Julian Hunt
Booker Cash & Carry has embarked on an ambitious plan to transform itself from a buying organisation into one focused solely on selling.
Marketing director Mark Collier said it was all part of the wholesaler's determination to grow its share of the market to 34% by 2004/2005.
"Key to our success is engineering our proposition around customers, shoppers and consumers," Collier said.
And he told the Federation of Wholesale Distributors' annual conference this would be achieved through the growth of its Premier symbol group, the development of customer centred propositions and its ability to develop and communicate a compelling price and value proposition through category business planning.
He revealed the category business planning process was now being rolled out across the organisation.
The process involves five key stages. It starts with category insights and analysis, before moving on to the identification of category opportunities and the development of strategies and tactics, after which plans are signed off and implemented. That process can take as little as six weeks to complete.
As with all category management initiatives, the process depends on the buy-in of leading manufacturers. "To be truly successful we need to work in partnership with all our leading suppliers," said Collier. But he stressed that category business planning at Booker was "developed for us, is managed for us and will be owned by us".
And Booker's top marketer was confident the process would deliver benefits for everybody.
Customers would get a range that best met their needs, he said, finding competitive everyday value on key lines as well as getting advice and support. For Booker the process helps it focus on the growth opportunities, while suppliers would benefit from working with an organisation that delivered to an agreed agenda.

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