Are you Range fit for 2022?

It’s that time of year again – we are approaching range review ‘season’ in the grocers.

Post Christmas 2021, and with less than spectacular performance (‘subdued’ according to Tesco) it is clear that retailers will again be seeking efficiency in the New Year led by SKU count reduction, combined with ranges that meet their customer needs to gain advantage over the competition. Equally, space is needing to be found for the new and exciting kids on the block – Plant based foods being the big buzz this January which pose a challenge for the mainstream product categories in adjacent space.

The key question for suppliers – Are you ready?

How often do you actually conduct your own range review on your portfolio before working on retailer by retailer range reviews?

What works well and not so well across retailers? Do you have ‘orphan’ SKU only listed in one retailer due to historic reviews? How honest are you about the performance of each SKU vs the competition? Most suppliers have a long list of NPD and range extension to add each year without truly considering which much loved products or variants have reached natural end of their life cycle. Equally, high performing products which could add value to a retailers range are not re-introduced to the conversation after a historic rejection.

Equally, how often do you feel confident to challenge the retailer and scope and approach to range review? For example, taking my personal experience as a shopper for a two person household in Tesco over the past six months, a number of key favourite purchases in a size format that suits us have been delisted in favour of larger ‘family'(?) sizes (Hellmanns Mayonnaise and Cathedral City Cheddar to name but two). With smaller households growing and Tesco’s own five families segmentation indicating headroom for growth from smaller households segments the drive for SKU reduction seems to be in conflict with the customer insight strategy. How many suppliers are confident to have this discussion with Tesco?

Too often range review is a straight fight between performance data and shopper insight – when in fact it should be a complementary alignment of the two to deliver a range that makes sense for shoppper, retailers and supplier(s).

Suppliers can help retailers on this journey by truly understanding and being honest about their own range dynamics within the broader context of the category when participating in the range review process.

Are you range fit for 2020?