Success Stories* by Our Associates

(1)*  Distribution Increased by an Average of 7%, Some Products Improved by 16.5% for Same Cost as Previous Year by Outsourcing Oversight of Merchandising. Freed Up 1800+ Hours of Manufacturer’s Time Per Year (approx.).  Allowed Manufacturer to Focus on Growth, Instead of Managing Merchandising*.  Associate firm saved manufacturer $150,000 on previous year’s budget of $1,000,000 (approximately).  Reinvested savings in better merchandising to achieve improvements in distribution, void reductions and out of stock reductions.  Other results included:

• Coordinated merchandising effectively with major TV ad campaign
• Used store volume and market data to create a store grading system to help spend merchandising dollars only in stores with the best payback
• Renegotiated merchandising service contracts for immediate cost savings and conducted RFP process to select new service providers
• Produced monthly stock level scorecard and list of worst stores to help manufacturer deal with problems and opportunities at retailers
• Created audit / mystery shopper program to confirm conditions in stores
• Helped manufacturer develop overall processes and disciplines for effectively managing merchandising

(MD CB)  Category:  Diabetic, Diagnostic, Medical

(22)*   20% Improvement in New Item Speed to Shelf.  Shared Merchandising Teams (Broker Coverage) Not Getting Job Done.  Established Dedicated Team Program for Fortune 500 Health and Beauty Manufacturer in Mass Merchandising (Wal*Mart) and Drug Channels*.  Syndicated model being used was falling short in out of stocks, void fills and display compliance.  Also provided greater flexibility for manufacturer's seasonal needs.  New Item improvements were measured by ACV against non-covered stores.  (PL)  Categories:  HBC, Suncare, Footcare, Over The Counter Drugs

(23)*   $4,307,000 Sales Increase Through Out of Stock Reductions. Established Dedicated Team Program for Fortune 500 Paper Goods Manufacturer.*  Specific Goal Was Out of Stock Reductions.  In-stock percentages grew from 99.23% to 99.67%.   Ultimately added promotion compliance and store level selling to the program.  (PL)  Categories:  HBC, Feminine Hygiene, Paper, Diapers, Variety HBC

(31)*   $59 Million Incremental Sales for European Grocery Wholesaler In One Year by  Reducing Out Of Stocks and Voids through Data-Driven Merchandising.  Should Increase for Next Several Years*.  Distributor had been using data to identify problems in retail stores for years (voids, out of stocks, new items, promotion compliance.)  Problem was that the distributor’s manufacturers, retailers, brokers and merchandising companies “owned” responsibility for resolving the problems (and the job was not getting done.)   Goal for first year of program was a 2% improvement ($80 million.)  Achieved $59 million improvement due to the data-driven merchandising solution (quote from distributor.)  Note that these are hard dollars of increased sales from products that are authorized to be on shelves, but are not there.  Associate sold project and designed approach that produced results.  (DK)   Category:  Wholesaler Sales Increase, International

(59)*  Outsourcing In-house Merchandising Team

• $100 Million+ Sales Gain over Multiple Years
• Phase 1 Cost Savings of $1,700,000 Per Year (Approx.)
• Reduced Average Hourly Cost (including overhead) from $38 per hour to $26 per hour for 76 people.
• RIGHT FIELD MERCHANDISER IN RIGHT PLACE, WHEN NEEDED:  Increased Store Visits by 25% for Same Budget Dollars (Approx.)
• BIG BENEFITS FROM LONG TERM PROGRAM:  Manufacturer Was Acquired, but Director of Retail Merchandising Continued Running Program for Acquirer, Continuously Improving Results Over the Years.  See additional success stories for same program:

• Comprehensive Training Makes The Difference.
• Ultimately Reduced Full Time Staff by 50%. (DY MH)

Category:  HBC, Near-HBC

Details:

http://www.tomingraminc.com/OutsourcingInHouseMerchTeam1.pdf

http://www.tomingraminc.com/MajorProgramSuccessGeneric.pdf

http://www.tomingraminc.com/HolidayCompliance17PerIncrSalesv2.pdf

http://www.tomingraminc.com/NoOneSelleratWalMartv3.pdf

http://www.tomingraminc.com/AggressiveSellingPalletManualOrders.pdf 

http://www.tomingraminc.com/AggressiveSellingTipsFromBest.pdf

(60)*  Outsourcing In-house Merchandising Team

• Cost Savings of $7,000,000+ Per Year (Approx.)**
• $38.5 Million Sales Increase Per Year from 5.5% Market Share Gain (Taken from #1 Competitor! – Approx.**)

• New Product Cut-In Rate Raised from 70% to 99%+

• Fixed Costs Moved to Variable Costs, Shared With Other Manufacturers
• 65% Full Time / 35% Part Time Work Force Changed to 30% Full Time / 70% Part Time  (DY MH)

Details http://www.tomingraminc.com/OutsourcingInHouseMerchTeam2.pdf

(88.3)*  90 Day Sales Gain of 16% for Adult Cough Cold Brand, (while market growing at 6%), through  "Never Out of Stock" Program.  Results occurred during peak cough-cold season in 2006.  Program continues to this day.  Keys were:

• Isolated 20% of skus generating 80% of sales

• e.g. 7 skus total in category, but 3 skus accounted for 80% of sales

• Identified top producing and under producing stores

• Increased "weeks of inventory on hand" for top selling selling stores, reduced for under selling stores

• Coordinate with merchandisers / brokers

Category:  HBC, Adult Cough Cold (VM)

(88.5)*  90 Day Sales Gain of 16% for Pediatric Cough Cold Brand, (while market growing at 6%), through  "Never Out of Stock" Program.  Results occurred during peak cough-cold season in 2007.  Program continues to this day.  Keys were:

• Isolated 20% of skus generating 80% of sales

• e.g. 7 skus total in category, but 3 skus accounted for 80% of sales

• Identified top producing and under producing stores

• Increased "weeks of inventory on hand" for top selling selling stores, reduced for under selling stores

• Coordinate with merchandisers / brokers

Category:  HBC, Pediatric Cough Cold (VM)

(104)*  90 Day Sales Gain of $36 Million, Out of Stocks Cut by 50%, Voids Eliminated in Test of 1100 Stores.  Sales gain verified by POS data from test stores, exceeding same store sales from two control groups. 

Manufacturer:  U.S. CPG Company

Problem: Retail merchandising "conditions in-store" reports were over-stating actual in-store conditions.   Shelf sections were poor, out of stocks significant.  Broker reports were always positive, and POS based reports were supporting what appeared to be a 98% "on-shelf" level.  (This was actually an inferred observation based on 98% of items selling and scanning, but it significantly understated the opportunity to improve sales.)

Solutions Notes:   Used existing retail merchandising force and created an entirely new ‘Retail Call Procedure” for a set of test stores.  Trained – implemented – monitored, in ruthless detail on results and progress.  Measured sales performance in stores on coverage by existing Retail Force and also stores with no merchandising coverage at all.  For this test, there was little done to “match test stores with comparable sister stores of same attributes”.

Test Stores:  Every SKU was “touched” and documentation was made of:  SKU’s on shelf and tagged,  SKU’s that had tags up but were out of stock,  SKU’s that were authorized for the store/POG but were not tagged and on shelf.  All results documented and the data used as the Baseline for the Test Stores Performance.  Upon completion of the Distribution documentation, remedial action was taken to correct:  SKU’s out of stock – look for back room inventory, inventory in other locations, check order status and book inventory status, inform manager and validate that the item is on order, and if not get it ordered and fix inventory figure if necessary.  SKU’s authorized but non tagged on shelf – contact manager, and validate ‘authorized status and place on POG’ and order product , get tag made, put tag on shelf and return when appropriate to ensure that the item is cut in on shelf.   Did this for 13 weeks.

Control Stores and Non Covered Stores:  Simply tracked by POS reports.  In the Control Stores where the Field Force was covering and working the stores, they continued "business as usual".  In the non-covered stores there was no activity at all.

Monitoring:  POS for all stores were monitored, POS for each store group (test, control, non-covered) were monitored.

Category:  HBC Categories, Grocery  (WV)