Mondelez International is to return to providing in-store support through its field team following new research showing continued demand for rep visits.

Asked about its plans for restarting field operations, Alisdair Hamilton, national operations & field controller at Mondelez International told Better Retailing: “our field team will begin returning to stores from mid-June, with a flexible and collaborative approach to meet each of our customers’ requirements while in store.”

Hamilton said support would differ ‘from store-to-store’ based on each retailer’s specific needs. “In order to facilitate this we will be undertaking  a number of measures including phoning ahead to organise visits at convenient & safe times of day and  flexing our call times to allow us to meet with retailers at more convenient times for their business needs,” he promised.

The Cadbury brand owners said the approach was based on feedback it had received from convenience store owners. The field controller explained: “we recently conducted exclusive research to understand the needs of our independent customers and enable us to return in a timely and supportive way. Almost all (98%) of the retailers surveyed told us they want us to communicate with them via in-store visits.”

Find out more on our coronavirus information hub for retailers