Nisa has invested £2m into lowering wholesale prices, following issues where partners found it was cheaper to buy some Co-op branded products from Co-op stores.
The investment was announced on 26 March at Nisa Live, the symbol group’s latest online trade conference. It will see the prices across branded and own label dropped, as part Nisa’s ‘Fresh Thinking’ strategy. Products include fresh meat, ambient, chilled, dairy, soft drinks and confectionery. The firm claimed it was consistently cheaper than its major national competitors across a basket of 3,000 branded products.
The investment comes as Nisa admitted there were issues where the wholesale pricing on some Co-op products were more expensive than Co-op stores.
Nisa Retail CEO Ken Towle said: “We are always looking for ways to ensure our partners can adapt and grow in a fast-evolving market; this significant investment in price will ensure our partners stay competitive across a basket of goods, helping to drive sales and margin in key categories.
“I am also pleased to see Nisa remains cheapest across thousands of branded product lines compared with our competitors. We continually work hard to secure the best terms we can for our partners with the might of Co-op’s buying power behind us, and this significant investment is just one of a number of ways we are helping partners grow their businesses in 2021.”
Nisa Retail trading director Ayaz Alam added: “Co-op own brand significantly increases a partners profit on return, and this additional £2m will support our partners in a market where own brand is the coveted prize.
“Alongside our investment in price reductions, significant promotional activity and new product development planned for this year will enable our partners to stay competitive and adapt to changing consumer trends as we slowly emerge from lockdown.”
As part of the symbol group’s new ‘Fresh Thinking’ strategy, partners will get further support on improving customer experience, category insights and store formats, alongside account management teams.
Retailers who stock a ‘credible range’ of Co-op branded products will receive an enhanced ‘Product to Stock’ support package, which notifies customers they are stocking the multiple’s own label range. Nisa has also launched a Co-op core essentials range, which helps retailers build the own label in their store.
Further announcements include improvements to the delivery network, adding a fleet of temperature-controlled vehicles. It is also upgrading the chilled and freeze equipment in its depots to help retailers meet the growing the demand for fresh.
The second half of the year will also see an electronic proof of delivery system introduced. It is designed to reduce paper wastage when retailers sign off their deliveries. The information gathered from the paperless system will also help Nisa identify market trends. Nisa has also pledged to publish information related to the number of deliveries made on times.
Nisa chief operating officer John McNeill said: “Today’s investment to improve the efficiency, reliability and ease-of-use of our service will ensure Nisa is able to maintain its market leading levels of availability and improve the distribution service for our partners. We want to ensure we are the wholesale delivery partner of choice for independent retailers and the significant investment”.
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