Customer Profitability

In this week's edition we feature an article from Glendinning Management Consultants. It provides an enlightening insight into the realm of trade sales, and asks a number of key questions that most brand managers, and certainly a number of retailers, would be hard pressed to answer.

I believe that brand owners would benefit greatly from distributing the article internally; addressing the issues contained therein, and ensuring that all persons clearly understand their value to each retailer. Essentially, brand owners and retailers are partners, and need to work together as such. Both parties gain from increasing sales and maximising the value extracted out of each sale. If you do this, and do it best in that category, you will dominate that category, whether you are a retailer or a brand manager.
Full article: CLICK HERE.

Please feel free to make comments or raise new issues by emailing the editor
editor@fastmoving.co.za

NEWSBYTES

Shoprite Checkers launch search for extraordinary women
Shoprite Checkers have once again launched their search for South Africa's most inspiring and outstanding women in the eleventh Shoprite Checkers / SABC2 Woman of the Year award. The entire nation now has the opportunity to submit nominations for the nation's most prestigious award for women.
Full article: CLICK HERE.

Woolies milk & yoghurts now hormone free!
Woolworths is the first and only South African retailer to take the step to stock only fresh milk and yoghurts that are guaranteed rBST-hormone free. This welcome advance will be effective as of 1 March 2006.
Full article: CLICK HERE.

Pick 'n Pay's Ackerman celebrates 75 years with R4 million!
Pick 'n Pay's Raymond Ackerman, in celebration of his 75th birthday, has donated a whopping R4 million to the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital. This generous birthday gift makes Ackerman the hospital's single largest personal contributor ever.

Massmart CEO sells 15 %
Massmart CEO Mark Lamberti has sold R57m of his personal stock in the company in the past few days as "part of a portfolio rebalancing". The share price of the retailer climbed 30% in the past year as it rode the crest of a consumer spending wave driven by low interest rates.
Full article: CLICK HERE.

Spending spree to continue after Xmas frenzy
South Africa's retail sales rose a whopping 8.9% in the period up until December 2005. Retail sales are the main measure of consumer demand, and analysts say this spree will continue. In the three months to December, sales rose by 8.1% compared to the same period 12 months ago.
Full article: CLICK HERE.

SPECIAL FEATURE

So, how much money do you make for your customers anyway?
Say the words "customer profitability" to most South African suppliers today and the best of them will tell you they have a pretty good handle on which are their most profitable (and unprofitable) customers. They are so internally focused they can only see the financial equation from their side of the table. Gary Carp, the Director of Consulting at Glendinning Management Consultants discusses this and asks why so few suppliers in South Africa are able to grasp, quantify and articulate the real profitability they deliver to customers and leverage this competitively.
Full article: CLICK HERE.

GLOBAL NEWS

Reliance may spend billions on retail
Reliance Industries, India's second-biggest firm by market value, might invest 150 billion rupees (R21 billion) to open shops and supermarkets across the country. The firm aims to set up a chain of about 1 575 stores between December this year and March next year, and plans to hire 500 000 people.

Zim bread cost on the rise
On Monday last week, the price of bread rose by more than 30% as stores in Zimbabwe opened for business, the latest blow to consumers in the country's teetering economy. A regular loaf went up to Z$60 000 (about R3,68), from the government-controlled price of Z$44 000 (about R2,70).