Adrian Boswell

With the continued growth in the UK of the lunchtime #mealdeal this looks a smart move by the teams at Tesco and Sainsbury's as they look to created extra value for consumers in the #foodtogo sector. An interesting growth strategy for the #icecream category and one to watch to see how quickly others follow #ukretail #convenience #customerexperience #lunchtime #summermenu Prof. Consulting Group

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Whilst it feels chilly over the last few days in the UK it is reported that retailers can expect more favorable weather this December compared to last year. This will undoubtedly boost demand for seasonal products as everyone starts to enjoy the approach to their christmas festivities! Last year's December was abnormally warm outside of Scotland, with England and Wales equalling the 5th warmest on record. Unsettled conditions and heavy rainfall (8th wettest on record for the UK) further hindered footfall and sales (this continues in some parts of the UK this year too). This December whilst forecast to be warmer, @Planalytics expects a more favourable climate for retailers, with temperatures still helping to lift year-over-year performance for winter wardrobe products such as knitwear, outerwear, and boots as well as comfort items including hot cereal, soup, hot chocolate, blankets, heaters, and more.

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12 week kantar update. Similar theme as previous quarters…Tesco and Sainsbury’s lead the pack with a market share increases of 0.6% and 0.5% respectively. Interesting numbers for the shareholders as we head to the mid way point of many businesses financial year. No doubt both Tesco and Sainsbury’s are capitalising on the worrying decline at Asda. Another record low market share and on the back of scathing comments by Lord Rose. They are in desperate need of a captain to lead the rudderless ship. Is a CEO on the way? Discounters continue to accelerate with Lidl in pole position on terms of growth. Aldi slowing down but still in double digits and with the news they are launching instore bakeries that could drive some much needed footfall and volume.

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Argos sales below expectations as Sainsbury's group posts HY growth Simon Roberts, Chief Executive of J Sainsbury plc, said: “Our food business is going from strength to strength and we’re making the biggest market share gains in the industry, with continued strong volume growth. More and more customers are coming to us for their big food shop, recognising our winning combination of value, quality and service. “Our grocery volume growth has delivered strong profit leverage at Sainsbury’s, partially offset by a tough first quarter at Argos. Argos trading has improved through the second quarter and in more recent weeks, so we continue to expect to deliver strong retail underlying operating profit growth and free cash flow generation for the full year." https://lnkd.in/eRk5z2DX #argos #sainsburys #retail #halfyear #trading #update

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🌟 Standing Out in the Fresh Produce Aisle …                   … a great example of how Branded POS can be done by Driscoll's in Morrisons yesterday. Having been a Produce Buyer myself I know it can be difficult to make Brand work in this category due to very limited space & the dominance of regular / premium private label. 🍓 Whether it’s a permanent or just a shoulder season initiative, however, this is a great execution & really draws the eye. Positioned as the only point-of-sale feature on the fixture, the Driscoll's bay captures attention & elevates the shopping experience in an area where brands traditionally struggle to stand out. … and a great reminder that in retail quite often ** less is more ** – perhaps a lesson for a lot of very crowded packaged grocery aisles at the moment! A well worked wider proposition too – at end October Morrisons have managed to maintain 3 tiers of quality in Strawberries (Good/Better/Best) – which not all the Grocers have – all competitive in price & looking great. 👏 ? What are your thoughts on this display, or the wider challenge of Brand-building in Fresh / Primary food categories? Please let me know in the comments... At Optima Retail we are Category Management experts so if you need any advice, or just want a quick chat to explore options for how to address a particular challenge please do get in touch. We also publish a weekly newsletter, Category Wins, with Real-world Insights & Tips on successful Category management, Growth strategy & Buyer engagement: see link in comments or in my bio to read our latest edition… ♻️ & if you enjoyed this post, please like & share it with your network. #CategoryManagement #Grocery #FreshProduce #PointOfSale #RetailMedia #BrandVisibility #CPG #FMCG

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Behind the optimistic headlines of 3.5% YoY growth in UK retail sales in March, the picture is less rosy. According to a recent British Retail Consortium report, the growth is mainly driven by the food sector, which saw a 6.8% increase due to early Easter and inflation. Non-food sales in physical stores, however, remain flat and down 1.1% so far this year. Leaving many retailers out there praying for sun! Check out the link below for more details. https://lnkd.in/eFCcftxt

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The UK’s New Budget: Tough on Smokers & Vapers, Favorable for Nicotine Pouch Users The UK’s recent budget reveals some clear winners and losers in the tobacco and nicotine landscape. What’s Changed? 1. Higher Taxes for Smokers 🚬 Cigarette prices are set to rise as new excise duties increase costs for traditional smokers. This move aligns with public health goals but significantly impacts those who still choose to smoke, making cigarettes even less affordable. 2. Tougher Measures for Vapers 💨 Vaping products are also facing new restrictions and potential cost hikes, signaling a shift in the government’s view on e-cigarettes. Vapers who turned to this option for a ‘safer’ alternative now face higher prices and additional regulations, creating barriers to access. 3. Nicotine Pouches Get a Boost 💊 In contrast, the budget has left nicotine pouches relatively untouched. These products are now becoming the most cost-effective nicotine option, as they’re unaffected by the recent tax hikes. This could mark a turning point for those looking to quit smoking or vaping but still want access to nicotine. What’s the Impact? For the first time, nicotine pouches might become a preferred choice for consumers looking for a legal, less-expensive way to consume nicotine. While the budget supports public health efforts by making smoking and vaping more costly, it inadvertently shifts the spotlight onto nicotine pouches as an affordable alternative. What are your thoughts? #UKBudget #NicotinePolicy #TobaccoControl #PublicHealth #Smoking #Vaping #NicotinePouches #TaxPolicy

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With some significant growth aspirations announced those week by ALDI USA a great article from Dan Butler thats starts to delve into the growth strategies and customer focused initatives that will provide the pathway to growth over the next 5 years, creating opportunities for suppliers that can innovate and meet the #aldi supplier standards with customer focused product solutions #foodanddrink #customerfocused #growthstrategy #privatelabel #ownbrand #groceryretail #retail #ukretail #australianretail #contractmanufacturing Prof. Consulting Group

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Despite aggressive discounting and enhanced loyalty offers from mainstream supermarkets, UK shoppers continue to switch to the discounters, in search of deals. The percentage of shoppers switching to Aldi and Lidl was up by four percentage points compared to last year. 51% said that they had switched 'some' of their food spend to the discounters, while 13% have switched 'all' of their shopping to Aldi and Lidl. Younger demographics are the most likely to switch to the discounters, with approximately 80% of Millennials and Gen Z making the switch. #discounters #supermarkets #cpg

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Great day today with our suppliers, Commercial and Marketing teams at the Annual Morrisons IGD (Institute of Grocery Distribution) Trade Briefing in Harrrogate. If you were there and the importance of Local Assortment or WIGIG’s (when it’s gone it’s gone) was of interest, please get in touch with me to discuss further. #MorrisonsTradeBriefing #IGD #Morrisons #LocalSourcing #WIGIG

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Giles Hurley, chief executive for Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “British shoppers are voting with their feet and choosing Aldi as their first-choice supermarket". I do believe that I said on Friday that Aldi's results would contain a small amount of PR spin. Hurley is right, British shoppers are voting with their feet, but in the past 4 months it has been in the opposite direction, to Aldi's competitors! In an interview with Emma Simpson for the BBC Hurley said 'There's always an ebb and flow' when asked if Aldi had lost customers. Aldi are not used to the ebb, they are used to the flow. The last time there was an ebb was 2020 during Covid when Aldi didn't have an online service. We know that Grocery retailing in the UK is all about optics, it's about spinning the positives, even in the face of overwhelming negatives. The wheels haven't completely come off at Aldi but they are very wobbly & I am not sure that just price will cut the mustard. For that reason Aldi are focusing on their premium ranges for this Christmas, Aldi's specially selected range will make up more than 50% of its overall Christmas offering for the first time. This means that they will be looking for customers to trade up, more importantly there will be no Aldi Match on any of their premium ranges! The battleground this Christmas will definitely by the top tier so expect to see a plethora of products Willy Wonka style! I don't want to take away from Aldi's results which are pretty impressive. Profit is at a record £536.7m with an extra £2.2bn of sales. This is an increase of 16% in sales & a 200% increase in profit! To put this into context, JS had sales of £30bn & profit before tax of £701m! Aldi's profit is now 3%, only Tesco have a higher %, so where has it come from? Cost savings? Reduction in investment? Maybe it's come from higher prices? There has to be a reason shoppers are less inclined to shop in Aldi than they were? If the price difference is no longer as significant as it was then Customers will look at alternatives, maybe a Retailer with a loyalty card? Aldi have announced their 'biggest ever store investment programme' today, £800m. Previously they have announced £1.4bn over two years so I do wonder how much of this is new money? Aldi do invest in store refurbishments much more than the traditional multiple retailers but will their ambition of 1500 stores in the UK ever be realised? I doubt it, there isn't the space! Retailer results are about spin, they always have been. I just hope that conversations in Aldi HQ are also not spin & that there is a dose of reality as well. #theretailmind #groceryretail #Aldi

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**Sainsbury’s makes biggest market share gain since 1997 as Asda sales plummet** Sainsbury's’s recorded its biggest market share gain since 1997 in last quarter as Asda’s sales plummet. According to fresh data from Kantar, Sainsbury’s market share jumped from 14.8% last year to 15.3% for the 12 weeks to 4 August, as it maintained its streak of being the fastest growing traditional supermarket. Its sales rose 5.2% over the period. Meanwhile, Asda sales plunged 6%, as its market share fell from 13.7% to 12.6%, the market research firm reported. Tesco maintained its streak of winning share every month since August 2023, with its hold of the market climbing to 27.6%. Additionally, sales were up 11.3% at Ocado Retail, as the online grocer continued its 6-month run as the fastest growing supermarket. Across the wider market, grocery inflation rose to 1.8% from 1.6% last month, marking its first increase since March 2023. Kantar head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt noted: “Having reached its lowest rate in almost three years in July, August saw inflation nudge up again slightly. “While this is noticeable following 17 straight months of falling rates, it actually marks a return to the average levels seen in the five years before the start of the cost of living crisis.” He added: “It is a mixed picture on supermarket shelves with prices now rising across 182 product categories, as the costs in 89 others fall. “With this kind of pricing spread, shoppers will find that the type of product they’re putting in their baskets will really dictate how much they pay.” Link to article in comments.

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Sainsbury’s sales soar as it makes biggest market share gains of any grocery Sainsbury’s sales soared in its first quarter as the supermarket said it had been winning customers from competitors every month for 15 consecutive months. In the 16 weeks to 22 June 2024, total sales grew 4.2% at the retailer, while grocery sales were even stronger, up 4.8% as chief executive Simon Roberts boasted of Sainsbury’s “market-beating grocery performance”. It came as the grocer saw a second year of volume growth and is winning more volume from primary customers than all other full-choice grocers, which it said is driving basket size growth “significantly ahead of all competitors”. During the first quarter, Sainsbury’s also had the biggest market share gains of any grocer with consistent net switching gains, it said. #sainsbury #marketshare #growth #retail #grocery #supermarket #competition #Aldi

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What happened in retail this week? 👇 - Asda pushed its debt burdens into the next decade after refinancing more than £3.2bn of debt. - Lidl GB announced £500m investment in the British pork industry as part of its commitment to sourcing from British producers. - Morrisons completed the £2.5bn MFG petrol forecourts sale. - Sainsbury's underlying pre-tax profits for the financial year were up 1.6% to £701m ahead of company expectations and grocery sales soared 9.4% over the period. - Aldi UK revealed that between 8am-9am and 7pm-10pm are the quietest times for customers to pick up their shopping ahead of the bank holiday. - Pets at Home opened two more stores on London high streets as it branches out from its typical retail park sites. - Co-op furthered its 100% free-range offer by introducing a white egg range to 2,400 stores. - Aldi UK launched a nationwide initiative to pinpoint prime locations for new store openings and has asked Brits to identify which areas across the UK need a new Aldi store, with suggestions to be submitted by 31 May. - Farmfoods is targetting 20-30 new stores as annual turnover passes £1bn. — — — — — — — I post the biggest stories from the UK’s biggest retailers each week. Connect with me to never miss a weekly update. #Retail #News #May 

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During the Drapers Supply Chain Summit yesterday on 3 July, AllSaints chief operating officer Catherine Scorey Jobling spoke about how the retailer is managing its supplier base to achieve sustainability goals. Read the full story below. #allsaints #supplychain #suppliers #retail #retailnews

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During the Drapers Supply Chain Summit yesterday on 3 July, AllSaints chief operating officer Catherine Scorey Jobling spoke about how the retailer is managing its supplier base to achieve sustainability goals. Read the full story below. #allsaints #supplychain #suppliers #retail #retailnews

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'The supermarket inspections identified few concerns in relation to price marking. When checking prices at the till, again compliance was very good for the majority of the supermarkets'. Yet again the CMA have investigated the supermarkets and come up empty handed, no profiteering, no price gouging, no concerns with regard to pricing in their stores. It's not too hard a leap of faith to think that the CMA really don't like supermarkets & are doing all they can to pin literally anything on them! According to the report there were no errors recorded at 57% of the stores they inspected, and a single error at 20% of the stores. Some of the supermarkets have 25,000 lines in them & they manage to get pricing right most of the time! The two questions that the CMA were asking were, are retailers consistently displaying selling prices for grocery goods as required under consumer law? Plus, does the indicated selling price match the price charged at the till? The CMA are convinced that Retailers are out to con their customers, mainly because this is what Which? & a few MPs have told them! The results were pretty clear. Missing price indications by category of retailer, Supermarkets, NO examples of missing price indications across different product categories, NO significant number of missing price indications, including across entire shelves. Five isolated instances of missing price indications. Number of price errors, 1050 items checked in Supermarkets, number of pricing errors 44 (4.2%). Two individual stores accounted for 10 of the price errors. What was their conclusion? Few concerns were identified with the supermarkets in relation to price marking, with only a small proportion of the stores accounting for most of the errors. In other words, nothing to see. If the Retailers implemented ESL (Electronic Shelf Labels) then these errors would reduce even further. Currently only Lidl & Aldi are doing this. When prices are changed by a person instore there will be mistakes, they are not malicious or intended to trick the Customer. That is the last thing a Retailer wants, it's called human error. Not sure what I would call the 3 investigations that the CMA has had into supermarkets that have revealed precisely zero insights. Maybe there really is nothing to see? #theretailmind #groceryretail #CMAinsights https://lnkd.in/dNkCZXrk

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'A culture of price undercutting by UK Salads over the past two years'. As a Buyer one of your jobs is to assess risk, this is actually more important than hitting your sales / profit plan. If you make a bad call on risk then the impact on your business can be significant. I always took the view, as a Buyer, that if something seems too good to be true then it is too good to be true. How can one Supplier be 30% cheaper than any of the others in an industry where margins are wafer thin? The question to ask though is why a Buyer in any Retailer would think that this is sustainable. The answer is that that Buyer was likely to be more focused on short term profit than a long-term. sustainable. The industry has been severely affected by the reckless behaviour of one supplier at a time when it can least afford it. Apparently before it faced financial difficulties, UK Salads had increased turnover from £45m to £69m in 2022 and expanded its farmland from 15 acres to 55 acres. But as we know, sales are for vanity, profit is for sanity. We are currently in a period where risk is higher than ever before, the swings are so extreme that one wrong call can mean the difference between small profit & huge loss. It would seem that UK Salads too enormous risks in a sector that can least afford it & the impact on their employees & those who they sourced from has been massive. Will those who lent them money survive, highly likely. Will the energy companies survive, of course. What about the 39 fruit & veg growers and suppliers? Managing risk is more important than ever before. Suppliers will be assessing which Retailer is riskiest to deal with, either in terms of personnel or finances. Getting the big calls right is more important than ever before, backing the right Retailer or Supplier can potentially bring big rewards but always make sure that they are sustainable. #theretailmind #groceryretail #GSCOPexpert #riskmanagement

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We've been anticipating a tipping point in retailers squeezing suppliers. UK suppliers refusing to pay huge data fees indicate a shift. A leading brand's response reported by The Grocer: “A strange way to try and make money. They should stick to putting things on shelf and selling them,”. In the SA FMCG market, there is an emergence of retailer data being repositioned in tiered packages - some suppliers also refuse to pay up. Trade Intelligence #retailnews #retailtrends #retail #fmcg #fmcgindustry #cpg #cpgindustry

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