Del Monte Foods/Target
Business Challenge
Insuffi cient headcount to manage multiple category captainships across multiple product groups
Solution
Demand intelligence software that improves data management, streamlines reporting, delivers ready-to-use information
Business Benefits
• Better management of category responsibilities
• Improved sales and profitability
• Enhanced promotional efficiency
Return on Investment
• $2.6 incremental volume resulting from improved deployment to servicing distribution center
• Improved fill rates and instocks
Target Team Director for Del Monte, Holly Swanson had three category captainships to manage and only two people to manage them. "We were also trying to figure out how to make the robust data we get from Target useful to our team. It was a big challenge to us. We were spending two and three days per category just to retrieve data," notes Swanson. "And then — with only two days left in the workweek — the analysts and managers had to try and come up with something interesting from that data. Then, the rush to put some sort of insight into a category report for Target. We were at the point that we were going to have to hire an external consultant because we didn't have the time to do this. Our buyers required information — not data — from us every week, and we didn't have the ability to provide them with this."
Besides feeling like they were always "catching up" was the added complexity of Del Monte's need to understand data in several groups — vegetables, fruits and pet food products. And the constant hassle of translating Target's demand data language into Del Monte's demand data language.
Getting Ahead of Demand Data with Demand Information
"Initially, we used the SOLYS solution for our category management issues because our weekly reports took us two days to complete. We saved an enormous amount of time by utilizing SOLYS. It takes the information we need and puts it into usable reports in a matter of hours — it was a huge improvement for our category managers. We are able to quickly turn around information on our products as well as our broad category responsibilities, in a standardized format, every seven days."
Increasing Volume Becomes a Team Eff ort — and an Easy One
With ready-to-use demand information at hand, Swanson's team now had the time to look at the information SOLYS provided to see "how else we could solve some of our chronic problems," she notes. "We don't just use SOLYS for category management — we use it for finance, sales, and profitability. We can bring up the data and reports at any time by anyone because it is so user friendly."
"We have 380 Del Monte Foods items carried by Target. Using SOLYS, we found that if we could increase our in stock percentage by even 1 percent, we could add a million dollars to our sales volume," explains Swanson. "SOLYS gives us the ability to look into Target's system and anticipate what the product needs are going to be based on their consumption model. We can take the data directly out of Target's system and SOLYS will convert that into ready-to-use information, shipping time lines and need time lines based on our different deployment requirements. Because of SOLYS we were able to balance our logistics services from the Target servicing warehouses so we knew product would be in stock when Target called on it."
Because their forecast accuracy improved so much, Swanson was able to put a team of people on logistics to help them improve volume and metrics with Target. The Target Team made significant changes and volume increases quickly because they used SOLYS for supply chain management. "The improvement we have seen on fill rates and instocks, and our ability to deploy product to the right Del Monte servicing distribution center last year alone drove $2.6 million in incremental volume. This was incremental volume over and above what Target delivered to us in new distribution and item changes and in Target's growth over the year."
Swanson's team also uses SOLYS for sales management. "We can compare data from ad activities or TPC's and are able to figure out the most e ffective way to promote products almost immediately. SOLYS is the key contributor to our making quality decisions and having a better performance with our retailers — we know what is more e ffective for us and we know this for every single product."
Identifying Trends for a Better Look at Opportunities
SOLYS reports allow users to look at trends in di fferent time periods and user-defined subgroups. "We look at data in one-week, four-week, thirteen-week, twenty-six-week and fifty-two-week time periods. We can also select our own Del Monte Foods year, which is loaded into the SOLYS system, and the Target year. We have the power to choose what time periods and what information we want to bring back to the customer or to our internal partners."
As an example, Swanson notes the following example. "If we've seen price increases over the last six months, we want to track the dollars and the units so we can see where we're headed. If I look at a four-week period and a thirteen-week period, I can really see the difference in the way the business is trending and I can compare dollars and units very quickly to see if I am selling more or less product in a subgroup or even in an item. That kind of detail makes us much more accurate when we are reporting back to our business to anticipate trends in the next four weeks, the next quarter, or even for the balance of the year."
"With SOLYS, we now have a better prediction method. That seems like a really simple thing, but when we have to actually act on our data and make suggestions or report back to our businesses about future trends and current consumer behavior, there's no solution like the SOLYS solution."
Establishing True Partnerships with Retailers
"Ultimately," notes Swanson, "SOLYS helped us become better partners with Target. The more we can provide information, and the greater value that information has in driving volume for our retailer, the more value we provide to our retailer's customer. We have a true partnership with Target now. It's important for retailers and manufacturers to make it easier for customers to find products and find them when they need them and SOLYS helps us do that."
She continues, "SOLYS speaks the retailer's language and ours. It allows us to address our performance and present our findings to the retailer in that retailer's language — their timeframes, their classes, their categories. And then it allows us to do the same in our own internal language."
"From the first day we got SOLYS, and every day after, it has helped us serve the customer better. We better manage our category responsibilities, improved sales and profitability, and enhanced our promotional e fficiency immediately. Because it is so very user-ready and user-friendly, SOLYS allows us to explore diff erent opportunities to drive the customer's business.”
