OPINION: Q&A: Five ways Today’s Group is getting retailers ready for the future

Price-marked packs, franchises and EPoS were identified as top priorities for Today’s Group to help retailers with in the coming months.

BetterRetailing spoke to retail director John Kinney to find out how.

BetterRetailing: What are you working on over the next 12 months?
John Kinney: The emphasis has been on chilled in a lot of cases. It’s a big opportunity but it’s not right for everyone. When you’ve got a small store, it might be much better to get a great impulse soft drink or hot drinks offer. We’ve done a range guide to suit an 850sq ft convenience store and now we are tailoring it to different sizes and formats.

Br: How are you helping retailers with food to go?
JK: Some of our members have started going down the franchise route with Subways, Greggs etc. We’re working on putting relationships in place with those suppliers and investing internally so retailers could approach us rather than sourcing a contact for themselves.

Br: What do retailers need to be cautious of?
JK: The majority of price-marked packs are great for the sector, but retailers have to be sure they are driving enough additional purchases to make up for the loss in cash margin. When most of the store is price-marked they’ve got to drive additional sales right across the store. Our challenge is to help retailers make additional profit through areas like chilled.

Br: How can retailers be sure specific PMPs are right for them?
JK: A lot of that comes down to EPoS. The information contained in there can help you understand how much return you are getting from specific areas. If you’ve got five bays of greeting cards, could you do the same amount of sales from four and introduce a bay of premium bottled ales? Our BDMs can now walk into a store, take two reports and find out if areas are under-performing.

Br: What new legislation should retailers be aware of?
JK: We need to make sure our retailers are fully on board with the implication of AWRS. We’re fully signed up and retailers need to make sure they continuously check their suppliers.

For more information, see our AWRS feature in the March 21 edition of Retail Express