Out of the Box

NOW THAT'S A GOOD IDEA: SPAR SCOTLAND SALES TRACK

Spar Scotland makes sales data available to suppliers

WHOLESALER AND RETAILER SPAR SCOTLAND'S INNOVATIVE SALES TRACK PROJECT WHICH MAKES THE COMPANY'S SALES DATA AVAILABLE TO SUPPLIERS IS NOW LIVE

WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?

CJ Lang & Son, the Spar Scotland wholesaler and retailer, is making its wholesale and shipment data and company owned retail sales data available to suppliers and stakeholders.

HOW DOES THAT WORK?

Spar Scotland has been working with data and digital specialist TWC since last year to develop SalesTrack. For an unspecified consideration, Spar Scotland will now make its own wholesale data as well as data from its portfolio of well over 100 stores available to its suppliers offering them “a very clear read as to what is happening in the Scottish market”.

WHO’S USING IT?

Since it was first launched, several key suppliers are now using the portal including Hovis, PepsiCo, Nestlé, St. Pierre and Coca-Cola. Regional suppliers such as Tunnocks are also on board.

IS IT A BIG DEAL?

In a word, yes. It’s typically very difficult for suppliers to get an accurate handle on sales in the convenience channel. Accurate grocery data is relatively easy to come by, but convenience data is much more problematic to both access and analyse. SalesTrack offers suppliers a very valuable source of data that’s otherwise all but impossible to access.

WHAT IS SPAR SCOTLAND SAYING?

Colin McLean, CEO, said: “Harnessing data in a way that gives all our partner suppliers visibility and knowledge of what is happening across wholesale shipments and at a retail point of sale will enable us all to work closer together. Importantly, we wanted to create a system that is easy to navigate and interpret and TWC impressed us with their ability to apply tech in a way that is manageable, understandable and surprisingly addictive.

“We believe SalesTrack will deliver a range of benefits that include sales growth, more customers, greater loyalty and customer retention.”

WHAT IS TWC SAYING?

Tanya Pepin, TWC, said: “We see this as the first step in a long-term strategic data partnership, where insight from sales data drives growth for Spar Scotland and its suppliers. The Spar Scotland IT team and its traders have completely embraced the TWC technology and, as a result, the launch schedule has been met and supplier feedback has been fantastic, which means the onboarding process has been extremely rapid.”

WHAT IS COCA-COLA SAYING?

Kate Taylor, National Account Manager at Coca Cola, said: “We believe data is key in making decisions to mutually grow our businesses, through understanding how the retailers are working and how the consumer is shopping. As we try different instore solutions its vital that we can understand the impact of such investments. SalesTrack allows us to analyse basket spend, understand rate of sale impact and how we are performing against competitors, against our own brands and within off-shelf features such as gondola ends, FSDUs and meal deals.

“We are very excited to be able to get a category view as well as a CCEP view of performance and how use of such data will shape and focus the way we work going forward.”

HOW DO I FIND OUT MORE?

Suppliers interested in learning more about SalesTrack can email gill.scott@ cjlang.co.uk.