Vol. 1 No. 3
July 2007
Retailer Profile
In This Issue:
GMA/FPA Personality Profile: Coke's Ann Dozier
Last Call: Unsaleables Management Conference
CPG Award Winner Unilever Headlines MSM
Young To Address
DSD Committee
IS Committee Meets
in California
Executive Conference Studies On-Line
BearingPoint: Insights for Results Published
Deloitte: Future of CPG Companies Probed
GMA/FPA Industry Affairs Group:
Troy J. Beeler
Manager
Sales & Sales Promotion
Jeanne Iglesias
Director
Supply Chain & Technology
Jill Johnson
Director
Industry Affairs &
Associate Membership
Brian Lynch
Director
Sales & Sales Promotion
Stephen A. Sibert
Senior Vice President
Industry Affairs
Pam Stegeman
Vice President
Supply Chain & Technology
Industry Affairs Review Team:
Business Development Director &
Member Of Board
Planet Retail, London
President & CEO
Singley Associates
Featuring Sushi, Luxury Foodservice, Clothing:
Japan’s FamilyMart Opens C-Stores in USA
With
some 43,000 outlets, Japan is the Asian hub of convenience store retailing –
parent to global leaders such as 7-Eleven, LAWSON and Circle K. In this
intensely competitive environment, FamilyMart is the third largest
convenience store operator, with a highly innovative network of some 7,000
stores. Its empire also extends across Asia with stores in China, Thailand,
Taiwan and Korea.
Its first store in the United States, trading under the Famima!! banner, opened in West Hollywood, Calif. in 2005. Attracted by the large Asian population in the area, FamilyMart is one of the first Japanese retailers to exploit the U.S. market with a new banner heavily influenced by its home region. Other Japanese companies with a presence in the United States – most notably Seven & I, via 7-Eleven, and AEON with Talbots/J Jill – acquired established brands and companies in the country.
Also, unlike many of its c-store rivals in the United States that are
largely located with gas stations and have a limited fast-food product
range, FamilyMart is defining itself through urban area stores that focus
on selling premium lines of fresh and prepared foods, including organics.
Japanese specialities such as rice balls, sushi and Manga comics help to
further flesh out the offer. Stores feature foodservice counters, soup and
coffee bars, news sections, ATMs, tobacco, health and beauty, clothing,
sandwiches, fast food and stationery.
|
Luxury Foodservice Center |
Sushi Sampling |
Although initial plans for opening 250 stores in the United States by 2009 seem optimistic (Only12 have opened so far.), the company’s strategy to grow via franchising is likely to succeed more quickly than a company-owned network. Beyond California, entry into new markets such as New York, Arizona, Nevada and Washington are on the radar. Defined as a "luxury convenience banner,” Famima!! targets affluent, time-poor, health conscious customers – not dissimilar to those pursued by Tesco, which is opening c-stores on the West Coast in the fall.
Speaking at the opening of the first U.S. stores, Junji Ueda, president and COO of FamilyMart, said: “We will be able to attract Americans by introducing Japanese-style convenience stores in the U.S.” Ueda has even gone so far as to say: “Based on our Japanese model, we aim to become the global standard for convenience store retailing.” And, no doubt, the company believes that the key to this will be the U.S. marketplace.
Born in 1946, Junji Ueda started his working life in 1970 in the accounts department at the Itochu Corporation, a major Japanese trading firm. Showing little affinity for number crunching, he spent the next 25 years with Itochu in its livestock department, eventually heading up the department. Typical of many Japanese businessmen, out-of-hours socializing was important for Ueda to build relationships, and he often entertained business associates and their families.
Ueda moved to FamilyMart in 2000 as an executive officer, was appointed to the board in 2001 and promoted to chief executive in March 2002.
Although he has cut back on socializing, Ueda continues to meet suppliers and other business associates for dinner, enabling him to gather a wide range of opinions about FamilyMart from different perspectives.
|
|
One of Ueda’s passions is cooking at home. Not only does he get involved in meal preparation, but he also buys ingredients, giving him the opportunity to go food shopping and pop into FamilyMart stores. This background enables him to serve with conviction in the retailer’s ready-meals product development team. |
In what must be one of the most unusual hobbies in our CEO profile series, Ueda says that knife sharpening is another passion that absorbs his attention. As a baby boomer, he believes he has managed to successfully combine the work hard and play hard ethic of this generation.
Under his leadership, FamilyMart has expanded into two of the world’s largest consumer markets – China and the United States – helping to decrease its reliance on the saturated Japanese market. Although trailing arch-rival 7-Eleven by a long way, Ueda is not to be defeated, seeing the overseas market as offering huge potential.
Ueda’s connection with Itochu has been invaluable in enabling him to expand abroad, with Itochu now the retailer’s largest shareholder, helping to finance the globalization of the chain. Further expansion across the Asia Pacific region is planned with the goal of establishing a network of 20,000 stores, positioning FamilyMart as a global retailer in reality.
CEO Ueda has also been instrumental in helping to improve the company’s fortunes, with net sales under his leadership increasing by 52 percent and net profit jumping by 75 percent.
Industry Affairs News
Sales and Sales Promotion
Late Reservations Accepted for Unsaleables Conference
It’s
not too late to register to attend the Joint Industry Unsaleables Management
Conference July 17-19 at the Ritz Carlton, Lake Las Vegas, Nevada.
Registration forms are available at the conference Web site, or you can call
Troy Beeler at 202.337.9400 for more information.
Accenture and IRI lead a general session exploring new product introductions and exit strategies. Also slated is a leadership panel outlining how trading partners can collaborate to fix root causes of unsaleables and improve supply chain efficiencies. Featured are speakers from Heinz North America, Winn-Dixie, Kellogg Company, Nestlé USA, Nestlé Purina PetCare Company and Food Lion LLC.
Ben Miyares, vice
president for industry relations of the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers
Institute, will moderate a panel on how coding and marking strategies can
reduce unsaleables. Bob Storms, director of sales and marketing for Moen
Industries, and Jeff Gardner, manager of national accounts design for the
Weyerhaeuser Company, discuss secondary packaging and its relationship to
damaged product.
Contact:
Troy Beeler
CPG Award Winners Headline MSM Conference
At the annual executive conference, GMA/FPA’s Associate Member Council
presented the 2007 CPG Innovation and Creativity Award to Unilever for its
collaborative success in an initiative to drive center-store sales with
retail partner Stop & Shop/Ahold. This winning entry from 16 case studies
submitted will be a centerpiece of the 2007 MSM Conference September
30-October 2 at The Broadmoor, Colorado Springs.
The Unilever-Ahold co-marketing promotions resulted in increasing shopper trips to the store by 90 percent, multiple category purchases by 80 percent, sales per trip by 25 percent, and total store sales by 138 percent.
At the executive conference award presentation, Lisa Klauser, vice president of Unilever’s brand building and marketing excellence program, accepted the award. The participants in the MSM general session will be named at a later date.
|
MSM Early Bird Registration Ends July 31
|
Contact: Brian Lynch or Troy Beeler
Industry Development Team Meets August 7-8
GMA/FPA’s Industry Development Team (IDT) meeting on August 7-8 will feature
an association update by President and CEO Cal Dooley and briefings by
senior executives on the organization’s industry, government and scientific
affairs departments. The meeting will be at GMA/FPA offices in Washington,
D.C.
Contact:
Brian Lynch
Supply Chain and Technology
Kroger’s Steve Young to Address DSD Committee Meet
Steve Young, vice
president retail process change at The Kroger Co., will speak to the GMA/FPA
Direct Store Delivery Committee meeting July 25-26 in Cincinnati. Thomas
Borneman and Guy Mills of Clarkston Consulting also will brief the committee
on the upcoming Growth Through DSD study.
Contact:
Pam Stegeman
Information Systems Committee Meets in California
Lora Cecere, research director consumer products, and Lee Geishecker, vice
president and general manager, AMR Research, addressed the IS Committee
meeting June 25-26 in Oakland on strategies for emerging vs.
established markets from an IT perspective. SAP Americas Supply Chain
Management Solutions
Principal Chris Foti probed centralizing global IT infrastructure,
especially for mergers and acquisitions.
The meeting was held at
The Clorox Company.
Contact:
Jeanne Iglesias
Executive
Conference
Conference Presentations, Publications Available
On-Line
Copies of the four studies released at the 2007 GMA/FPA Executive Conference
last month are now available on-line, as are presentations by some of the
speakers. Visit the
conference Web site to download the reports.
Ann
Dozier
Vice President, Strategic Industry Initiatives
The Coca-Cola Company
Current
Position
In August 2006, Ann Dozier was named vice president, strategic
industry initiatives for The Coca-Cola Company, where she supports
the development of strategic solutions that harness global industry
concepts and standards to promote collaboration among Coca-Cola and
its bottlers with their retail partners.
Industry
Leadership
Dozier has been involved in the CPG and retail industry for 15
years. First active in the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR)
initiative of the 1990s, she today chairs the GMA/FPA Direct Store
Delivery (DSD) Committee, co-chairs the GS1 Global Standards
Management Process (GSMP)Group and is active in the joint GMA/FPA
and FMI data accuracy initiative. “Our industry will continue to be
faced with new challenges and opportunities,”
Dozier said. “Retailers and
manufacturers must collaborate at all levels to meet changing
consumer needs. Organizations like GMA and GS1 are great forums for
us to work together to better understand and meet those changing
needs.”
Dozier created the Global Commerce Initiative’s (GCI) DSD group and has co-chaired that organization since 2000. She also serves as the secretary on the executive board of the Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards, and is a member of the newly created National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Technology Council.
Coca-Cola’s most
recent industry efforts revolve around the expansion of the “New
Generation Sales Call.” Introduced by Colleen Wegman of Wegmans Food
Markets Inc., supported by Tim Smucker of the J.M. Smucker Company,
and validated in a recent pilot by The Procter and Gamble
Company, this concept supports the development of a collaborative
partnership between manufacturers and retailers with a focus on
growing sales and eliminating disruptions. Dozier believes this
effort will be the focus of many future GMA/FPA projects and hopes
this initiative creates a truly global collaborative industry model
with a shared focus on changing consumer needs.
Career
Highlights
Dozier began her career in process and technology consulting with EDS and
IBM working in the automotive, petroleum and CPG industries in
Detroit and Atlanta, managed the e-commerce program at Colgate
Palmolive, held various roles including vice president of business
development for Coca-Cola Customer Business Solutions and director
of e-business for Coca-Cola Enterprises.
Personal
Raised in Albany, Georgia, Dozier lives in Atlanta with her husband
and an 11-year-old daughter. When Ann is not working, she is
spending her time with her family and their two horses and
supporting her daughter’s interest in competing as an equestrian.
Education
Educated at the University of Georgia with a degree in economics.
She was so eager to get to work that she raced through college in
three years.
First Job
While in high school and college, she worked as a bank teller, where
she became interested in business and working with customers.
How’d You
Reach Where You Are Today?
“Three words describe how I ended up where I am today – passion,
opportunity and support.
“Let me start with passion. I have a true love for my company’s brands and for the retailers I support. I want to make a difference in our business and for our customers and consumers. This is a great industry with a lot of very smart people, and I truly enjoy the interactions I have within the Coca-Cola system and among our retail partners. I believe that passion for what you do is the key to success. I believe that if you don’t go to work every day loving what you do and seeing the difference you can make, then you are probably in the wrong place. I also think that you must fight for what you believe, even if it is not the popular opinion. I have a vision for the future for my company and the industry, and I want to ensure that I leave a legacy.
“Second is opportunity. Passionate people are very hard to manage because in many cases they push against the traditional way of doing things, forcing an organization to think beyond its comfort zone. My success has been driven by great leaders who have been able to harness my passion and use it to deliver complex projects or drive change in the organization. I have been very fortunate to work for several great leaders at both Coca-Cola Enterprises and The Coca-Cola Company who have given me the opportunity to prove myself. Their leadership not only taught me about the business, but also taught me how to listen and learn, harness my unique skills, and take risks and try new things. These leaders cared about my personal objectives and always gave me a chance to stretch my capabilities, focusing on my strengths and forcing me to grow new skills in areas in which I am not so comfortable.
“The last and most important component is the tremendous support of my family and my teams. I have been fortunate to have a great team of people to lead and my home support system has always been there. I am known as someone who expects a lot, and all of the teams I have led have been made up of people who want to make a difference. At home, my husband pushes me to work hard and fight for what is right, supports me in everything I do, and never complains about the travel or late nights at the office. My daughter is proud that her mom is a role model for women with careers, and understands the commitment to work.
“I still have a long way to go to accomplish to leave my legacy, but I wake up every morning with a commitment and passion to continue my journey.”
BearingPoint: Managing Growth Initiatives, Accompanying Risks
As part of its “Insights for Results” series, BearingPoint recently published Understanding Enterprise Risk & Compliance: Achieving Optimal Growth and Performance. The survey of top business leaders includes action steps that organizations can take to manage growth and risks in their companies, including leading practices and lessons learned. Go to BearingPoint's Web site to download the report.
Also from Bearing Point comes Reducing the Worry Quotient with Master Data Management. Citing recent food safety concerns from peanut butter to dog food and toothpaste, study authors say it is time to get serious about master data management, which would allow immediate traceability of ingredient sourcing and of finished products at every point along the global supply chain. Find this report on BearingPoint's Web site.
Deloitte: Future of CPG Companies
Deloitte Consulting LLP recently released the third of its six-part series on the future challenges facing CPG companies. The first is an overview of the series and is entitled The Future of Consumer Products Companies: Defining the Challenge, Finding Solutions. The second report, Consumers – Mapping a Course for Growth, examines how CPG companies are changing their approach to the marketplace and how supply chain management is giving way to demand chain management. How to break out of the unproductive cycle of unsuccessful introductions of new products and product extensions is the subject of the third book, Products – Staying a Step Ahead. Go to Deloitte's Web site to download the reports.
July 17-19 Joint Industry Unsaleables Management Conference
The Ritz Carlton
Lake Las Vegas, Nevada
Contact: Troy Beeler
Sept. 30-
Oct. 2 Merchandising, Sales and Marketing Conference
The Broadmoor
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Contact: Brian Lynch
Jan. 17-18
2008 Sustainability Summit
Contact: Stephen Sibert
Sign Up Others Send Feedback Unsubscribe
Industry Affairs Review is produced in partnership between GMA/FPA and Planet Retail.
Current issues of IAR may also be found on at www.gmabrands.com/publications/index.cfm.
If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here, or write to tbeeler@gmabrands.com.
@ Copyright 2007 by GMA/FPA, 1350 I Street N.W. #300, Washington, D.C. 20005. All rights reserved. Some content and copyright for specific information are provided and owned by Planet Retail, a leading provider of grocery retail intelligence— www.planetretail.net.
GMA/FPA enables its member companies to address the public policy, scientific affairs, product safety and industry issues that impact their ability to create value with and for their customers by advancing their brands and products in a fashion that responsibly improves the quality of consumer lives.
