand, including Boost + Protein, will be supported by a £1m campaign that includes out-of-home advertising, sampling, PR, digital and social media activity. Retailers will also be able to utilise a range of on- and off-shelf POS.

MEDIAwatch

Hotlines

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Hard rock, soft centres for Haribo Haribo Supermix is showcasing its new mix in the latest instalment of the ‘Kids’ Voices’ series. Part of a £1.3m investment, the new ad will be on air until late September. It features a hard rock band who, upon opening a pack of Supermix, reveal their softer, more childlike side. The familiar Haribo jingle also features – but in a rock version, for the first time.

Galbani unveils £1m campaign

Upbeat Spring Water Upbeat

Colman’s Seasoning Blends Unilever

Upbeat Drinks has unveiled a new range of real fruit spring waters enriched with protein and vitamins.

The initial roll-out sees two variants launched – Summer Lemon and Blueberry & Raspberry – with additional flavours in development. Each 500ml bottle (RSP £1.79) is made with real fruit, contains 12 grams of whey protein, is filled with essential vitamins, has less than 55 calories and contains no added sugar.

Colman’s says its new packet mixes are the first in the category that are reduced in salt, contain no added sugar and are gluten-free. With an RSP of £1.19 per pack, variants include: Smoky Mexican Tacos, Blazin’ Chilli Con Carne, Kickin’ Jamaican Jerk and Herby Spaghetti Bolognese.

The range targets those looking to cook healthier evening meals, but with the ease of a packet mix.

Lactalis McLelland has launched a £1m advertising campaign in support of its Galbani cheese brand. The campaign runs until the end of August and reminds consumers about Galbani’s product quality credentials and Italian heritage, as well as highlighting the cold usage consumption of its key Mozzarella product.

Maltesers pushes digital button Maltesers Buttons is the subject of a new £1.3m digital-only campaign from Mars Wrigley Confectionery. It is part of the brand’s strategy to help introduce a younger demographic of adults to Maltesers. It consists of a series of six adverts and social GIFs showing people demonstrating their playful side with Maltesers Buttons.

Yazoo tempts twentysomethings Cadbury Goo Heads Mondelez

Skittles Chewies Mars Wrigley Confectionery Skittles Chewies is best described as Skittles Fruits without the shell, the removal of which creates a soft fruity texture and less intense flavour profile. It is available to the Impulse channel in 45g packs (RSP 49p, cases of 36). A £1.2m media campaign supports the launch, including Facebook and Instagram GIFs and memes, as well as sixand 20-second Youtube videos.

Cadbury Goo Heads is new for Halloween 2018, and available now in skeleton, pumpkin, Frankenstein, Dracula or werewolf variants. Each head (RSP 55p) is filled with white fondant encased in a chocolate shell. Packs of five (RSP £2.85) are also available, as is Goo Head Minis (RSP £1.49, 89g), a sharing selection of individually-wrapped mini gruesome noggins.

Yazoo’s new outdoor and digital ‘SoooOO Tasty’ campaign targets 16 to 24-year-olds onthe-go. Running to September, it will be visible on out-of-home sites, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, supported by shopper and sampling activity. The digital campaign is estimated to reach 5m young adults, while 1,450 bus shelters will showcase the brand.

What makes a Twirl so twirly?

Cadbury Twirl’s new £3m marketing campaign aims to build a more emotional connection with the product by asking “What makes it so Twirly?” The campaign aims to bring in a new younger shopper (16 to 25) as well as retain the core singles audience (25 to 44). A TV ad, video-on-demand, social, digital and content partnerships run until the end of September.

for all the latest product news, head to www.slrmag.co.uk/category/product-news/ www.slrmag.co.uk

AUGUST 2018 | SLR

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Feature

Category Management Guide

GETTING PROACTIVE WITH CATEGORY MANAGEMENT Efficient, proactive category management is a fundamental of modern retailing and is vital to maximising sales, profits and footfall in all stores. SLR offers a hands-on guide to getting the basics right first time every time.

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uilding and maintaining a solid, well thought out category management strategy is a fundamental requirement for running a modern convenience store. With so many tasks to carry out in a typical day it’s not a safe bet to simply make category management decisions on the fly using gut instinct. Those days are long gone. There’s more than enough research around to prove beyond any doubt that the complexity of a modern c-store means retailers must use every tool available to make well-informed decisions using solid, dependable data.

The heart of that process is of course a good Epos system, of which there are many to choose from these days. But only by being able to log, track and investigate your own store’s sales in detail can you hope to build the strongest possible range and then give that range the best possible chance of delivering increased sales, profits and footfall for your business.

At its most basic, category management is simply ensuring you have the right products in the right place at the right time for your customers. In practice, however, truly efficient category management is a very tough nut to crack with plenty of things that can prevent you from implementing your strategy efficiently.

One of the most traditional ways of approaching category management is to start big and work your way down the smaller

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elements, or macro to micro in the jargon. So, first start by looking at your entire store and imagine it empty. Then think about where each category should ideally be placed in the store and why. Next work out how much space each category should be allocated. Once you’ve done that you can start thinking about which products you should list to fill the available space.

When thinking about where each fixture should go, imagine the typical customer journey. Do you want them to find the category as soon as they walk through the door, or do you want them to have to pass another category or two before they reach the fixture? Take convenience staples bread and milk, for example, as destination items; they’re the sorts of products your shoppers visit your store specifically for – so you might want to site the fixture half way up the store to force shoppers up the aisle and past one or two impulse fixtures so that they might pick up an extra item or two.

Also consider fixture adjacencies. Which categories are often bought together? Bread and milk. Beer and crisps. Sandwiches and soft drinks. Would it make sense to move fixtures closer to one another to drive up basket spend?

Working out how much space each fixture merits is relatively straightforward and is basically a function of two things: physical product size (a loaf is bigger than a packet of gum) and sales. If 20% of your sales come www.slrmag.co.uk

Category Management Guide

from a certain category, it makes sense to perhaps allocate 20% of space to the category in-store. You can get as clever as you dare on this front, allocating space according to a whole range of things from cash profit to unit sales, from rate of sale to percentage profit.

However you do it, it’s important to do it to a set strategy. That way you can measure your success down the line and make changes as required.

That done you can turn to choosing which products deserve a space on your newly designated fixture. Again, the same space allocation rules should broadly apply. Give more spaces to bigger selling lines and site them at around eye level. Review your sales regularly and delist as required and don’t forget to decide how you’ll fit NPD onto the fixture when it appears.

If you try the aforementioned mental exercise of starting your store from scratch it’s a fair bet the ideal store you imagine doesn’t look entirely like the real one you actually have in front of you – and that’s understandable.

Lots of factors come into play when laying your store out and they evolve and change over time for all sorts of good (and not so good) reasons.

But just because this is the way it is doesn’t mean this is the way it has to be. It’s your store and if you think it would be more profitable to move things around then get your sleeves rolled up.

The key to the whole strategy is being www.slrmag.co.uk

proactive. Manage the store according to your own strategy; don’t let the store end up managing you. One easy way to get the ball rolling is to simply make the decision to review every category in-store over a set period of time.

At a very basic level, proactive category management can simply mean running your sales data for the category for the last six months and delisting anything that falls below a certain rate of sale. If you’re only selling half a case every three months, the chances are that the space would be better given over to a different product that might prove more popular.

Similarly, if you have products that are flying, would they do even better if you gave them more space on shelf and move them to a more prominent position, at eye-level, for instance? Giving them more space could help grow sales as well as reducing restocking challenges.

Like most tasks in local retailing, good quality category management is not complex, it’s just time consuming. But put an agreed strategy and plan in place and you will find that a bit of hard work at the outset saves you a lot of time down the line. It will also help you make more money from your store.

Over the next eight pages we offer you some great category management advice from some of the biggest players in some of the biggest categories. The time to make your category management strategy proactive is now.

Feature

KEY CHALLENGES Some of the key challenges that face retailers when building a proactive category management strategy that maximises sales and profits include the following: Q Space allocation: how much shelf or floor space should you allocate to each category?

Q Fixture allocation: where should each fixture be placed within the store?

Q Product allocation: how many facings should you give to each product on the fixture and where should they be sited on the fixture?

Q Ranging: which range of products should you list within each category?

Q Adjacencies: which fixtures should be placed near one another to optimise cross-category sales?

Q Promotions management: how should promotions be incorporated into your store?

Q Merchandising: how should each fixture be presented and what can you do to enhance the appeal of the fixture?

Q Signage: how can you use signage to make the shopper’s journey through the store simpler and more likely to lead to increased sales?

AUGUST 2018 | SLR

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Want to drive sales?

HEINEKEN can help you

Visit www.starretailer.com for the latest news, planograms and advice on how to drive sales in store. Follow us on Twitter @StarRetailer

The HEINEKEN Star Retailer scheme is designed to make convenience stores more convenient for your customers. With ideas to merchandise, information to improve store functionality and advice on serving your shoppers’ needs, it’ll make your life easier too.

“With the Star Retailer scheme, you are constantly getting advice and having discussions with your Star Retailer representative around current trends, which has resulted in changes being made and an increase in sales in store.”

Bruce Sanders – SPAR, Swindon

This year HEINEKEN unveiled The Greenpaper; a new category strategy, offering solutions to grow your business and accelerate growth in the beer and cider category. It identified the six key drivers that will be instrumental in identifying an incremental £670m in value for the Off Trade over the next three years.

The six drivers:

52% Sports & Seasons

Sold over seasonal periods

What is it?

There are sporting events and seasonal occasions happening all year round that you could be capitalising on Insight 52%1 of the category sales are sold over key seasonal periods Drive sales by…

Reminding shoppers of sporting events and seasonal period by displaying posters and point of sale in store

28%

We’re Worth It

Would trade up to premium products

What is it?

Consumers looking to treat or reward themselves is a growing motivation for drinking alcohol; it’s often unplanned and mainly comprises of premium products Insight 28%2 of average convenience store shoppers would like to trade up to more premium products, presenting a huge opportunity Drive sales by…

Catching your shoppers’ eye by displaying premium products in unexpected places

3

5

1 Nielsen Scantrack Total Off Trade 2 HIM, 2018 Nielsen 52 Week Rolling MAT Value Sales in the Impulse Channel to 16/06/2018 4 Nielsen YTD Value Sales for No Alcohol in the Impulse Channel to 16/06/2018 Nielsen 52 Week Rolling MAT Value Sales in the Impulse Channel to 16/06/2018 6 HIM Ltd 2018 7 InSites Consulting/HEINEKEN Category Image Study 2017

70%

+38%

Live Better

No, low and gluten free Beer and Cider

What is it?

Consumers are trying to lead healthy lifestyles; by supporting their choices, you’re providing options for people looking for moderation

Maximise the Core

of the category is mainstream and classic products

What is it?

Get the basics right to improve your shoppers’ in store experience; this helps them spend more and cements you as their go to ‘local’

Insight The no, low and gluten free segment has grown by +38%3 in value (MAT) Heineken 0.0 is responsible for 72% of category growth of No Alcohol in impulse YTD4

Insight Mainstream and classic products account for +70%5 of the beer and cider category

Drive sales by…

Catering for all by stocking a range of options in your fridge… No and Low Alcohol is a trend that’s here to stay

Drive sales by…

Implementing a clean and clear layout, combined with big brands and creative point of sale, are simple ways to enhance the shopping experience, increase dwell time and up spend in store

43%

£31m

My Generation What is it?

The 18-24 year old generation of cider and beer drinkers are a brand new market; we need to make sure we are speaking their language

Opportunity in value

Great with Food

of large single bottles are purchased with food

What is it?

Food and drink were made for each other, make the most of this potential upselling opportunity

Insight The millennial generation represent an incremental opportunity of £31m in value over the next three years for the beer and cider category6

Insight 43%7 of large single bottles are purchased as an accompaniment to food

Drive sales by…

Using social media to share promotions with beers and ciders that fit their lifestyle

Drives sales by…

Making it simple for shoppers with promotions and displays featuring beer, cider and food together

www.starretailer.co.uk

@StarRetailer

Feature

Young Adult Brands

TARGETING THE MILLENNIAL POUND

The young adult market represents a huge opportunity for retailers willing to build a targeted offer around their very specific requirements. SLR looks at some of the key brands and campaigns that resonate with millennials.

M

uch as we may have come to loathe the much over-used term ‘millennials’, the fact remains that the number of people born after the year 2000 has now grown into a very significant market that merits the attention of Scotland’s local retailers.

Millennials are invariably looking for a very different experience and sense of engagement from the brands they use, so building a focused range and presenting it in a way that resonates with the target audience is key to unlocking the profit potential of young adult brands.

SMIRNOFF CIDER Smirnoff’s venture into the cider market has helped bring the brand to the attention of a broader audience, including millennials. The range was extended last year to include a new Mandarin & Pink Grapefruit variant as well as 330ml can multipacks of its existing Passionfruit & Lime and Raspberry & Pomegranate SKUs. It seems that cans are where it’s at for younger shoppers these days and Smirnoff was among the first brands to embrace the shift.

HOOCH Those of us a bit too old to fall into the millennial bracket may recall the days when Hooch was once the all-conquering ‘alcopop’ of choice for younger adults. The brand subsequently fell into major decline but was relaunched in the UK in 2012 by Global Brands.

The relaunched 4% ABV Lemon Brew product keeps as close as possible to the original recipe and contains real fruit juices. Since the relaunch, the range has been extended with the addition of a Mango and Passionfruit variant, Hoola Hooch.

The brand launched its biggest ever promotion this summer in a campaign that sees Hooch giving away a movie with every purchase of a promotional bottle or pack. Consumers will have access to thousands of movies at the touch of a button, including many of the biggest cinema blockbusters.

Expected to hit 10m consumers and support its ‘Just Av An Ooch’ campaign, the limited-edition promotion will encourage younger adult drinkers to enjoy a Big Night In courtesy of the brand.

Christian Sarginson, Brand Controller at Global Brands, said: “Continued research into our consumers’ habits and behaviours has been key in developing our latest campaign. Hooch has such a diverse drinker base that finding common interests can often be tricky, however this promotion enables us to reward all our key drinker types as well as recruit new consumers to the brand. With both the World Cup and Love Island over there is a gaping hole in prime-time TV, so we’re providing the perfect solution to fill it!”

The new promotion can be found on the back of both Lemon Brew and Hoola Hooch bottles, and features a simple scratch and reveal mechanic.

Hitting shelves now, the individual codes can be found on 70cl and 500ml bottles whilst two codes can be redeemed within Hooch 10-packs.

The brand will support the on-pack promotion with an engaging social media campaign and on-trade activity across the summer.

RED BULL A perennial favourite with younger adult shoppers is, of course, Red Bull. While the brand has had its ups and downs, it’s very much on the up at the moment, growing +8.4% in value and +12% in volume and performing well across all channels within the UK, in particular Take Home (+8.0% value) and Symbols (+7.0% value) [IRI, Apr 2018].

Red Bull is also the number one single serve soft drink, worth £137.5m and growing +2.7%, making the 250ml can a must stock.

Mark Bell, Strategy and Planning Manager at Red Bull UK, advises however that retailers keep a close eye on the evolving trend for lower sugar products. He says: “With the heightened importance placed on the health agenda over the past year and the Soft Drinks Industry Levy in place, consumers expect healthier options.

Therefore it is imperative to offer a low calorie alternative to give consumers choice.

“Diet is worth £144m, which equates to 11.3% of the Sports & Energy category, increasing by 1.7% from last year. Growing at 7% to £31.9m, Red Bull Sugarfree 250ml is the number one low calorie sports and energy drink, and is 1.4 times bigger than the number two low calorie sports and energy SKU. [IRI, Jan 2018].”

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www.slrmag.co.uk

Young Adult Brands

Feature

WKD WKD, the UK’s No.1 traditional RTD [Nielsen, Jun 2018], is promising take-home consumers an “epic summer” with a multi-faceted campaign comprising a competition utilising caps from bottles bought in the offtrade, £12,000 of Ticketmaster voucher prizes, interactive festival fun at 11 events nationwide and a DJ competition that offers the chance to perform at a major UK festival.

WKD is inviting consumers to “bring the party” this summer and will reward those who do. Under the campaign theme of ‘Be The Face’, a £3m programme of activities will engage consumers and drive incremental sales in all trade channels.

The multi-strand approach is linked together by WKD’s emoji faces, which feature on bottle caps, POS materials and fun consumer giveaways such as masks; these unique emojis act as branding, an entry mechanic, and as conversation starters.

The comprehensive summer 2018 WKD support will both generate fun for consumers and build sales for retail stockists through three key approaches:

1 #BETHEFACE and the significant associated social media campaign will be a portal to win prizes. Consumers find a WKD emoji face on bottle caps or POS materials. Consumers take fun selfies featuring the brightly coloured WKD emojis and share them on Instagram and Twitter. Lucky winners selected at random will bag themselves £150 worth of Ticketmaster vouchers to buy tickets for gigs and festivals.

Five Ticketmaster prizes are up for grabs every week until October.

2 The chance to DJ at a major summer festival. A fully branded WKD competition hub on Mixcloud (the free online music-streaming service) will allow budding DJs to upload their sets for others to enjoy and vote for. The activity will be promoted by both Mixcloud and WKD. Entries earning significant amounts of likes, shares and numbers of listeners will be invited by judges to compete at live WKD regional finals. Two overall champions (one north, one south) will each win the opportunity to DJ at the WKD Spot Bar at one of the UK’s most prestigious summer festivals.

3 Immersive brand experiences at 11 festivals. Following success at live music events in 2017, WKD is back with outdoor activities that are bigger, better and more fun than ever before. This year’s fully branded festival space will include the striking WKD Spot Bar, music, giant LED screens, interactive games, competitions, podium-style performance spots with dancers and entertainers, and a VIP Cocktail Lounge serving new WKD MIXED cocktails in cans. All these elements will engage and entertain visitors to the vibrant WKD zone, but the main draw will be the line-up of surprise DJ talent (which at two leading festivals will also include the winner of the #BETHEFACE Mixcloud competition).

“This summer’s activity is all about being where our consumers are,” says Amanda Grabham, Head of Brand Marketing – Alcohol at SHS Drinks. “It’s a money-can’t-buy competition prize for up-and-coming DJs; it’s a range of brand experiences; and it’s an interactive social media campaign with aspirational, yet attainable, prizes. The campaign has been designed to build rate-of-sale; further enhance brand credibility through the DJ competition and Mixcloud partnership and engage our audience in immersive festival experiences.”

www.slrmag.co.uk

ES WITH L A S R E CID DRIVING

R’ S E D I C F F SMIRNPO FORMAT N A C K C A

RNEW FOU

Following the extension of the Smirnoff Cider range last summer to include a new ‘Mandarin & Pink Grapefruit’ variant and 330ml can multipacks of its existing Passionfruit & Lime and Raspberry & Pomegranate SKUs, the brand is now extending further to include a new four-pack can format, helping retailers continue to unlock the full potential of the cider category and meet consumer demand.

Here, Katie Hunter, innovation commercialisation manager at Diageo, highlights key merchandising advice for retailers to boost cider sales over the summer period.

CLEAR PRICING Visible pricing is a key factor in the decision to purchase. Shoppers are less likely to make a purchase if they are unsure of the cost. Ensure the price of each product is clearly labelled to avoid confusion.

PMPs are a great way of reassuring shoppers that they are paying a fair price.

MAXIMISING FRIDGE SPACE Half of all beers and ciders purchased in the convenience channel are consumed on the same day.

Cider should always be stored chilled to enable speedy purchases which cater to impulse shoppers.

EVENTS Fruit cider is a popular choice for consumers during key events including sports viewing to barbeques and picnics.

Retailers should tap into these occasions with in-store displays and eye-catching POS materials in order to help drive cider sales.

Please drink responsibly.

AUGUST 2018 | SLR

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Feature

Breakfast

BREKKIE ON THE MOVE Changing lifestyles mean healthier options consumed on-the-go are driving growth in the breakfast category.

I

n line with modern shopper behaviours and changing lifestyles, the breakfast occasion has been transformed in recent years, as more shoppers seek out healthier options for on-the-go consumption.

Steph Okell, Quaker Oats Senior Marketing Manager, comments: “People’s everyday lives are becoming increasingly busy, and on-thego solutions are one way to help make their mornings easier. As the number one trusted healthy breakfast brand, we want to continue to champion the goodness of oats and ensure we have a range of different formats to suit changing consumer demand.”

The latest launch from the company sees the introduction of a new breakfast drink range available in Vanilla and Red Berries flavours, containing 86% milk and 11g of protein, in addition to delivering 100% wholegrain oats.

Following 40% year-on-year growth in the breakfast drink market, this is the first time Quaker has launched a drink to accompany its popular porridge, granola and muesli range.

The company says it identified that one of the barriers for people enjoying breakfast drinks is a belief they are too processed, a concern they are addressing by using the trusted Quaker brand name and on-pack flashes highlighting milk and wholegrain content.

The company is also extending its Porridge To Go Breakfast Squares range with a Cinnamon flavour.

These two on-the-go ranges will help retailers target health-conscious families and smaller households who are looking for convenient solutions to fit their busy lifestyles.

The Quaker breakfast drink carries an RSP of £1.45 for a 300ml bottle and the launch is supported by digital and in-store activation, 48

SLR | AUGUST 2018

in addition to sampling. The Porridge To Go Breakfast Squares Cinnamon flavour is available in two formats: single-serve 55g packs with an RSP of 75p, and a duo pack of two 55g packs at an RSP of £1.39. The Quaker brand will be supported with in-store and digital activity to coincide with the launch.

Also ideal for the on-the-go breakfast occasions is Oats So Simple Protein Pots, which capitalise on two growth trends. The product offers a fast, convenient, nutrientpacked format for existing Quaker shoppers and will also appeal to a new audience looking for a high protein option.

Tropicana, the number one not-fromconcentrate juice brand in the UK, is celebrating its 100% pure pressed fruit content with a new look for its on-the-go range, backed by a colourful marketing campaign.

On top of this the brand is introducing two new flavours: Watermelon, Apple & Raspberry juice and Mixed Berries. Both are available in a 300ml size perfect for on-the-go and provide one of your recommended five- a-day.

Whilst breakfast remains a key occasion for chilled fruit juice consumption, Tropicana believes there is a significant opportunity for growth in the post-breakfast occasion, as nearly half of all juice is consumed after 10am.

The brand’s aim with the new launches is to be front of mind for consumers all day long.

Copella, the UK’s favourite apple juice brand, is championing its quality, provenance and taste with a refreshed positioning to attract new consumers and unleash future growth. Copella is being re-positioned with new packaging to create a brand-new look, supported by a campaign that celebrates the ‘true taste of nature’.

TEA UP BREAKFAST SALES Marshall Kingston, Senior Manager for Out of Home at Tetley, offers the following tips for growing on-the-go sales: Q THINK SERVICE Make enough space for your on-the-go sales so it is pleasant and easy for shoppers to buy what they want.

Q THINK BRANDS Shoppers will not return if they have a poor taste experience. Wellknown quality brands reassure shoppers, so take advantage of free POS materials to make sure your customers know what you are offering.

Q THINK CLEAN Look to offer a solution which is quick to serve and minimises fuss, drips and mess.

Q THINK EXTRA SALES Cater to different tea occasions. Younger drinkers for instance are drawn to teas with added benefits and, more than any other hot beverage, tea drinkers tend to buy something extra to have with their tea so make sure that added extras like pastries, biscuits and cake are all within sight and easily accessible.

Q THINK VARIETY On-the-go sales are not just for the busy breakfast period so offering a variety of different teas to cater to different tastes and age groups will encourage sales throughout the day.

www.slrmag.co.uk

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Feature

Beer

CRAFT STILL COOL

Craft and premium beers remain the key to unlocking new sales growth in this important category. SLR spoke to Costcutter Category Manager Rachael Grist for some expert advice on how to capitalise on the trend.

RUGBY LEGEND LAUNCHES CHARITY BEER Scotland rugby legend Finlay Calder has launched Gen!us Craft Lager at Scotmid and called on customers to give #5p4Doddie with 5p from every can every going towards his former team-mate Doddie Weir’s MND charity.

The low-calorie beer is an official Fundraising Partner of the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, which was formed after Weir announced his diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease in 2017.

Former Scotland and British & Irish Lions captain Finlay Calder, who is a trustee of the Foundation, believes Gen!us and Scotmid teaming up together will help drive the charity’s fundraising efforts.

“This is a smart way of raising funds for an incredibly worthy cause,” he said.

M

ainstream lagers and beers still dominate the category, of that there is little doubt, but for retailers keen to unlock new growth and build higher margin sales, craft beers and lagers have been the way to go for some time now. This trend has only been accelerated by the recent patch of unseasonably warm weather and the small matter of the World Cup. Rachael Grist, Category Manager– Ales, Stouts, Lager & Cider, Costcutter Supermarkets Group, told SLR: “This summer we’ve had the added bonus of exceptional weather, which not surprisingly has boosted our beer and lager sales, with premium and craft lagers a key to driving category growth. Although mainstream lagers still represent the lion’s share in terms of sales, this is declining as shoppers trade up. With craft sales still only representing 10% of overall sales, the trend is also reflected in the ales and stouts category, with mainstream and premium ales sales 50

SLR | AUGUST 2018

falling as craft sales increase.”

According to Grist, the popularity of craft beers (and ciders) shows no signs of peaking with sales continuing to rise, especially in the current hot packaging format: cans. She comments: “In Scotland in particular, craft overtrades in impulse sales with a share index of 138 and, while small single bottles remain the most popular format, we’re seeing more engaged craft drinkers looking for cans.

“Many of our retailers have already created dedicated areas for craft beers and ciders, stocking Scottish brands including McEwans and Old Jock, which has had a positive impact on category growth. The boom in the brewing of craft beer and cider has reversed the consolidation in the industry and we are anticipating further growth in the sector, both in terms of brewers and demand.”

Premiumisation continues to be the growth driver for beer and cider and Grist advises retailers to open up the space given to this subcategory, creating real emphasis

and shopper attraction. She says: “There has been huge growth in craft breweries, with so many flavour profiles, styles and provenance stories for shoppers in terms of choice and different beer and cider styles. There’s now a genuine interest and appetite from customers looking for something a bit different as part of their regular shop, with shoppers looking for greater choice, quality, flavours and smaller batch production and independent retailers are perfectly placed to tap into this trend.”

Before retailers start doing away with mainstream lagers and ciders though, it’s worth noting that, while a growing category, craft is still a minority player in the BWS category, as Grist concludes: “While retailers should look to open up space to introduce more craft to increase footfall, we would recommend only offering three or four craft SKUs to start with. What’s more, we recommend that retailers reduce doublefacing shelving to create space for a more premium mix.” www.slrmag.co.uk

• San Miguel delivers 18.7% of the segment’s volume • San Miguel is growing value at 7.5% year-on-year

Supported by a national cinema, print and digital advertising campaign to drive awareness with consumers and encourage purchase.

*Nielsen MAT to 24/03/2018 Total Impulse, World Lager Category

Feature

Back To School

HEALTHIER SCHOOL OF THOUGHT As kids return to school after the long summer break a new sales opportunity opens back up for retailers – and it’s all about offering healthier soft drink alternatives.

I

t’s a well-understood trend that parents are typically more careful about their children’s diets than they are about their own and this is particularly pronounced when the kids go back to school after a long summer break.

The opportunity to start afresh and put a little extra effort into the lunchbox at the start of a new term presents retailers with a fantastic opportunity to grow sales and basket spend – and the key is offering healthier choices.

“There is no doubt that the health and wellness trend has had a big effect on the popularity and contents of people’s lunchboxes,” says Amy Burgess, Trade Communications Manager at Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP). “It has not only influenced consumers’ lunchtime food choices but also the soft drinks they have with it. Consumers are making more considered choices for themselves and their families and are turning to lower or zero sugar products or choosing drinks that are associated with functional health benefits.”

Burgess also highlights how it’s not only the back-to-school occasion that’s being affected by this trend, opening up even more opportunities for retailers: “The Lunchbox opportunity has broadened, covering many more occasions beyond traditional school lunches including at work, college, afterschool treat and weekend family lunches whilst on-the-go at a theme park or on a day trip.”

Capri Sun 330ml format is the biggest instant consumption Orange Juice Drink in the market and delivered a value rate of sale growth of 13.3% last year [Nielsen, May 2018],

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SLR | AUGUST 2018

despite the rest of the category being in decline.

Perhaps surprisingly, 75% of consumption for 330ml comes from adults, with most of them aged between 18 – 34 years of age.

The variant has become popular in all sorts of lunchboxes and with consumers on-the-go.

“We’ve continued to invest in Capri-Sun innovation and expanded our No Added Sugar and lower sugar offerings, this included the launch of Capri-Sun No Added Sugar Orange-Lemon 330ml last year which offers a low-calorie option, giving health-conscious consumers an exciting new juice drink option,” says Burgess.

CCEP believes it has updated the recipe but without compromising on taste, principally by introducing stevia, the naturally sourced sweetener. That means the regular Capri-Sun variants now contain 50% less sugar, which also has the added benefit of meaning the full Capri-Sun range is Soft Drinks Tax-exempt.

The Capri-Sun Fruity Water range – a blend of 3% fruit juice with water – joined the Capri-Sun portfolio in 2016 and is already worth £2.1m [Nielsen, Mar 2018].

Sales and distribution are up, according to CCEP, and the brand is contributing to the growth of the flavoured water sector with its no added sugar recipe.

Also worth considering is Feel Good for Kids. This is a great product for lunchboxes as it’s school-approved – the drinks are 100% natural with no artificial colours, preservatives or flavourings and no added sugar. Available

in Blackcurrant & Apple and Orange & Pineapple recipes, Feel Good for Kids contain 84% juice, making them a healthy alternative to traditional soft drinks.

The Oasis range offers something different, with CCEP rebranding its range of Oasis ‘Lights’ to ‘Oasis Zero’ last year to better communicate the zero sugar formula, while also launching Citrus Punch Zero.

Last year also saw the launch of two sour Oasis flavours with low calories – Kiwi Apple Sour and Apple Cherry Sour – both designed to help retailers cater to consumers looking for exciting soft drink flavours for their lunchboxes that are low in sugar.

“This year we unveiled a further addition to the Oasis portfolio by introducing a new flavoured water range, Oasis Aquashock,” says Burgess. “With flavoured water sales up 2.8% in the last year [Nielsen, Mar 2018], this new range is exciting consumers who are looking for a healthy, hydrating option in their lunchbox with a twist.

“The new flavoured waters come in two contrasting flavours: a “hot” Oasis Aquashock Spicy Raspberry variant flavoured with fiery chilli, and a Chilled Cherry variant with cooling, tangy lime. There is a demand for innovative and interesting new flavours amongst young adult consumers that these products will allow retailers to make the most of.”

Burgess also highlights Fuze Tea, launched in January this year, as a great option for the lunchbox. A premium, low-calorie blend of fruits, botanicals and tea, the product ticks all the boxes for healthier, tasty options. www.slrmag.co.uk

l m 0 3 3 n u S i r Cap o o t s d i k g i for b

3 out of 4 consumers who purchase 330ml sized packs are adults, 50% are aged 16-34 y/o 1 Largest IC orange juice drink 2 Purchased for ‘replenishment on the go’ 3 ROS growing by 13%, while competitive set is declining 4 Biggest contributor to value growth in small IC juice drinks 5 Exempt from the Soft Drinks Tax TO FIND OUT MORE VISIT WWW.COKECUSTOMERHUB.CO.UK OR CALL CUSTOMER HUB ON 0808 1 000 000 Source: 1. KWP IH/CO Consumption 5 years ending 25/02/18.

2. Nielsen Small Juice drinks with Orange as only or lead flavour. Total GB, Value MAT 26/05/18. 3. KWP 10/17. 4. Value LC ROS (Wtd) % Chg vs YA MAT Total GB Nielsen 19/05/18. 5. Nielsen Total Convenience 2017 vs 2016 excluding new launches 19/05/18

Capri-Sun © and the Pouch Shape ™ are trademarks of the Capri Sun group.

Great taste 50% Less Sugar Nothing Artificial

UTC

DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES

The death of the high street has been predicted ever since Jesus was an altar boy, but the recent run of retail bad luck does seem particularly noteworthy: House of Fraser, Toys R Us, Maplin, Homebase, Poundworld, the list goes on.

So it’s no surprise to UTC that some centres for constant consumption have resorted to more drastic measures to encourage consumers to part with their hard earned. Take Glasgow’s Buchanan Galleries which has dismissed with even a pretence at marketing jargon and gone full Glaswegian vernacular if the billboards outside are to be believed.

YOU’RE ONTO PLUMS The launch of the first ever National Plums Day triggered some fairly predictable immature banter at SLR Towers recently.

August 11 is another of those ‘National Days’ that irritate the auld yin so much and aims, according to the press release, to “restore plums to the top of the British fruit charts” and put them “in plum position”.

Do you see what they did there?

Cue a day of UTC touring the office making plum puns and sharing the rather surprising claim, also sourced from the press release, that plums helped win the First World War. No, really.

National Plum Day event organiser Angela Taylor said: “Jars of plum jam kept the troops in the trenches going”, adding that “plums are packed with nutrients and antioxidants and are great for skincare”.

Blemish-free skin was presumably a pressing concern for the troops in the trenches as they prepared to charge across no man’s land towards the German guns.

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SLR | AUGUST 2018

IN SEARCH OF THE BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS

Regular readers of this page will no doubt be aware of UTC’s increasingly-concerning fascination with pointless research, the kind that wastes significant amounts of time and money discovering the painfully obvious. He particularly likes research with findings that can be presented to his colleagues at SLR Towers in a fashion that could be misinterpreted by his audience as personal insults directed at them.

So, you can imagine the joy on the auld yin’s wrinkled puss when a classic email of the genre dropped into his inbox the other day. A company called Vapourcore – and no, we don’t know what they do – has discovered that body odour tops the list of “Most Irritating Co-Worker Habits”. UTC took great pleasure in pointedly sharing this information with select colleagues, wearing what could have been a smirk on his face.

Upon further inspection, however, all nine of the other things that annoy co-workers on the 10-strong list of stuff were accusations that are levelled at the old boy on a daily basis, including: ignoring emails (“I’m a busy man”); not washing up “I don’t do it at home so I’m certainly not doing it here”); staying in the toilet too long (“I’ve got some minor gastrointestinal issues. It happens when you’re my age. And it’s easier to read The Racing Post on the bog.”); and smelling of cigarettes (“Is a man not allowed a fag these days?”)

www.slrmag.co.uk

Promoting Responsible Community Retailing since 1918 to ensure a sustainable and prosperous convenience industry in Scotland

SGF Centenary Year

Join us at

PGA CENTENARY COURSE

Supplier/ r Wholesale Fourball:

£1,695

for the SGF Annual Golf Day

+VAT

Gleneagles Golf Club The PGA Centenary Course

JOIN US ON TUESDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER

The Scottish Grocers’ Federation will be hosting in its Centenary Year a fantastic retail trade Golf Day to bring suppliers, wholesalers and independent retailers together to the outstanding PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles and we would like you to be involved!

The event will bring the industry together in beautiful surroundings at Gleneagles Golf Club, PGA Centenary Course, PH3 1NF.

BOOKING FORM I would like to book a fourball at the SGF Golf Day

�

We will contact you for payment.

Do you intend to pay by: � Bank transfer

Company (if applicable) .........................................................................................

� Credit card � Invoice – please include

Team Name ...........................................................................................................

purchase order ...............................

Team Member 1......................................................................... Handicap .........

Please complete this form in BLOCK CAPITALS and return to IRATI UGARTE: email: irati@sgfscot.co.uk fax: 0131 343 6147 tel: 0131 343 3300

Booking made by ...................................................................................................

Team Member 2......................................................................... Handicap .........

I intend to nominate two retailers to join us ...........................................YES / NO I would like SGF to provide two retailers to join my fourball ..................YES / NO Contact telephone number: ..................................................................................

Contact email address: .........................................................................................................

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