Six Suppliers Earn Kudos From Retailers

Convenience Store News' inaugural Supplier Excellence Awards applaud companies for their outstanding efforts in six key performance areas.

Because of their large number of small-sized locations, broad product mix and unique packaging requirements, convenience store retailers are probably more dependent on the effectiveness and efficiency of their product suppliers than any other type of retailer.

The best convenience store suppliers help their retail clients succeed by excelling in various disciplines from marketing and advertising to new product innovation and in-store merchandising.

To identify the best of the best, CSNews conducted a poll among our retailer subscribers and asked them to name those suppliers they believe are the best at what they do in six different achievement categories. From those responses, the winners of our inaugural Supplier Excellence Awards were chosen based on the number of times a supplier was mentioned; the quality of the supporting reasons given by the retailers; and input from the CSNews Editorial Advisory Board consisting of representatives from 12 prominent convenience store chains.

The first-ever CSNews Supplier Excellence Awards winners are:

• Marketing & Advertising Excellence: Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.
• Partnership Relationship With Retailers: The Hershey Co.
• Effectiveness of In-Store Promotions & Merchandising Displays: Mars Inc.
• New Product Innovation: NJOY
• Speed to Market: Monster Beverage Corp.
• Best Order Fulfillment of On-Time & Complete Deliveries: PepsiCo Inc.

Read on to see what retailers had to say about this year's top suppliers.

Marketing & Advertising Excellence: Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.

King of Beers, King of Marketing

Several factors have brought marketing and advertising to a whole new level, with social media and mobile technology chief among them. Those companies that ramp up their presence online and in the mobile world will find their efforts more than pay off. One such company is Anheuser-Busch.

Anheuser-Busch is the recipient of the first-ever CSNews Supplier Excellence Award for Marketing & Advertising Excellence. The beer maker has proven that just because the company traces its roots back to 1852, that doesn't mean it is living in the dark ages.

In voting for Anheuser-Busch, retailers pointed to the company's use of new media in drawing in consumers and ramping up consumer excitement.

One example of the brewer's social media efforts was the chance for a Bud Light Facebook fan to win a Super Bowl experience of a lifetime. The brand sought applicants through an open video casting call on its Facebook page to find the official Bud Light Hotel correspondent. The winning candidate received a salary from Bud Light to star in a series of exclusive videos for the brand's Facebook and YouTube pages throughout the week leading up to Super Bowl XLVI.

Anheuser-Busch also received kudos for traditional marketing and advertising steps. One retailer pointed out that the company works well with convenience store operators when it comes to offering merchandising options. Another cited Anheuser-Busch's execution and custom point-of-purchase design as examples of the company's involvement with their c-store partners.

And the efforts have not been for nothing. As one retailer noted, Anheuser-Busch's programs "increased sales, customer counts and excitement with consumers."

— Melissa Kress

Partnership Relationship With Retailers: The Hershey Co.

Retailers Say 'Hershey Understands Us'

The Hershey Co. was recognized by convenience store operators as topping the industry in the effectiveness of its partnership relationships with retailers. Along with getting more votes than any other supplier in this discipline, Hershey garnered enthusiastic comments from retailers who were asked to support their choice with reasons and examples.

Retailers, in general, felt the confectionery company was exceptionally good at understanding how to assist with promotions and when to exit programs on seasonal items. Hershey also received kudos for deftly handling last year’s retail candy price increases and contributing to exceptional sales and profit gains in the category over the past two years.

Some of the verbatim comments from retailers in support of Hershey are listed below:

• "When the retail increase came earlier in the year, our Hershey rep was the first to come to the table to adjust the allowance monies in order to promote product to keep the consumer shopping."
• "The Hershey Co. took a very proactive approach to support our efforts to grow dispensed beverages and instead of taking a negative approach (why isn't my category the primary focus), they used the opportunity to partner with our team and help us drive a strategic category. The result was better performance in our strategic category, as well as in candy and snacks. Both categories performed at more than triple the industry growth for the past two years due to this effort."

Tom Joyce, Hershey's vice president for customer and industry affairs, gave credit to his company's 2002 creation of a dedicated team to drive category sales in the c-store channel.

"With leadership from Dave Onorato, Mike West, Jeff Lilla, our area sales directors, customer sales executives and dedicated retail team, along with a dedicated c-store marketing team, we have made significant progress over the past 10 years," Joyce said. "We take every opportunity to meet with the c-store key decision makers to try to understand their business and develop plans to meet their specific needs. Our success has to do with our brands, our promotions and, most of all, our people."

— Don Longo

Effectiveness of In-Store Promotions & Merchandising Displays: Mars Inc.

Out-of-This-World Promotions

In recent years, technologically savvy marketing efforts, such as smartphone applications and games as well as targeted online advertising, have made a difference in how suppliers persuade consumers to purchase their products. But when it comes to the convenience store industry, one of the most important places to push a product is inside the store itself — the place where individuals decide whether or not an item is worth opening their wallet.

Mars Chocolate North America has recognized this and won retailers' support and the first CSNews Supplier Excellence Award for Effectiveness of In-Store Promotions & Merchandising Displays. Retailers said Mars' attractive displays — some themed — created consumer action and increased their stores' sales, an assessment that was backed up by scan data.

According to Mars, consistency and inventiveness are the keys to its promotional efforts.

"The M&M'S brand Reunite 'M Promotion, which ran last spring and summer, was a very successful campaign," said Larry Lupo, vice president of sales, convenience and retail, Mars Chocolate North America.

"The 360-degree marketing program resonated with consumers, as they saw the same messaging and merchandising." in our TV commercials, on the shipper display in store and on the packaging. This promotion is a great example of creating consumer excitement and demand for top national brands through consistent, creative marketing and merchandising."

The confectioner has no plans to change course in 2012, either; it has already announced a long lineup of promotions that will be incorporated at the store level, including the football-themed Celebrate on the Field, Summer Movie Mania, Take Your Peanut Butter Pick and more.

"Seasonal confections are gaining popularity in c-stores, so Mars is introducing a wide range of seasonal treats and colorful in-store displays for c-stores," Lupo added.

— Angela Hanson

Best Order Fulfillment of On-Time & Complete Deliveries: PepsiCo Inc.

Always In Stock at the Shelf

The retailers who nominated PepsiCo Inc. as the winner of the CSNews Supplier Excellence Award for Best Order Fulfillment of On-Time & Complete Deliveries said the beverage and snack company works hard to ensure in-stocks and goes out of its way to fill emergency orders even on the weekends, whenever and wherever product is needed.

PepsiCo and its divisions, Pepsi Beverages Co. (PBC) and Frito-Lay North America, also gained accolades for inventory control, specifically in using their sales data and each retailer's individual scan data to ensure product is always available in the proper quantities.

Both PBC and Frito-Lay utilize direct-store delivery (DSD) for all of their convenience store products. With Frito-Lay's national c-store SKUs totaling about 350 and its average c-store carrying 100 of them, plus PBC's average c-store SKUs ranging between 150 and 360, it's no small feat for PepsiCo to deliver on time and in exactly the right quantities ordered.

John S. Phillips, PepsiCo's senior vice president of Customer Supply Chain & Logistics, told CSNews that the company's mantra is: "If it's ordered, it should be delivered." The goal is not only to achieve a 100-percent fill rate by the order — currently it is at 99 percent and above — but also to achieve the same for in-stock at the shelf, he explained.

PepsiCo and its divisions are taking a number of steps to enhance the supply chain.

Among them on the Frito-Lay side are:

• Moving the picking out of the route truck and into the distribution centers.
• Building customer order capability upstream at the manufacturing plants.
• Gaining more precision by writing orders in "eaches."
• Using advanced handheld ordering technology that incorporates retailer POS scan data.

On the PBC side, the supplier is:

• Equipping sales reps with a smart handheld system leveraging retailer POS scan data.
• Piloting the use of Advanced Shipping Notification (ASN) technology that assigns unique serialized license plates to each order, speeding up the check-in process.
• Increasing the frequency at which the sales representatives are in the stores with the addition of Gatorade to the DSD system.
• Moving to a build-to-order process that "unitizes" each store's order.
• Investing in voice-picking capability.

In addition, maintaining an ongoing dialogue with retailers — at both the headquarters level and at the stores — is a companywide supply chain pillar. "We hold supply chain summits with the large chains. But most importantly in a DSD system is where the rubber meets the road at the store level. That's where some of the most important collaboration happens," Phillips said.

—Linda Lisanti

New Product Innovation: NJOY

Enjoying a Gold Standard

In the past two years, the electronic cigarette field has grown by leaps and bounds. New products have entered the scene, and as to be expected, some of those products have left the scene. One that is betting on its staying power is NJOY Electronic Cigarettes, the winner of the inaugural CSNews Supplier Excellence Award for New Product Innovation.

According to Roy Anise, executive vice president of NJOY, the company stands out because of its "gold standard" business practices: doing things in the most responsible way; having superior branding and products; launching products that have breakthrough packaging and merchandising design; and providing the retailer with point-of-sale support to help educate the adult smoker on the NJOY products and their benefits.

The most recent NJOY product to come to the market is the OneJoy disposable e-cigarette. It hit convenience stores, such as Chevron's ExtraMile, The Pantry's Kangaroo Express and Sunoco's APIus chains, in November. Other e-cigarette companies have already introduced disposable products, but NJOY was not worried about showing up fashionably late.

"We were late to the disposable market because we waited until we had a product that was superior to any on the market," Anise explained.

Several of the product's attributes stand out, he said, such as the packaging, pricing and Plexiglas countertop display case with etching on the side. "Retailers like the way our products look and they have a great repurchase rate," he added.

Feedback from the retailers backed this up. When asked how the product contributed to stores' performance, one retailer said it increased sales and allowed new customers to come to the store and try a new product. Another commented that NJOY "filled the unique niche for customers looking to smoke anywhere."

"The demand is exceeding anything we anticipated," said Anise.

— Melissa Kress

Speed to Market: Monster Beverage Corp.

A Monster Year for Monster

It's one thing to have a good idea for a new beverage. It's another to have the capabilities in place to get that product to c-store shelves in lightning-fast time. According to retailers who cast votes for the CSNews Supplier Excellence Award in the Speed to Market category. Monster Beverage Corp. excels in this area.

Here are just two of the comments presented by anonymous retailers that led to Monster taking home the coveted award for distribution of its new Monster Rehab energy drink:

• "They were in distribution as quickly as they were announced, and the distributor also filled out all paperwork needed to get these items set up properly for our pricebook."
• "We adjusted our current store schematics to accommodate the new items and were able to sell them immediately."

Other retailers also noted that the 10-calorie, non-carbonated drink, available in a 16-ounce can, provided a huge boost to their alternative beverage bottom line.

According to Corona, Calif.-based Monster, a division of Hansen Beverage Co., Rehab was formulated to be a "triple-threat" drink. It "quenches thirst, hydrates like a sports drink and brings you back after a hard day's night," the company boasts. "Monster Rehab: Re-Fresh, Re-hydrate, Re-store, or in other words, Re-habilitate with a killer mix of tea, lemonade, electrolytes and our bad-ass Rehab energy blend to fire you up."

Richard Hastings, Monster Beverage's senior vice president of national accounts, told CSNews that Rehab was introduced to "extend the use occasion for energy drinks into non-carbonated [beverages]. Rehab provides a tea-based product that satisfies consumers' 'energy need state.'"

He added that Rehab is a popular seller among c-store retailers because it allows them to convert tea drinks into a "premium" option. "If you look at the ready-to-drink tea category, it's very much a discount category," he said. "The majority of the volume is done at $1. Now, [the retailer] can sell Monster Rehab — a tea-based product — for $2 each."

— Brian Berk