Making Business Matter (MBM)

Tesco Christmas Q3 Results

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the twelfth episode of Grocery Guru: Tesco Christmas Q3 Results – 80% of sales in large stores are through Clubcard.

You Can Read the Full Tesco Christmas Results Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to week 12 with The Grocery Group. It is Andrew Grant. Andrew, hello. How are you doing?

Andrew Grant:

Darren, good to see you again. How are you?

Darren A. Smith:

Hey, I’m all right. I’m all right. Lockdown, blah, vaccination, blah. We’re not going to talk about any of that, are we?

Andrew Grant:

No. No. It’s still the post-Christmas results season, and I thought today … I think it was yesterday, Tesco’s Christmas results statement was released. All very good stuff. Probably exactly what you would have expected. 8% like-for-like growth. People piling into Finest Christmas products. Lots and lots of online orders. So, I think the stuff we talked about last week in regard to Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. So yeah, a very, very good festive season for Tesco, but-

Darren A. Smith:

You’re talking about the Q3 statement for Christmas, aren’t you, the results for Tesco Group?

Andrew Grant:

That’s it. Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. All right.

Andrew Grant:

Inside that statement, not particularly hidden, but towards the end of that statement was a fascinating fact. They talked about the … And it’s very rare; actually, retailers disclose their loyalty information because it’s pretty sensitive stuff. So quite surprised that Ken Murphy actually said that in large stores, 80% of their sales at Christmas were Clubcard sales linked to people swiping their Clubcard at the checkout. That’s phenomenal.

Darren A. Smith:

That is high. So 8 in 10 pounds that are spent in Tesco is by someone who has a Clubcard, who’s swiped.

Andrew Grant:

In their larger stores, which you can understand. Because obviously in the Expresses, they’re much more transitory.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes.

Andrew Grant:

People dining in for a sandwich or a bottle of water are less likely either to have a Clubcard or to swipe it. But in their bigger stores, which is obviously the vast bulk of their volume, to have 8 out of 10 customers loyal, if you like. Loyal Clubcard shoppers. And what do you think’s driven that? I don’t think it was just the Christmas effect. I think it was something else.

Darren A. Smith:

What’s driven that?

Andrew Grant:

I don’t know if you’re a Tesco shopper if you’re a regular Tesco shopper. You should have noticed.

Darren A. Smith:

We’re more online, but then it still happens there. So I think because I’ve had a look at the Q3 statements. I knew what you were go

Grocery Guru Episode 11: Grocery Sales Christmas 2020: Who Are the Winners and the Turkeys?

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the eleventh episode of Grocery Guru: Are there any Christmas Turkey Leftovers? It's that time of the year where we get to reflect upon the results of the Christmas 2020 trading period. Who were the winners and who were the turkeys when we take a look at the Christmas grocery sales 2020?

You Can Read the Full Grocery Sales Christmas 2020 Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to, this is week 11 of the Grocery Guru, with Andrew Grant. Andrew, how are you?

Andrew Grant:

Yes. Happy New Year, Darren. Season's greetings.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes. Thank you. How was your Christmas?

Andrew Grant:

Yeah, very good. Very good. I can't remember what part of lockdown we were in, but yeah, it was a pretty good Christmas, despite.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes. Then we had the announcement on Monday. But, let's ignore that, move on straight onto grocery stuff. So, I believe the title of the episode you've given us this week is, Are There Any Christmas Turkey Leftovers? Which has intrigued me, because I know nothing about what we're going to talk about this week.

Andrew Grant:

Okay. Christmas turkeys left over, maybe was the full title.

Darren A. Smith:

Ah, that one.

Andrew Grant:

No. It's that time of the year where obviously, you get to see who were the winners and the turkeys over Christmas. So the latest Kantar data came out, I think on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday. Tuesday, I think. So here we go, Darren. Which multiple do you think was the best performing over Christmas, by a long chalk?

Are there any Christmas Turkeys Left?

 

Darren A. Smith:

Really? Okay. Best multiple. And is this growth on growth?

Andrew Grant:

Sorry. Let's say the best grocer.

Darren A. Smith:

The best grocer, okay. Is this growth on growth, or best overall market share?

Andrew Grant:

No, no. This is market share. This is growth in the however many weeks up to Christmas.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. All right.

Andrew Grant:

12 weeks up to the 27th of December, the country's fastest-growing food retailer was?

Darren A. Smith:

I'm going to go Aldi. Now, I'm going to go, Aldi, because I think they were doing very well. We shopped in late December, or just before Christmas Day, and we found things like prawn rings, which were cracking value.

Andrew Grant:

Okay.

Darren A. Smith:

It was something like £3.80 for this prawn ring of 70 prawns.

Andrew Grant:

Okay. All right. So your answer is Aldi?

Darren A. Smith:

It is.

Andrew Grant:

I'll change the question then. Which was the worst-performing retailer over Christmas? Because it's the same answer, Darren.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh, is it?

Andrew Grant:

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Aldi only showed 6% growth in a market that grew by 11.3.

Darren A. Smith:

Wow.

Andrew Grant:

I know. I was shocked for about five seconds, but there's a very obvious answer.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. So obvious that I don't know it. I can't even reach for it. So let me just understand. So they were five points of growth behind the average, Aldi?

Andrew Grant:

Behind the average. And when I tell you who the biggest, or when you guess who the biggest grower is, they were 30-odd points behind the biggest grower.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay.

Andrew Grant:

So what have we been talking about, quite a few of the last 10-odd episodes? What's been the biggest change in grocery this year because of the pandemic?

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. So we're talking about online shopping, I guess.

Andrew Grant:

Okay. And what haven't Aldi got?

Darren A. Smith:

Online shopping. Very good point, Andrew. Very good point. I think you've caught me out.

Andrew Grant:

Absolutely. So I think Aldi has really, really suffered. If you think the last three or four years we've expected to see double-digit growth from the likes of Aldi and Lidl. A lot of it because of new stores, obviously. But yeah, worst performing multiple, Aldi, principally, I think because they haven't got a big online shopping presence. Lidl interestingly managed to show 15% growth, but they did a very big, I think it was, spend £40 and save £15. They did a very deep discount coupon promotion-

Darren A. Smith:

Right, okay.

Andrew Grant:

... during Christmas, which I think obviously saved their bacon, as it were.

Darren A. Smith:

Well, it clearly did. Whatever marketing guru who came up with that, thumbs up to you.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. So you should now be able to guess, based on the Aldi answer, who was the fastest-growing retailer?

Darren A. Smith:

Ocado?

Andrew Grant:

Ocado, yeah. 38-odd percent growth. So obviously, that M&S tie-up, where they've obviously now sorted out a lot of the early teething troubles is absolutely rocking and rolling for them.

Darren A. Smith:

Cor. Is it true that they are trying to hang on to COVID and stop the vaccinations?

Andrew Grant:

Well, who knows?

Darren A. Smith:

No. But it's come up.

Andrew Grant:

But yeah, so I think those are probably the two standouts. Your usual suspects all did pretty well. Tesco, 11% growth, Sainsbury's, 11% growth, Morrison's, 13. Iceland, 21, pretty good. So look, a really healthy grocery market. Not surprisingly, a lot of non-essential retail struggling or not allowed to open. Home delivery just going bananas, and people having to change their eating plans for Christmas at the last minute, obviously had to go out and shop differently. I imagine the amount of waste would have been horrific.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh, I think it will have been. Just coming back to what you said on Iceland. So they doubled the market growth. And I'm just racking my brain thinking, what did Iceland particularly do? I certainly didn't notice anything in their marketing that would have achieved double growth for Christmas.

Andrew Grant:

Remember, Iceland's customer demographic is probably older and slightly more downmarket than others. They can't go out and shop every week. They probably just fill their freezer for a month.

Darren A. Smith:

Could be. Could be.

Andrew Grant:

Massive, massive generalisation, but you imagine Iceland benefiting from people stocking up because of the worries about the lockdown.

Darren A. Smith:

Let me add another generalisation to that. With the economy, the way it is people losing their jobs, unfortunately, redundancies and so on, are people down shopping a bit? Dropping a level? Could be.

Andrew Grant:

Well, interesting, because on top of those Kantar figures, were starting to get the Christmas trading statements. We've had Morrison's and Sainsbury's so far, Tesco's is next week. Very much what Morrison's and Sainsbury's are saying in their Citi updates, mirror the Kantar data. So Morrison's, 9.3% like for like over Christmas. Sainsbury's 9.3, the same. Morrison's saying champagne sales up 64%, fresh salmon up 40%, their online business up 300%.

Darren A. Smith:

Wow.

Andrew Grant:

What other? Oh, yes. And online sales accounting for 13% of all their business, and for Sainsbury's, 18% of all their business. Everything we've seen since lockdown one, all coming together at Christmas, and the big players with home delivery and online cleaning up.

Darren A. Smith:

A win. So was that Sainsbury's one in every five pounds spent at Sainsbury's is online?

Andrew Grant:

No, no, no. So hang on. 18%. Yeah, getting on for one in five. Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay.

Andrew Grant:

Near enough.

Darren A. Smith:

One in five. Wow. And let me make another stonking generalization that may or may not be true. Are we starting to see the population maybe split between those who are financially struggling, maybe they're downtrading a bit, moving more into Iceland, those who maybe have more stability, but can't go out, can't go to restaurants anymore, stocking up on champagne, fresh salmon? Maybe they're moving up a bit in their tiers.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah, obviously. I've got a figure here somewhere. Yeah, normally four billion is spent out of home over the festive period on drinking in pubs, eating in restaurants, having Christmas parties, and what have you. That four billion obviously transferred pretty much lock, stock and barrel into those figures. So that 11% total growth for the multiple markets, pretty much has come at the expensive of your Mitchells & Butlers, and your restaurant chains, and what have you. Only looking at the news today, I think Mitchell & Butlers, 40 million a month they're burning through, just to keep their pub chains closed. It's scary stuff for hospitality.

Darren A. Smith:

Well, it's one of those machines that are very big, operates on an okay margin. But as soon as that margin stops, the costs still keep ramping through, and you're going to burn through it, what, three, six months before you go and struggle?

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. So there we are. Snapshot of what Christmas looked like, 2020. If you're in supermarket land, you probably had to work exceptionally hard, but you're reaping some pretty good rewards.

Darren A. Smith:

So the three highlights will be the winner is Ocado of this Christmas. Christmas 2020.

Andrew Grant:

The winner is definitely Ocado, plus the usual suspects, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrison's. Stand out is Aldi. I think there'll be a lot of questions being asked in Aldi HQ about those figures.

Darren A. Smith:

And the second point is roughly one in every five pounds spent at Sainsbury's is now online.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

Another big one. And our third one. What's our third stand out for you?

Andrew Grant:

Well, I think we just said that there's this disparity. People went out and indulged themselves if they had the money, but there's a lot of people seriously struggling out there. You just see the figures, I think again, a couple of days ago, the number of food banks and the number of people accessing food banks,...

Episode 31 – Leading Organisational Change: Interview with Jackie Lanham

Jackie Lanham is Hilton Food Group's Chief People Officer, with a career history that tells a story of leading change in all its forms to help businesses to achieve their goals. It comprises of 3 key phases:

HR Generalist and Business Partner covering all aspects of HR.

Large leadership roles establishing and running HR centralised and shared services.

Developing and implementing strategies to ensure business success now and for the future through culture, capability and organisation design.

What really makes her tick?

Change. Creativity. Performance. Fun. Results.

You Can Read the Full Transcript of Our Interview With Jackie Lanham Below

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to the MBM block. We are absolutely delighted to welcome Jackie Lanham. Jackie, welcome.

Jackie Lanham:

Thank you, Darren.

Darren A. Smith:

This is our blog where we talk to experts and people who practice in the field right now, and we're talking to them about soft skills. Jackie and I know each other and we have selected the topic, well, Jackie did, of leading organisational change. Is that right?

Hilton Food Group's Chief People Officer

 

Jackie Lanham:

Yeah, absolutely spot on.

Darren A. Smith:

Good. I thought if we've chosen another topic, I've really stuffed up the first part of this, but that's okay.

Jackie Lanham:

We can do buying handbags if you like.

Darren A. Smith:

I'll tell you about a friend afterwards who did a vlog on all her handbooks. No, maybe one for another time. We have the pleasure of Jackie's company for about half an hour. We have a bunch of Google questions. So these are the questions that people typically ask around this topic. We're going to put them to Jackie. But before I waffle on anymore Jackie, would you tell us a little bit about you please?

Jackie Lanham:

Course. And thank you so much, Darren, for inviting me here to have this conversation with you. I'm really looking forward to it. As Darren said, my name is Jackie Lanham. I am the chief people and culture officer for Hilton Food Group. And Hilton Food Group is a premier food packaging organisation. Absolutely focused on the protein category. Well known in meats, also getting well-known in fish, and also in vegan and vegetarian products as well, on an international basis.

Jackie Lanham:

I love my job. I get the opportunity to talk to people across Europe, into Australia, and also have the wonderful opportunity of building things into new countries, most recently, Belgium. In my role, I'm really responsible for facilitating our thinking around our people strategy, and really ensuring that our people love working for us, are fully engaged in what we do, because we know people who love their work, love working for the business, produce the best.

Darren A. Smith:

Very true. Very true. Yeah, very true. Okay. And you haven't just worked at Hilton... I say just.

Jackie Lanham:

Oh, no, no, no. This white hair is earned, unfortunately. I got into human resources pretty quickly, and I have to say, I love it. Absolutely, felt very lucky to find my forte really early on in my career. I've worked across retail for the Co-operative and Tesco within the U.K. And also, I've worked on an international basis within the financial services' sector. A period of 11 years with JPMorgan Chase, and a period of seven years with, also, Aviva, in the insurance sector.

Jackie Lanham:

I think what I absolutely adore about the profession I'm in, is the fact that it's pretty transferable across different sectors. And I think I'm at my best when I'm working in businesses that are absolutely focused on delivering to the customer. Yeah, that what I enjoy doing, and really working with businesses who have that at their heart.

Darren A. Smith:

Brilliant. I'm going to go off at a slight tangent, and hopefully, you'll be okay with it-

Jackie Lanham:

You did.

Darren A. Smith:

I'm looking through my... Not now, but I was looking through my LinkedIn feed, and there are people who are changing jobs and thinking HR might be for them. So I just want to take you back a few years to, when did you know you wanted to get into HR and why did you think it was right for you? And what's your advice for those people that are thinking, "Do you know? I might have a good go at that"?

Jackie Lanham:

Yeah, it's a tough one. I'll tell the true story. So the true story was, I graduated in English literature and history-

Darren A. Smith:

Wow.

Jackie Lanham:

... and at the time I graduated, people are going, "What? You say you're going to be a teacher? You're going to be a journalist?" And I had a bit of a flirtation with being a journalist and worked out that I wasn't really tough enough for doorstepping and all of that kind of stuff. And went back to the university careers centre, filled in one of these online things you fill in. Actually, it wasn't online. It was paper and pen at the time, but there we go. And the results came out, "Oh, you could probably do marketing or personnel." And I looked at marketing, thought, "Oh, that looks quite interesting." And I looked at personnel and quite liked the fact that I could get another year's education with a qualification.

Jackie Lanham:

So I decided to go back in and do my post-grad, kind of focusing on what was then personnel. And I think what grabbed me, in terms of loving it, was just the sheer variety. The fact that one moment, you're recruiting, the next moment, you're helping somebody perform better. You're doing that at an individual level and also at an organisational level. And also, you get to work at very senior levels within the organisation, relatively young in your career, which is fantastic as well. So you get a real insight into the strategic direction and the commercial direction of organisations.

Jackie Lanham:

I think human resources gives you the flexibility to not only work within different sectors, but you can also work in different components of human resources now it's really, I think, developed as a function. So if you love numbers and you love rewards, you can kind of have that analytical reward route. If you love more, the training and development side, then again, you've got the opportunity to look at how you bring an organisation along, or individuals along from that perspective.

Jackie Lanham:

I can name, we have diversity and inclusion now. All those types of things gives you the opportunity to specialise if you wish, work as a generalist if you wish, and then work across different sectors. And what I've loved is the opportunity as well, to look at how I can manage my career to different stages in my life, as well.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.

Jackie Lanham:

So yeah, as I had my son, I could start to think, "Well, actually, I think this is the time for me to specialise a bit more because I can manage my time. My time is more my own." Whereas when you, in a more business partnering role, I can tell you, it's not so much your own. So again, fits another stage of your life in your career.

Jackie Lanham:

So I just had that flexibility, and obviously, people can take it into their own businesses, running fantastic consultancies as you do, or indeed, looking at how you might be an independent consultant as well. So yeah, I just think it's opportunity-rich and I've just absolutely adored it.

Darren A. Smith:

Brilliant. And just coming back to, if I'm an HR... I'm not, but if I was a person wanting to be an HR manager, what's the one thing that regrets too much. What's the one piece of advice you'd say to someone, "You should go and do that. You should try this. You should..." What is it? What's the thing?

Jackie Lanham:

I think it's, dip your toe into everything. And I think probably, yeah, I think a regret is a really good question. And very, a couple of times early on in my career, I was given the opportunities to work internationally. Now, I've been lucky that I've done international roles, and I've been able to travel into countries and spend periods of time. But at least on two occasions, I was offered the opportunity to work in New York, offered the opportunity to work in Holland, or the Netherlands, sorry, and never took it up.

Jackie Lanham:

And I think if I look back, I can go, "Yeah, you should have just pushed yourself a bit further on those things." But I think trying to really widen your experience as much as possible, is really important. And we live in a very small world now, so the more experience you've got of working with different culture on an international basis, I think the better, in terms of your career.

Darren A. Smith:

That's good advice. All right. Well, I'm thinking that we could do 40 minutes about you because I am fascinated.

Darren A. Smith:

Do that more than one. Let me just come back to our topic for a moment because I've got about a thousand other questions and the people are thinking, "Hold on. You were going to talk about this, now you're talking about that." So leaving organisational change, let me ask the stupid questions. What the hell does that mean? It sounds like something out of a book. What does it mean?

Jackie Lanham:

It does, doesn't it? Yeah. There's also this piece around... I don't want to sound passe, but change is constant. It absolutely is. And I think for me, around leading organisational change, it's around, you always need to be on point because there's always going to be changed in play. And yes, there'll be big change, there'll be small change. If you, as a professional, are not always looking at how you can do things better, how you stay relevant, then at some point you'll be extinct, the business will be extinct. We've seen lots of examples of that in history.

Jackie Lanham:

If we look at how... It's the easy one, isn't it? How technology has lifted us off to a different place. The impact that's had on retail, for example....

Grocery Guru Podcast | Episode 10 - Good Riddance 2020! Our Predictions for 2021...

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith from MBMB in the tenth episode of Grocery Guru about 2021 Predictions.

You Can Read the Full 2021 Predictions Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to episode 10, with the Grocery Guru that is Andrew Grant. How are you?

Andrew Grant:

Hello Darren. Yes, Merry Christmas.

Darren A. Smith:

Merry Christmas to you. We're the 17th December, not long until the big one, until the big, fat man comes.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. One week, one week, six nights, seven nights, something like that. Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

Seven nights. All right. In this episode we said that we would talk about predictions for '21, trying to put 2020 behind us with a big boo and a mask.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. No. Absolutely. I mean, obviously, it's been a pretty horrible year... everybody around the planet. We won't be doing this again until it is 2021. So yeah, farewell 2020, won't be missed. What's 2021 going to look like? I've been thinking of a few things that may or may not happen. I don't know about you if you have any predictions?

What are your predictions?

 

Darren A. Smith:

Well, I've got a few predictions, so I'm going to share my first one with you. I've got a few and I'm sure you have too. I'm going to predict that the title of the national account manager is going to be wiped. What I mean by that is national account managers traditionally looked after the account, looked after the buyer, did the negotiations. I think they're all going to be turning into shopper insights managers, insights managers, category managers. I think it's going to go.

Andrew Grant:

And NAM becomes a SIM.

Darren A. Smith:

And NAM becomes a SIM, yes.

Andrew Grant:

I think we talked about that last week, didn't we? Absolutely. I think you said that any national account manager that's been [inaudible 00:03:19] months and maybe is slightly worried about his or her future, the future gets on top of the data. Become an expert at turning that data into insight so that you can sit on Zoom with your supermarket buyers and show them that you know their shoppers better than they do.

Darren A. Smith:

Like it, like it. All right. That's my first prediction, call me Nostradamus. What's yours?

Andrew Grant:

Mine, I think this is a very, very safe bet of £10 of your money, Darren. I know you don't like spending your money on bets. But Amazon gets added to GSCOP, so the Grocery Code Adjudicator makes Amazon the 14th, I think I would be right, the 14th retailer to be covered by the code. With all this COVID stuff Amazon's business has just skyrocketed this year, and possibly almost under the radar. But I think 2021 will be the year when the new adjudicator goes, "This is a massive, massive food business now." We're also going to have the first Amazon ghost stores, the checkout-less, completely checkout-less electronic stores. They'll probably open first quarter. And probably just the publicity [inaudible 00:04:39] publicity over those will raise the awareness. So yeah, Amazon to be added to GSCOP.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. All right. I think you're right, to make 14. So that will be Mark White, the new GCA Groceries Code Adjudicator.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. If you're him you're just coming into that fabled first 100 days, what's the thing that you can say you've done in your first 100 days?

Darren A. Smith:

Very true. Very true. All right. All right. My prediction-

Andrew Grant:

I think that's a good headline.

Darren A. Smith:

Sorry, go on. A good headline?

Andrew Grant:

No, a good 100-day headline for him is, "Yeah, I've added Amazon to the list of covered retailers."

Darren A. Smith:

Very true. Very true. All right. So currently 39% of us buy our groceries online. So that's 39%, so let's call it 40%, 4 out of 10 of us are buying groceries online. I'm going to make an easy prediction, 2021 that's going to topple above 50, which means one in two people are buying their groceries online.

Andrew Grant:

I can see that by the middle of next year. I mean, the current trend rate we'll be there April, May time. Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

Here's my bit to add to that. I think what might happen is the shop falls into two, the boring I've got the toilet rolls, the kitchen rolls, the washing powder, blah, blah, blah, coming online. But then I want to go out for a sort of a treat, or as we call it in our family, a morsel shop where I buy those little things that are really nice, like king prawns in garlic or something.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Well, I think that will be potentially the saviour of the high street. They'll order their big shop of toilet rolls and bulky stuff from the online retailer of their choice, but then they'll want to go to farm shops and independent delis. People do love to get out there and shop. I mean, particularly the Brits, we love to get out there and browse and shop and mingle. I don't think that will stop, but I think I [inaudible 00:06:46] very first of these that... It's pretty remarkable that back in 1950, or whatever it was, the first self-service supermarket persuaded us to push our own trolley around a store and do self-picking and self-packing. It's just crazy when you think back at it.

Darren A. Smith:

Very true. Very true. All right. What's your prediction?

Andrew Grant:

Well, there's another one linked to that, with your prediction of 50% of people shopping online. Will the world run out of vans?

Darren A. Smith:

Run out of vans, Transit vans?

Andrew Grant:

Well, other makes of van are available, but yeah, will the world run out of delivery Transit vans? Because that's all I see on the roads now is delivery van after delivery van.

Darren A. Smith:

I saw a lovely viral video the other day of the Hermes driver versus the Amazon driver versus the DPD driver, and what they do differently. And one, let's say, was a lot more polite and a lot more what you would want than the other.

Andrew Grant:

Actually, just on that, total aside, but [inaudible 00:07:56] inside the FedEx logo.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes. You've told me about this. Go on. I won't steal your thunder.

Andrew Grant:

No, it's great fun. Look for the arrow between the D and the E, or is it the E and the X, the E and the X in FedEx. There is an arrow pointing forwards, which is obviously is a perfect depiction of what they do. It's like one of those pictures, once you see the arrow, that's all you'll ever see. Right, what's your next prediction, Darren?

Darren A. Smith:

All right. Well, I'm going to go for data versus insight. I think as an industry we talk about data and insight an awful lot and people think that they are interchangeable, they're not. So data might be I buy eight packs or eight bottles of Ghost Ship, one of my favourite beers, every week. That's data. The insight is the reason I like it is because of its citrusy flavour and because my mate drinks it as well. That's the insight.

Andrew Grant:

Okay.

Darren A. Smith:

So we've got to get from data to insight. And over the years, and I'm sure you saw it as well, I was presented lots of data, but no one really took it from, "Okay. Here's a bunch of numbers, statistics. This is the insight and this is what you can do with it." And that, I think, has got to come, particularly as 50% of shopping will be online and we'll get even more data.

Andrew Grant:

Well, yeah. And that's where you get some brilliant low hanging fruit. I used to love the sort of data where [inaudible 00:09:23] come along and say, "Look, it's 60% of your shoppers buy fresh produce from you, but only 30% buy fresh meat." So if they're buying your produce, why aren't they buying your meat? You've got an opportunity to double your meat business. And home shopping brings that exactly to life. So if somebody is ordering all their toilet rolls for home delivery, why aren't they ordering their bleach and their cleaning products and their batteries and their kitchen towel, disposable kitchen towels, all the household stuff? There'll be some massive insight opportunities in that sort of data.

Darren A. Smith:

One of my favourite ones is slabs of Heineken. They used to put on there, "Win FA Cup tickets." But what some bright spark figured out, let's call a shopper insights manager, a SIM, was that actually, the ladies were buying it for the husbands. So the offer became get a free spa day, Heineken went up.

Andrew Grant:

Well, there you go. Right. Final prediction from me.

Darren A. Smith:

Prediction, the final one. Go on. What have you got?

Andrew Grant:

Asda and convenience stores. Obviously, they're now owned by those brothers that are preeminent forecourt retailers. Marry that to Asda and it will be interesting to see. I think they've got three stores called On the Move already, but it will be interesting to see what a convenience Asda looks like. They've tried it in the past, not so easy to go from big-box retailing with all the efficiencies and simplicity to something of 10,000 square feet or less in a city centre with lots of hassle and lots of operational issues. I'm not going to make a prediction as to how well they do or don't, but I'll be fascinated to visit some.

Darren A. Smith:

A much more complex supply chain and management. Okay. We're up. Andrew, I'm going to thank you for 2020 and your Grocery Guru insight, and we'll see you in 2021.

Andrew Grant:

I shall see you on the other side. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Darren A. Smith:

Happy New Year. Thank you. Take care.

Grocery Guru Episode 9: The Three Ghosts of Christmas

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the eighth episode of Grocery Guru: The Three Ghosts of Christmas; Past, Present and Future.

You Can Read The Full Three Ghosts of Christmas Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Hello. Welcome to episode nine of the Grocery Guru. We're here with Andrew Grant.

Andrew Grant:

Hi, Darren.

Darren A. Smith:

Hello. You're looking very festive with your Christmas tree.

Andrew Grant:

Yes, look. Yeah. All nice and ready. Not a lot of presents under the tree. A bit worried. It must be these port delays that we're hearing about.

Darren A. Smith:

It must be. Now one of my favourite films is the Christmas Scrooge Muppet Carol with Michael Caine.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Michael Caine.

Darren A. Smith:

Now I've said that because I've set you up in the... I don't know, you want to talk about the three ghosts, is that right?

Let's about the three ghosts...

 

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. No, the Christmas Carol. Yes. Charles Dickens, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. They visited Scrooge on Christmas Eve and yeah, I think this is really aimed at, I guess, at account managers, because obviously, the Ghost of Christmas Past, both you and I as buyers used to see, I don't know, what 20 account managers a week?

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah, yeah. Or more. Yeah, yeah. The whole variety. Yeah.

Andrew Grant:

They'd spend their day driving down the M1, they'd turn up with that Greggs sausage roll pastry on their suit. They'd have a nice half-hour chat with us. We might even give them a cup of coffee. And then they're off to have a sleep in the lay-by for the afternoon.

Darren A. Smith:

They were all hardworking as well.

Andrew Grant:

I'm sure they were all very hardworking but unfortunately, the fact of Christmas present is, I'm not sure there'll be a single account manager out there that has actually had a physical meeting with a buyer this year. And we've said in a couple of these episodes, haven't we, that the last nine months has compressed 10 years' worth of change to everything. To all our lives, but, just as much grocer, I think we said it with home shopping, home deliveries and now at the stage where they were expected to be in 2030, not in 2020.

Darren A. Smith:

And wasn't it the CEO of Airbnb that said something like 18 years of development has been crushed in nine months.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. This nine months has changed our lives at warp speed. And just thinking of the account manager, nine months without a physical meeting with a buyer, lucky probably even to get Zoom meetings.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes.

Andrew Grant:

So the future, looking forward to the Ghost of Christmas Future is, and not wanting to be too bleak about it, but I think buyers have become a lot more self-sufficient, a lot less needy of their account managers in the last nine months. And I don't see that changing.

Darren A. Smith:

Well, that's very true. And also I'm just going to touch on the Ghost of Christmas Past a little more, in that those account managers, some of them are excellent at their interpersonal skills, building relationships and that's all flipped on its head where they're now trying to do it over Zoom, which is much, much harder.

Andrew Grant:

Darren, remind us of your Zoom statistic. Why is Zoom so difficult?

Darren A. Smith:

Well, Zoom's difficult because the eye can see 576 million pixels. Now that just means we're in higher resolutions. When I see you face to face, you're in high resolution, I can see all the corners of your mouth changing, your eyebrows raised, all those nonverbal cues that could be an idea of what you're doing or what you're really saying. But over here, my laptop's running about a million pixels, maybe a million and a half. So it's like watching someone through a fog. I can't see all the little changes that you're making that give me the idea of what you really mean. And that's hard and it's exhausting. And that's why the Ghost of Christmas Past, sorry, Present, is such a pig.

Andrew Grant:

Yep. No. And that's aside from the fact that zoom meetings are very, very difficult. As I said, I think buyers are becoming more self-sufficient, so the Nam of Christmas future needs to rejig his or her toolkit or skillset to survive the future.

Darren A. Smith:

It does. It does. And one of the biggest challenges I think is that if we just go back for a moment to the past if it was a boring presentation, it becomes really boring over Zoom. And if your influence was poor face-to-face, it becomes really difficult over Zoom. So for me, it magnifies things so that the challenges for the future is you got to up your game on those presentations, on that influencing, in a whole different way.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. You and I, whenever we do programs, always laugh about that dreadful four o'clock on a Thursday when the shiny suited Nam turns up with his or her 173 page PowerPoint presentation, you really just want to...

Darren A. Smith:

I know. And now the problem is you see someone open up a presentation on Zoom or whatever medium people are using. The first thing they do is look bottom left or bottom right, depending on which program and they see one of 150 slides or one of 70, and already you go... That's it.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Yeah. The challenge of the future is going to be, how do you grab buyers' attention? How do you make them want to talk to you? Be it physically, or be it remotely. And for me, it comes back to what we've always gone on about is, the new gold dust of selling, which is shopper insight. Tell them things about their shoppers that maybe they didn't fully realize that helps them to sell more and then consequently make more. I can bang on about this for hours, but, absolutely if you know your customers' shoppers at least as well, if not better than them, then you're going to be a successful Nam in the future.

Darren A. Smith:

And we've both seen those presentations where however many slides there are, you get to the recommendations at the end and they're all quite vague and you think, "My God, I've now got this presentation, I think the supplier wants to do really, really well. I think there's a bunch of money in it." But you put it on your desk and think, "My God, I don't know what to do with it next."

Andrew Grant:

Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

If we were to flip that into, here's a presentation of seven ways to make 10 million pounds on your category, hold on, I'm all ears. I'm listening to you all day long. You give me a plan. You told me things that I didn't know about my shoppers and here's how I can go and do it, talk to Bob, talk to Ron. Make this happen, that happen. Boom.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think account managers, just like all of us are going to have to live with a new normal when we finally come out of this thing, hopefully, April, May time. I guess the Ghost of Christmas Future looks like reequip yourself, take this time now to reequip yourself with the skills to be indispensable when it comes to your customers' shopper data, would be my [inaudible 00:07:11].

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah. I would build on that. So shopper insight. Absolutely. I would add to that influencing because I've seen, we worked with a lot of clients over the years and it's become apparent in the last nine months. I'll do this. You see some of them are talking to you like this, others are talking to like this. Some are here and the lighting's poor. And all of it contributes to reducing their power of influence. I mean, we want to be framed correctly, want to have good lighting. You want to be able to see me because already you're going through a filter. I've got to make sure I'm using a lot more hand gestures than I did before.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. And have a decent Christmas tree in the background, another top tip.

Darren A. Smith:

That would absolutely help.

Andrew Grant:

I'm not sure if there's a fairy on the top, it's missing. Oh, it's got a star. It's got to star on the top.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. So just tell us in summary, what are our three ghosts?

Andrew Grant:

Okay. So obviously Ghost of Christmas Past, good old days when buyers wanted to see their account managers, account managers on the road. Most of them love that lifestyle. Unfortunately, the Ghost of Christmas Present is nine months of effective lockdown. Haven't seen your buyer physically for nine months, challenges as you've just very clearly gone through. Challenges of making Zoom work for you. Ghost of Christmas Future actually can be a positive future, but people are going to need to reequip with the skills to live in this new normal.

Darren A. Smith:

And I'd leave our viewers with one question. Do you understand the difference between data insight? Most people don't. And if you don't, come and talk to us about shopper insights, we'll explain the difference and we'll help you go from a whole load of data over here, to how can I make my buyer a load of money over here. Until then. Andrew, thank you. Lovely Christmas tree. I'll see you next week.

Andrew Grant:

Take care. Bye-bye.

Grocery Guru Ep8: The Future of High Street

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the eighth episode of Grocery Guru: The Future of High Street.

You Can Read the Full Future of High Street Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

... keeping their staff safe, understanding the rules, blah, blah, blah. You're right. They've done it. Do you say they were cajoled into doing this?

Andrew Grant:

Who knows. Who knows the discussions I had. I think the important thing is that it's been done and I guess that's sort of the breaking news. So it almost links to what I was going to talk about today, which is they're also having to, as we've said in a couple of the previous episodes of this, they're having to deal with change to their market where 10 years of change has happened in six months. [crosstalk 00:00:00:38].

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah, yeah.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. And the costs involved in just coping with that must be immense.

Darren A. Smith:

And what does that mean? I mean, we've got the future of the High Street. I'm sure that's well documented. And particularly we've got Debenhams, Arcadia recent. The future of our High Street, I mean, is it all going to be coffee shops and hairdressers?

The Future of High Street

 

Andrew Grant:

Well, it's interesting. I think, unfortunately, you get the pain before the game. I saw over the weekend, Bill Grimsby, Bill Grimsey, I don't even remember him, used to run Iceland and then Wix. Seasoned retail professional. Got a lot of time for the guys. A really good operator. I think he interviewed me once but didn't give me the job. So anyway, not everyone's perfect. But he basically was saying that people like himself spent the eighties and the nineties creating Lego brick towns where you can remember every single town was a copycat. There was a Boots, a WHSmiths. Also a Tesco. There was a Curry's, there was a God going back, Timothy Wise, Radio Rentals, and every town was a carbon copy.

Darren A. Smith:

And I remember as a kid and then becoming an adult, you, you went from towns being very different. You've visited towns as a kid and you saw different things. And then as an adult, we went to towns and it was exactly the same damn thing in every town. But now that's going to go completely off.

Andrew Grant:

That is the opportunity that supermarkets, as we said, they will be different. They're not going to have deli counters. As we said, I think last week or the week before, these urban fulfilment centres where half of the store turns dark and the new Lego brick is online. So online is increasing, how do you differentiate online because you can offer everything online? So people love the convenience of online. They love the convenience of the van turning up outside the house, but it's not exactly exciting, is it?

Darren A. Smith:

No, it's not. I mean, one of the things that have happened is speed. You can now get something in about five hours of ordering it off some website.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

Some in 12 hours, 24. The days of taking 3 to 5 business days are gone. So that [inaudible 00:03:05].

Andrew Grant:

People want to touch and feel. They want to touch, feel, smell, experience stuff before they buy it. Particularly, maybe not necessarily food but certainly think of clothes. So how many times do you buy clothes and they don't fit or they're not quite what you expected. People will still want shops.

Darren A. Smith:

The returns policy comes in and it has to be absolutely open. Free delivery, free try on, send back whatever you don't want I'll put the money in your account before it arrives to us.

Andrew Grant:

Which is where Amazon, whether you love them or don't love them, absolutely brilliant. But anyway, I've got a quiz for you. I've got a quiz for you, Darren. So future of the High Street, there has been research done in terms of what will encourage people into stores if there aren't any deli counters, the grocery becomes part of the dark store, what sort of services and things do people want to see in stores? So let's see how close you get to these top three. Number one 42% of people said that they would want to see one of these in-store and would actively seek out a store that had one.

Darren A. Smith:

A product expo.

Andrew Grant:

No, it's a service.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay, service. A party planner.

Andrew Grant:

No, no, no. A pharmacy with a qualified pharmacist on site. And it's interesting the order of these, because I think my order might be slightly different. So number one, very sensibly of the good old British public pharmacy. Number two at 35% of people said that they would actively shop in a place that's provided with this.

Darren A. Smith:

A dry cleaners.

Andrew Grant:

No.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. I'm thinking of a Timpson's key cutting type place.

Andrew Grant:

No. A bit more of, a bit more of a basic need. I don't mean install toilets.

Darren A. Smith:

No, I've no idea.

Andrew Grant:

Food, hot food on site. So a restaurant or a cafe or whatever.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh, okay.

Andrew Grant:

And this is the one that I found most interesting. So I think I'll put that at number one. 29% of people said that they would actively shop in a store that provided?

Darren A. Smith:

Personal shopping.

Andrew Grant:

Alcohol.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh okay.

Andrew Grant:

Now one of the surveys was done on proper demographic grounds. And whether the mix between the sexes was properly filtered out. I don't know. But yeah, the third most popular in-store request was alcohol on site.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh, okay. Okay. All right. All right. Because I'm thinking of one of the things that was really popular was Jessup's. Now those poor sods were doing a cracking job providing all of the knowledge, then the customer would leave the shop go and find them on Amazon.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. And that is the problem, isn't it? That this future that becomes experiential, I think is the word experiential shopping, the danger is people go, and I think PC World is suffering from this. Yeah. People go and look, feel, touch, decide which fridge freezer will fit in their kitchen. And then order it from Amazon or appliances online.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah. They're just aren't going to survive. Not doing that. They need something more, don't they? Yeah.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. And let's take it back to the grocers where I think the grocers are doing a very good job. If you look at the Tesco's and Sainsbury's or Waitrose's of this world, they're adding all these really phenomenal, new, sexy boutique products and brands that you can't get online. You can't get in Aldi. But stuff, if you're an enthusiastic cook or you'd like to come up with recipes at the weekend, et cetera, the stuff that now people like, I guess Waitrose have always done it, but Tesco and Sainsbury's really jumping into that space so that people have a reason to go there to experience great food. Although it may be a bit gloomy at the moment with stores shutting. I think the future, as Bill Grimsey said is actually, we're going to get a very diverse, very much more choice and we'll move away from these identikit towns, which I think is a good thing.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah, I do. So maybe there's a positive to come out in this damn COVID.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. And with all the news this week with the vaccine, maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel. And as you do travel round, there are already towns that maybe are the model. Froome in Somerset has got so many independent artisan shops and particularly food shops, but it's become a magnet of its own. There's a town in Wales that does exactly the same thing. So if our local high streets can look more like a Froome, bring it on I'd say,

Darren A. Smith:

Well, I know in my hometown which is Thame in Oxfordshire, there was a Domino's around. Yes. Yeah. Because we were trying to keep that balance between the independence, the quaint British town, market town. And yet we've got to bring in some of these brands that can pay the rent.

Andrew Grant:

Absolutely. So anyway, I'm back off shopping. I may even pop in to see if the 29% of people were right in their choice.

Darren A. Smith:

And something for our viewers is if you're a national account manager and you were thinking about the future of what you need to do, then e-commerce category management is something you definitely need to start understanding how you shop and navigate some menus, ordering promotions, abandoned costs, as the Americans would say. We're getting a lot of inquiries about this stuff for the moment.

Andrew Grant:

And if you tune in next week, we're going to talk about the ghost of Christmas future, aren't we?

Darren A. Smith:

Oh yes, we are.

Andrew Grant:

Yes. So we're going to talk about the future of national account managers and how, again, a bit like the High Street, there's big, big rosy opportunities in the future if people change, but goes the Christmas present if you stay as you are. Maybe time for a new year resolution.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. Yep. All right. Looking forward to that Andrew. We will talk to you next week either from your car or back at home? We'll see you then.

Andrew Grant:

Take care. Bye-bye.

Grocery Guru Ep7: Who's the Pantomime Villain?

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the seventh episode of Grocery Guru: Who's the Pantomime Villain?

You Can Read the Full Pantomime Villain Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Hi, Andrew, welcome to week six. How are you doing?

Andrew Grant:

Is it week six or week seven? I can't remember. But yes, I'm good.

Darren A. Smith:

Definitely one of them. This is week six, we think, with the Grocery Guru that is Andrew Grant. Now, he's looking like he's just stepped off an Eminem video.

Andrew Grant:

I'm not sure how many people can remember that far back, but yeah, it's quite cold here. I think we're moving into the proper weather for the proper season.

Darren A. Smith:

We are. We are. So this week, what are we talking about?

Andrew Grant:

Well, I think, as I said, we're moving into Christmas season, despite the government possibly doing its best to stop us enjoying ourselves, whether that's right or wrong. I think it's pantomime season. I think it's time to start rolling out the, "He's over there", and, "Oh yes, he did."

Who's the Pantomime Villain?

 

Darren A. Smith:

"Oh no, he's not."

Andrew Grant:

"Oh no, he's not." Have a look at maybe some of the villains, pantomime villains for the season.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. And pantomime season's coming up. May happen, may not. But I get your point. Who's our villain that you want to talk about?

Andrew Grant:

Well, I just think because we're trying to keep these things topical, the British Brands Group, which encompasses some of the biggest UK brands, published a review this week of retailer compliance to GSCOP.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh, okay. Okay. [crosstalk 00:01:24] For those that don't know is a piece of law governing UK supermarkets.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. And every year legally, each of the 13 designated supermarkets has to write a report to the adjudicator. The government official that runs GSCOP telling her, now him, how they've done. British brands have collated all that. And yeah, here we are. Let's have a guess. So the, the country's largest retailer is...

Darren A. Smith:

Tesco.

Andrew Grant:

How many complaints of all the many thousands of suppliers they deal with and the billions that they spend with suppliers each year. How many complaints do you think they had last year? Sorry, alleged complaints.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay good. So these are breaches of GSCOP and by the way, you worded the question, I should say thousands, but I'm going to guess it's not.

Andrew Grant:

Okay. Well, they're alleged breaches, Darren.

Darren A. Smith:

Alleged breaches. All right, so I'm going to go with 250.

Andrew Grant:

Okay. It was 45-

Andrew Grant:

...which the worst some headlines in the business, press trade press over the week saying, "Tesco are the villain. Tesco, the GSCOP villain." With 45 alleged breaches amongst I reckon that's less than 2.5% of their suppliers who have made an alleged breach. My view that's pretty good.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah. But you and I have talked about this before and I've played along for the last couple of minutes, but here's where I don't play along. There are about 10,000 suppliers out there and 45 complaints are bugger all. And that is not a measure of how well they're doing. It's just not.

Andrew Grant:

Okay. Why don't we then divide the 45 complaints into how many billions of pounds the supermarket spend with suppliers. And it will come out... You'll run out of zeros after the point.

Darren A. Smith:

You will be. Here's a stat for you. So I got this one from LinkedIn in preparation for our week six, [crosstalk 00:03:31] and I should read it to you. "For every complaint, not GSCOP specific, but every complaint there are 26 other unhappy customers." Now I worked out that last year, last 12 months, there have been 154 breaches, alleged breaches of GSCOP. And if I times that by 26, I arrived at about 4,000. And that is how many complaints I think are really out there. So GSCOP is not doing really well. What's happening is suppliers are frightened to report.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah, I know. That's when the adjudicator does their annual supplier review, which they do annually, the number one reason for not raising a breach is fear of reprisals.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah. That's my challenge. Since GE scope has come in in 2010. So it's about a decade old, it's 10 years old. We've got to when I say 154 breaches or alleged breaches, but really how many are there? There's got to be more.

Andrew Grant:

I don't know. It's difficult. I obviously I'm sitting on the retailer side of the fence here. I don't think they are the pantomime villains.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh, yes they are.

Andrew Grant:

Very good. I don't think they are the villains. You can look at the numbers and [inaudible 00:04:56] and statistics. We can spend all day throwing numbers back at each other either trying to make it look like a big problem or it not be a big problem. When you actually read the adjudicator's annual reviews, et cetera. She, Christine Tacon who's now given up the role, always talks about just how compliant the retailers have been. And particularly she did a bit this week about what she thinks she's achieved in seven years. So that's sort of leaving memories. And the number one thing she pointed to was the code compliance officers who are for those people who aren't that au fait with the code. They are independent of the retailer's commercial divisions that typically their company secretary or company legal. She pointed to them as being the people who have made the code work within the retailers.

Andrew Grant:

And I think what I pointed down, whatever your numbers say, whether it's 45 complaints. Sorry, 45 alleged complaints for Tesco and there's 26 times that not reported. I think I'd actually point to the retailers who are not covered by GSCOP. [inaudible 00:06:12] Because I probably get, I don't know, half a dozen calls a week from clients asking me about problems they've got with GSCOP. And how many of those six calls... So let's say I've had in the last six months, a 100 calls, how many of those are related to one of the 13 named retailers?

Darren A. Smith:

No, actually I have no idea. One in two?

Andrew Grant:

Yeah, no, no.

Darren A. Smith:

No?

Andrew Grant:

Less than half a dozen. So five, 6%. The vast majority of the calls I get from our clients that are worried about the behaviour of a customer are not those covered by the 13. I'd probably get into huge trouble if I named them. But the ones I get the most calls about are some of the big high street names that happen to sell groceries alongside their newspapers and books and alongside their perfumes and face creams et cetera. Those who get the complaints are I think... The conclusion I'd come to is that the 13 retailers covered by the code, do follow the code as much as they can. And those complaints, those alleged breaches we see, hey, stuff will happen when you're dealing with multi-billion pound businesses and tens of thousands of suppliers. The odd thing will slip through. I think the bigger problem is outside. There's a lot of our clients who are struggling because of COVID. Having big problems with important customers to them who are not covered by the code.

Darren A. Smith:

And I think the other part we shouldn't forget is whilst the code is governing those 13 named retailers, we also know that suppliers have a duty in order to be able to help guide their relationship with those brands.

Andrew Grant:

Yes.

Darren A. Smith:

As we know that one in two don't really understand the code and also wanting to I'm using broad numbers, don't have a written supplier agreement. Which is a problem.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah, no, absolutely. I think we've said it before when you get to smaller suppliers, the knowledge and most importantly, the amount of training they've had in the code drops to less than half of them have had proper training in the code. And yeah how are you going to know what you do if you've not had the training?

Darren A. Smith:

So we're talking this week about our pantomime villain which are the 13 retailers and the breaches that they have, not have.

Andrew Grant:

Oh, no they're not.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh yes, they are the people who aren't coming forward or who are pantomime villain, 13 retailers. But you're saying the complaints are quite low. I'm saying that they're all hidden and they need to come forth.

Andrew Grant:

I think the real villains are outside the 13.

Darren A. Smith:

Our 10 minutes are up. We ought to cut that bit, but Andrew, thank you very much. We'll see you for week seven.

Andrew Grant:

Goodbye.

Darren A. Smith:

Bye.

Who’s the Pantomime Villain?

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the seventh episode of Grocery Guru: Who’s the Pantomime Villain?

You Can Read the Full Pantomime Villain Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Hi, Andrew, welcome to week six. How are you doing?

Andrew Grant:

Is it week six or week seven? I can’t remember. But yes, I’m good.

Darren A. Smith:

Definitely one of them. This is week six, we think, with the Grocery Guru that is Andrew Grant. Now, he’s looking like he’s just stepped off an Eminem video.

Andrew Grant:

I’m not sure how many people can remember that far back, but yeah, it’s quite cold here. I think we’re moving into the proper weather for the proper season.

Darren A. Smith:

We are. We are. So this week, what are we talking about?

Andrew Grant:

Well, I think, as I said, we’re moving into Christmas season, despite the government possibly doing its best to stop us enjoying ourselves, whether that’s right or wrong. I think it’s pantomime season. I think it’s time to start rolling out the, “He’s over there”, and, “Oh yes, he did.”

Darren A. Smith:

“Oh no, he’s not.”

Andrew Grant:

“Oh no, he’s not.” Have a look at maybe some of the villains, pantomime villains for the season.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. And pantomime season’s coming up. May happen, may not. But I get your point. Who’s our villain that you want to talk about?

Andrew Grant:

Well, I just think because we’re trying to keep these things topical, the British Brands Group, which encompasses some of the biggest UK brands, published a review this week of retailer compliance to GSCOP.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh, okay. Okay. [crosstalk 00:01:24] For those that don’t know is a piece of law governing UK supermarkets.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. And every year legally, each of the 13 designated supermarkets has to write a report to the adjudicator. The government official that runs GSCOP telling her, now him, how they’ve done. British brands have collated all that. And yeah, here we are. Let’s have a guess. So the, the country’s largest retailer is…

Darren A. Smith:

Tesco.

Andrew Grant:

How many complaints of all the many thousands of suppliers they deal with and the billions that they spend with suppliers each year. How many complaints do you think they had last year? Sorry, alleged complaints.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay good. So these are breaches of GSCOP and by the way, you worded the question, I should say thousands, but I’m going to guess it’s not.

Andrew Grant:

Okay. Well, they’re alleged breaches, Darren.

Darren A. Smith:

Alleged breaches. All right, so I’m going to go with 250.

Andrew Grant:

Okay. It was 45-

Andrew Grant:

…whi

Grocery Guru Ep 6: It's CPI Time!

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the sixth episode of Grocery Guru: It's CPI Time!

You Can Read the Full CPI Time! Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

We're in week six. Last week, we spoke about the demise of the deli counter and how it was a bit like a turkey at Christmas. Remember?

Andrew Grant:

Remind me of the turkey at Christmas analogy.

It's CPI Time!

 

Darren A. Smith:

I was trying to say that a counter is a bit... You don't want to get rid of it. You don't want to get rid of turkeys at Christmas. No one really likes how they taste, but they are Christmas.

Andrew Grant:

But given what this stage has done, I'd say they are stuffed.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah. All right. What are we talking about this week? In week six.

Andrew Grant:

Well, I know you like a good riddle at the start of these conversations we have, get you and get your brain matter going during the lockdown. So here, here are our test top three things guaranteed to annoy a buyer, hang on a second now. I'll give you the first two and you've got to guess the third.

Darren A. Smith:

Right? Go.

Andrew Grant:

No. Top three things not to say to your buyer. If you're an account manager if you don't want to ruin their day. One, I'm having an affair with your nearest and dearest.

Darren A. Smith:

Fair.

Andrew Grant:

Two. I have just run over your favourite pet cat or dog. Now, obviously, depending on the buyer, those first two could be interchangeable.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah.

Andrew Grant:

But what was the third one guaranteed to put your buyer into a bad mood?

Darren A. Smith:

I have, we've just managed to not deliver the stock that you absolutely need to do for Easter Christmas or a big promotion.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. A bump in the road. No, the, the number three guaranteed to ruin that day is we're putting through a cost price increase.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes.

Andrew Grant:

As I said, other than you running over their favourite Pet, or having an affair with their nearest and dearest, it's probably the worst thing you can say to a buyer.

Darren A. Smith:

So what about when suppliers used to say, but if you put the prices up, You'll make more money?

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah but. Yeah. I think you see with the buyer. A Couple of things is one, will the market, particularly the current market take a retail price increase. Everybody watches everybody, but it's actually a lot more personal than that. Cause you've been a buyer. I've been a buyer. You know, you've got to sit in that trading room on a Monday morning and the boss goes through all the figures and everybody gets a bit of a beating because the figures aren't good enough. And then he, or she turns to everybody and goes, right? What news we got guys and ladies and everybody else has got fantastic news. Like, Oh my new product, number one, I've just won a prize for whatever. And then Darren has to put his hand up and go, oh, I've just accepted a 10% cost price increase from Fred blogs, grocery company.

Darren A. Smith:

It's like a hit on my bottom line of X hundred thousand. So the next question comes from He or She manager, how the hell are you going to get that back? Well, you've just spent a week negotiating and trying to figure out how to get what was 18% down to 9%. And now you've got to figure out how to close the gap?

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Normally it just ends up not even with a challenge like that. It's just like you map it.

Darren A. Smith:

Or worse. Yes.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Now its the rest of your 8 weeks ruined. So anyway, so come to the point, cost price increases, I think are obviously inevitable. Particularly after this year where so many suppliers have had to spend enormous amounts of money, during lockdown to either be COVID safe or to get extra deliveries out there, et cetera, et cetera.

Andrew Grant:

So costs have been rising and we have the big B word happening in January. Still, nobody knows whether there will be a deal or not, or inevitably anybody importing either raw materials or product into the country will face higher costs.

Andrew Grant:

So why talk about cost price increases now?

Darren A. Smith:

Well, Q1 is coming.

Andrew Grant:

exactly. If you want to get a Q1 price increase through with your retailers now is the time to start thinking about it. There is no set rule. There are no rules, no laws saying how much notice you must give a retailer, but if you want to soften the blow and not send them into orbit, 12 weeks is sort of customer practice. So that's fair.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. And if I'm, if I'm an account manager that thinking about this G Scott thing, which I sort of understand and don't, anything there, I've got to be careful.

Andrew Grant:

No, because remember, I know, I don't know if we already said it in one of these sessions. Maybe we need to have a session on it. Suppliers cannot break G Scott. They have no fear whatsoever.

Darren A. Smith:

That's true. Of course. They also want to try and steer their buyer not to break juice, go buy them.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah, I guess so, I guess so, but it's the buyer in that possible reaction that could breach G Scott as opposed to the supplier putting up their prices, and we'll think about it this way. Retailers, supermarkets put their prices up left, right and centre. You know, I went out yesterday to get myself a chicken tikka masala microwave meal. It had gone up 20 P, where were my 12 weeks notice? Where was mine negotiating with the single market? They didn't even tell me. Quite rude really.

Darren A. Smith:

Well. Interestingly, when we used to buy produce as a team, a long story short, the buyers used to come to me and say, we've got this price increase, that price increase. And I used to talk to the suppliers or the account managers and they'd say, yeah, the crop went, the crop was short this week. Okay. Next week the crop was long. And my question was, has the crop ever been just right? Not expecting Yes. So the price always has a reason to do this.

Darren A. Smith:

Alright.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Give him, give him the, for politeness supplies should be giving retailers 12 weeks notice. If you want a 1st of March or a 1st of April price increase, you need to talk to them at either first December or 1st of January.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. In your experience of dropping that bombshell, how should they do it best?

Andrew Grant:

The other, reason for doing it now as on top of the fact that, because of the perfect storm of Brexit and COVID is obviously hitting people's cost basis, now is a perfect time, if you're going to get a cost price increase through, because just about every single of the major supermarkets, the year ends is between 31st of December and 30th of February or 28th of February.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah.

Andrew Grant:

So you putting in a March or April, a cost price increase that lands in March and April. You're hitting the very few weeks of that financial year. So if they can't put the retails up or the market dictates that retails don't move, they've got something like 49, 50 weeks to find a solution to the problem,

Darren A. Smith:

Which they can help them with.

Andrew Grant:

Exactly.

Andrew Grant:

But, put a cost price increase through that lands on the 1st of December or the 15th of December, they could have 14 days to deal with it. It's going to send them emotionally into orbit.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah, Very true.

Andrew Grant:

The other benefit. They're moving into Christmas mode. They're incredibly busy just with the day-to-day logistics of running their business. And again, even most of more so, more so this year. So that cost price increase, email or letter that lands on their desk. They'll take notice of it, but they won't have a lot of time to really put you through the meal on it. So as long as you do it carefully and professionally, and obviously we are, we have a whole program helping suppliers do this in a proper comprehensive and professional way. Do it like that, and your chances of success or your chances of success without major downsides, massively increased.

Darren A. Smith:

That's very true. The other part I'd add to that is obviously in the game that we're in around training and understanding behaviours, I'm a big picture thinker. You are too. Other people like the facts. It's knowing who your buyer is. Meaning if there are blue in human terms, which is a psychometric test, they're going to want the details, the numbers, you and I are big picture thinkers. So we want to see, okay, how are we going to close the 250,000-pounds gap you've just given? Understanding your buyer and communicate in their way. Very important.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah, I agree. I agree. And there is no, there's almost a manual. It's almost like a car manual. There is a manual for putting a cost price increase through to the supermarkets. They, in my experience, your experience, 40 odd years between us, they react in a very, very predictable way. As at cost price increase, the third worst thing you can say to them guarantee to ruin their day. Guaranteed to get an outright, no rejection.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes.

Andrew Grant:

Then actually they go through a very specific set of phases to actually than having to enact the cost price increase. And it's the way you behave, respond and communicate to them during that critical, well, eight to eight to 11 weeks, six days until the price increase happens, as to whether you'll be successful or whether you end up with a nightmare scenario. Seven o'clock on a Friday night, are you shipping the trucks because I'm not paying a cost price increase? And you have the mother of all standoffs. Which is the last thing you want at seven o'clock on a Friday night, assuming the pubs are open.

Darren A. Smith:

All right, Andrew, thank you. So we're talking about cost price index, sorry. Cost price increase or CPI. Q1 is coming up....

It’s CPI Time!

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the sixth episode of Grocery Guru: It’s CPI Time!

You Can Read the Full CPI Time! Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

We’re in week six. Last week, we spoke about the demise of the deli counter and how it was a bit like a turkey at Christmas. Remember?

Andrew Grant:

Remind me of the turkey at Christmas analogy.

Darren A. Smith:

I was trying to say that a counter is a bit… You don’t want to get rid of it. You don’t want to get rid of turkeys at Christmas. No one really likes how they taste, but they are Christmas.

Andrew Grant:

But given what this stage has done, I’d say they are stuffed.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah. All right. What are we talking about this week? In week six.

Andrew Grant:

Well, I know you like a good riddle at the start of these conversations we have, get you and get your brain matter going during the lockdown. So here, here are our test top three things guaranteed to annoy a buyer, hang on a second now. I’ll give you the first two and you’ve got to guess the third.

Darren A. Smith:

Right? Go.

Andrew Grant:

No. Top three things not to say to your buyer. If you’re an account manager if you don’t want to ruin their day. One, I’m having an affair with your nearest and dearest.

Darren A. Smith:

Fair.

Andrew Grant:

Two. I have just run over your favourite pet cat or dog. Now, obviously, depending on the buyer, those first two could be interchangeable.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah.

Andrew Grant:

But what was the third one guaranteed to put your buyer into a bad mood?

Darren A. Smith:

I have, we’ve just managed to not deliver the stock that you absolutely need to do for Easter Christmas or a big promotion.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. A bump in the road. No, the, the number three guaranteed to ruin that day is we’re putting through a cost price increase.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes.

Andrew Grant:

As I said, other than you running over their favourite Pet, or having an affair with their nearest and dearest, it’s probably the worst thing you can say to a buyer.

Darren A. Smith:

So what about when suppliers used to say, but if you put the prices up, You’ll make more money?

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah but. Yeah. I think you see with the buyer. A Couple of things is one, will the market, particularly the current market take a