I have been thinking about a recent post regarding the cost of display space, and in a conversation with Retail Newsagent’s Features Editor, Chris Rolfe suggested that maybe we should experiment with multi-facing of the better selling confectionery lines.

All the manufacturers tell us their best selling products sell better with double or triple facings. Clearly to make more space for the top sellers we need to take a hard look at our poorest performers in the category.

Early in May this year we added 50% extra display space to our confectionery display and added new lines to fill this. Two months on it’s time to check how it is performing and our EPoS scanning data provides us with some compelling evidence.

My hypothesis is that by removing the poorest performing lines to give extra facings to the best sellers, thereby creating a promotional block, we will produce a higher cash profit from the space. I will make the changes by the end of the first week in August and report on my findings at the end of September.

So who should be interested in my project? Clearly independent retailers who wish to push their profitability, but I would have thought Mars, Kraft/Cadbury and Nestlé might also be intrigued.

For information:

• Mars UK website
• Cadbury UK website
• Nestlé UK website

Interesting that none of these have a retailer-facing element.