We offer a lot more than a typical agent or broker, and describe ourselves as a full-service importer and distributor. We offer brand owners a full suite of complementary services, from sales and marketing, through consumer and category research, to logistics and IT solutions.
You’ve been on the food market circuit for a while and perhaps even have a couple of local retailers stocking your products, but how do you grow your stockists and reach new retailers potentially hundreds of miles away? The time might be right for you to start talking to food and drink wholesale distributors.
Working with food and drink wholesale distributors can be an effective way to reach a wide network of retailers and can significantly aid your business growth. However, there are several things to bear in mind before you start.
If you have been selling to a few local retailers directly you will be used to quoting them a trade (or buy in price) to which they will add on their margin to create the consumer (sell out) price. Working with a wholesale distributor adds a new element to the equation and the wholesale distributor margin needs to be accounted for. You need to have a really good handle on your cost price so you can calculate all the necessary margins:
We’re passionate about great food, and we spend a lot of time sourcing it and selling it, so we try to enjoy what we do. So if you want to know what we’re about, we can summarise it in three words: Family, Food, Fun.
We measure this by being first choice for all our major stakeholders – customers, brand owners, people, and our community.
marketing strategy will help you reach your business objectives
We know that taking time out of running your business to come up with a solid marketing strategy is difficult. That’s why work with business owners to create a marketing plan for you. Having a strategy in place will help you avoid wasting time and money on marketing activity that doesn’t work. Whether you want to grow, launch a new product, enter a new market or just outsmart your competitors, a marketing strategy can help you get there faster.
We need to get under the bonnet of your business; to understand your goals, identify your key sectors, profile your customers
RESEARCH
This where we take a ‘deep dive’ into your business. Researching your competitors, your brand and your offering will help us to help you stand out in a crowded marketplace.
PLANNING
Remove the guess work and inject some consistency into your marketing. Creating a 90-day activity plan that becomes your marketing ‘road map’ is just part of the process.
Marketing Collateral
Before approaching a wholesale distributor it is worth spending some time putting a simple sales presentation together covering:
Your brand – it’s ethos, vision, purpose and aspirations
USPs – any unique ingredients, flavour combinations or production methods
Products and usage – clearly list all available products and consider including serving or recipe suggestions
Pricing – depending on a wholesale distributor’s order quantity your pricing may vary but make sure you have some starting point calculations to discuss
Sales
Retail marketing has an extensive and highly capable sales team, covering the whole of the in every trade channel – multiple retail, impulse convenience, wholesale cash & carry, foodservice and…
Brand Management
Our product marketing team is the link between brand owners, and our sales team and customers. We allocate a dedicated product marketing manager to work with each brand, and be its champion within RH…
Category Management
Our approach is consumer and category-led. We have in-house expertise in providing customers and suppliers with all the necessary market insights to develop and execute strategies and tactics for…
Marketing & Public Relations
We provide a full range of solutions for both trade and consumer marketing, from in-store promotions and sampling, to advertising and PR. Our extensive experience running marketing and PR campaigns…
Logistics
Our base in High is the perfect location for distribution throughout . Brand partners and customers benefit from the environmental and cost efficiencies we generate through the supply…
Food Technology
Our team of in-house Technical Managers manage the technical relationship with all of our suppliers, overseeing all aspects of product safety and quality, while also responding to specific customer..
Business ideas, Marketing and sales , promotions and advertising ideas , articles
schweppes tonic water In-shop marketing company |
schweppes tonic water Distributors
Analysis of Amazons Supply Chain Management Practices
Analysis of Amazons Supply Chain Management Practices
Analysis
To start with, Amazons SCM has a strategic fit with its competitive strategy of being the retailer of choice for its customers. The combination of multi-tier inventory management, superlative transportation, and highly efficient use of IT (Information Technology), and its wide network of warehouses are all geared towards aligning its SCM with its competitive strategy.
The next aspect is related to its outsourcing of its inventory management. Amazon outsources the storage and distribution of products that are not frequently purchased nor ordered for immediate delivery as well as products where the costs of storing them exceed the marginal returns on their sales.
On the other hand, Amazon stocks the frequently purchased and ordered items in its own warehouses so that it can be responsive to the customer needs as well as not compromise on the delivery times and the lead times. In other words, by segregating its inventory, Amazon is able to be responsive to the customers as well as cut costs or cut slack where it is needed (Kotler, 2012, 65).
Amazon divides its customer segments and follows a price differentiation strategy. The various forms of delivery are one day delivery, free super saver delivery, first class delivery, and prime customers delivery.
For all these segments, Amazon offers the customers an option of paying more for faster delivery or retains the traditional lead-time. Coupled with the inventory outsourcing, the customer segmentation into price-differentiated customers offers the company a nimbleness and agility in the market that changes with dynamic fluctuations in demand.
A key aspect of Amazons SCM is that it has evolved over the years in response to its growth in the market. For instance, Amazon started off as a bookstore, which acts as an intermediary between the buyers and the sellers and does not stock any product of its own.
Gradually, this gave way to holding some items in its own warehouses and at the present, Amazon follows a push-pull strategy wherein the inventory is held in a push strategy and the shipment of the orders is done in a pull strategy. Of course, even now, Amazon follows pure pull strategies for items that it does not stock.
Any discussion on Amazons SCM is incomplete without an analysis of its multi-tier inventory system. The first tier is the aggregation in the distribution centers, which ensures that Amazon holds fewer inventories and responds to demand in a dynamic manner.
The next tier is comprised of the partner distribution centers and the wholesalers wherein whenever an ordered product is not available in its own distribution centers; Amazon can rely on its partners and wholesalers to supply the customer with the required product. Further, through the use of sophisticated and real time IT, Amazon is able to leverage efficiencies in its distribution.
The third tier is comprised of the networks of third party sellers, publishers, vendors, and manufacturers who ensure that Amazon acts as an intermediary that fulfills orders from customers by linking them to this tier.
Recommendations
The previous section has analyzed Amazons SCM in a detailed and comprehensive manner. By focusing on the five themes in which the analysis proceeded, we were able to identify the areas that Amazon does well in its SCM. However, there are components and aspects of the SCM of Amazon where improvements can be made. This section identifies those areas and proposes some recommendations that Amazon can follow and implement to make its SCM world class and be a source of sustainable competitive advantage.
First, Amazon relies to a great extent on courier companies such as FedEx and UPS. In recent years, Amazons brand image has taken a hit because of the unreliability of the last mile connectivity or the last part of the SCM that is visible to the end consumer.
In other words, while the other components of the SCM seem to be efficient and complementing and supplementing each other, the part of the SCM where the customer interacts has been found to be deficient. Therefore, Amazon can setup its own transportation and actualize superior last mile delivery by creating its own fleet of delivery vehicles and personnel.
The second recommendation has to do with the aspect of bullwhip. This means that Amazon can integrate its SCM better and move from a cooperation model with its suppliers to a coordination mode. This would entail a sharing of information between all its partners and suppliers using the latest technology.
Further, this recommendation also entails creation of a unified IT system that can involve all the suppliers and the stakeholders in its SCM and not Amazon alone. This would call for substantial investment as well as a new business model where Amazon does not operate in isolation but instead brings together all the elements and the components of the supply chain under one umbrella.
The third and final recommendation has to do with unifying its supply chain less than one gigantic IT system so that there is greater visibility on each component of the supply chain as well as more accountability and transparency in the process. As mentioned elsewhere, Amazon outsources some functions and this leads to accountability issues. Therefore, in line with the central theme of this article, Amazon should integrate its entire supply chain from end to end in one single IT system so that bottlenecks can be identified and suitably acted upon.
As it expands its global footprint, it needs a single source of truth (to use the industry jargon) wherein it can have visibility right from procurement to end customer delivery. This would also ensure that its problems with last mile delivery are sorted out and customers as well as suppliers along with the employees are linked together in a real time system.
? PREVIOUS ARTICLE NEXT ARTICLE ?
Similar Articles Under – Supply Chain Management
Internet Enabled Supply Chains
Sourcing Strategies
SCM – Problems and Roadblocks
VIEW ALL ARTICLES
Authorship/Referencing – About the Author(s)
The article is Written By Prachi Juneja and Reviewed By Management Study Guide Content Team. MSG Content Team comprises experienced Faculty Member, Professionals and Subject Matter Experts. We are a ISO 2001:2015 Certified Education Provider. To Know more, click on About Us. The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. Please reference authorship of content used, including link(s) to ManagementStudyGuide.com and the content page url.
schweppes tonic water In-shop marketing company | schweppes tonic water Distributors,
