With Christmas just round the corner, Ferrero is working with wholesalers across the country to drive sales through the year-round gifting occasion.
Ferrero has been working across many wholesalers’ businesses in order to drive their customers’ sales through the year-round gifting occasion. Back for a second year, the confectionery supplier is offering the nation’s convenience retailers the chance to win a gold-standard store makeover worth £3,000. The six-month campaign has seen leading wholesalers, including Birmingham-based East End Foods, setting up eye-catching Ferrero displays, encouraging their retail customers to enter Ferrero’s competition, and above all driving sales.
#1: A gold-standard depot display: Levi Boorer, Customer Development Director at Ferrero, said: “Wholesalers are vital to Ferrero as they are a key contact for independent retailers. They can help retailers navigate the confectionery category and recommend the best ways to execute gold-standard displays. They can also help educate retailers on the three key tools for maximising confectionery sales – range, visibility and availability.” He says that “disruptive” cross-merchandising techniques are great for increasing sales. Ferrero, the fastest growing supplier in total confectionery, offers small gold hook-over units containing the Ferrero Rocher five-packs, which are ideal for clipping onto a card fixture or wine display and which can drive basket spend in retailers’ shops by offering consumers the complete gifting solution.
#2: A proven sales-driver: East End Foods is building on the Ferrero activity it ran in-depot last year, which grew sales by 55%. This year the target is to grow sales by 60-70%. The wholesaler has worked with Ferrero for a decade, and East End director Jason Wouhra says the confectionery supplier is a brilliant partner. “We work very closely with Ferrero and because we’ve got a long term account manager, we find that Ferrero understands our business and we can move forward effectively,” he said. “Any type of strong theatre in-store, any strong display always produces a growth
in sales.”
#3: Be in it to win it: : Retailers can register their interest in the competition in participating depots. They then receive a full Ferrero Christmas PoS kit to install in their store with the assistance of their sales rep. To be in with a chance to win the grand prize of a £3,000 spring-themed store makeover, they must take an image of their display and submit it to www.ferrero-trade.co.uk or via email to competitions@ferrero-trade.co.uk.
The top entries will be credited and showcased on the Ferrero trade website as part of a ‘Golden Gallery’ to assist with peer-to-peer retailer development. The 20 runners up will receive a 96-piece Ferrero Rocher Cone.
Full terms and conditions apply and can be found at www.ferrero-trade.co.uk.
Working Together: How Ferrero and East End Foods are growing sales
Levi Boorer, Customer Development Director, Ferrero
“Wholesalers are hugely important to Ferrero’s strategy. They are one of the key ways of communicating with independent retailers, not only in terms of deals and range but also in terms of category advice. Independent retailers and wholesalers are very important for gifting and for boxed chocolate on all-year-round gifting occasions, as well as for Christmas and festivals like Diwali and Eid.”
Martin Hamlin, Route to Market Business Unit Controller, Ferrero
“Christmas is crucial for chocolate confectionery – it accounts for about 39% of sales every year and a lot of that is impulse driven as well. We’re expecting a big response to our displays and our competition for retailers. Typically it will increase sales by 50-60% and we’re hoping for even better than that this year.”
Jason Wouhra, Director, East End Foods
“The best thing about the relationship we have with Ferrero is that they understand the dynamics of my business, they understand how we can facilitate growth annually and they work with us to achieve those targets. That is the key to a strong supplier relationship in this industry.”
Nisar Amarkil, Donia Supermarket, Wolverhampton
“It’s a nice display – we’ve used the Ferrero PoS in our shop before and the products sell really fast. We just came into the depot and the Ferrero display looks really attractive and interesting. We are entering the competition – a store makeover worth £3,000, I’d like to win that – why not!”
Action-oriented tips to grow category sales, from Levi Boorer
- Stock the bestsellers because they will provide a greater rate of sale
- Ensure you keep your shelves full of product and well-organised so that customers can easily find what they are looking for
- Be aware of which brands are being heavily supported with marketing as this will drive consumer awareness which you can translate to sales
- Create secondary displays in high traffic areas of your depot
- Using bespoke PoS helps create in-depot theatre and draw attention
