If you work at Warburtons, Heineken or Unilever Homecare, the latest Advantage Buyer Survey brought good news.
The highly respected benchmark, based on feedback from more than 2,100 retail workers, shows which suppliers are excelling in the eyes of buyers and why the best in class continue to pull ahead.
The results of how retailers ranked suppliers on metrics ranging from Organisation & People to E-commerce show there is plenty to learn there about where retailers believe suppliers are performing well and where there is room for improvement. Just as revealing, though, is the group of suppliers that make up the best in class.
Best in class
Advantage splits these into two rankings. The first is by category. And as you can see from the table below, the likes of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (impulse grocery), Procter & Gamble Healthcare (OTC & healthcare) and Nestle Purina (petcare) were all top of the scoreboards.
So what helps the best suppliers stand out? According to Andrew Johnston, MD of Advantage Group UK & Ireland, supply chain is the “bedrock” but communication is just as important.
“The top suppliers have a powerful supply chain that is performing consistently and delivering what the retailers need at the time that they need it, in the quantities that they need it,” he says. “Then from a relationship perspective, they are working in an easy way. It’s not to say they’re pushovers, but they are responsive to the way that retailers want them to work”
Suppliers who communicate powerfully and proactively, he says, will become a trusted partner for that particular retailer.
“That comes through in how they might execute through supply chains, or differentiate with that particular retailer with retail media or shopper marketing. Ultimately they’re seen as a growth partner for their retailer customer, and that flows through the value chain all the way to how the shoppers and consumers interact with their products at the point of purchase.”
Looking across the wider capability set, we see some of the same names cropping up more than once, with Warburtons (Supply Chain) and Unilever Homecare (Retail Media Service and e-commerce) top again here. But there are some more surprising entries too.
Bic, maker of stationery, lighters and shavers, tops the Capability & Experience competency, while Barts Ingredients is best in class when it comes to Product Innovation.
But operational excellence isn’t the only factor. Johnston says the top suppliers are thinking beyond the immediate term.
Long-term thinking
“The best suppliers are having longer-term conversations with their retailer partners, whether they’re branded suppliers or own brand suppliers,” he says. “They’re scanning that horizon, looking at what consumer trends are coming up, what legislation might be impacting particular categories, and obviously then having longer-term or further out conversations around potential inflationary impacts that they’re seeing now.
Johnston also points out that each category is different. With DRS coming down the line, drinks suppliers have some category-specific challenges, altough he predicts they’ll already be ”working with their retailers” to optimise the value chain. Ultimately, suppliers need to be pragmatic and balance what’s going on the day-to-day that will help them build trust.
”But we do recommend that suppliers talk longer-term with their retailer partners to make sure they know that what their direction of travel is, and vice versa.”
One clear pattern does emerge: most of these best-in-class suppliers are some of the largest in the fmcg sector. Clearly size counts when it comes to being seen as a great supplier, partly because they have the resource, both in terms of people and investment, to dedicate to all the different metrics that make up being the best suppliers.
Johnston is quick to point out, however, that a new cohort of ”powerful smaller suppliers” are also performing well. He names gut health brand Biotiful, St Austell Brewery and the Tofoo Company as notable performers, as well as Refresco, Adnams and Vibrant Foods, whose scores are rising fast.
“Some of the big players have performed strongly, but we do have a real cohort of powerful smaller suppliers who are demonstrating great agility, great innovation capabilities, and great consumer and shopper centricity and are bringing some really great, bespoke and dedicated executions to their retailers,” he says. ”They’re working at a pace that really shows them as key parts of the supply mix.”
The message from buyers is clear: reliability is important but responsiveness, collaboration and forward thinking will help a supplier stand out. Whether a big brand or a challenger, the suppliers that can do both are the ones retailers increasingly view as true partners.
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