As some retail food/beverage brands look to increase sales post Covid outside of opening new bricks & mortar stores, many are seeking complimentary distribution partners such as supermarkets, petrol stations & convenience stores to grow revenue.
Looking at the ice cream segment as an example, shelves are being stocked with a plethora of well known brands that have built up strong brand recognition in the market over many years including household names like Streets (Unilever), Peters, Bulla and Weiss.
The industry as a whole is now worth more than $1.3BN annually with Australia ranked at #3 per capita in terms of consumption just behind the US and New Zealand (#1).
The industry generates strong growth but also stronger competition with the number of niche brands increasing and the number of products growing including Italian Gelato as a somwhat new segment. Not surprisingly, the Premium take home tub market being the fastest growing segment according to IBIS (see below) at 34.5% of the total market spend.
Geotech has a great deal of industry experience working with clients that operate in the Premium ice cream & dessert sectors as well as other retail brands in the growing bubble tea market. Several of the brands we work with now sell their range of products through the supermarket, convenience and petroleum channels. These brands include Ben & Jerry’s, The Cheesecake Shop, Chatime and others including Gelatissimo also launching take home premium ice cream recently.
While there can be tremendous upside and benefit having a multi channel distribution aproach, caution also needs to be applied to determine the net benefit to sales and the impact on the traditional bricks & mortar store network when considering which partner/channel to pursue and where.
Some key things to consider;
- Is the instore consumer the same or similar to packaged take home consumer?
- What products best align with the demographic skew around each distributor?
- What is the impact on instore sales when a new distributor stocks my products?
- Where are the strongest locations for new bricks & mortar stores to compliment existing distributors?
Growing one channel whilst cannibalising sales from another particularly if it involves an existing franchised store can be counter productive and costly. Through statistical analysis and modelling, Geotech can help not only answer many of the critical questions around the best approach/partner for distribution, but also map out a strategic plan to target specific partner locations that will have negligible cannibalisation impacts on existing bricks & mortar franchisees.
This same approach can also be used for any product category not just ice cream.
If you want to learn more about sales or cannibalisation forecasting methods, please reach out to me for a confidential chat.
0421 684 444