It's all about Supply

It’s taken years to get your brand looking just the way you want it, it’s taken months to get that meeting in the diary with the buyer and, you’ve lost sleep thinking about the ‘big pitch’ but, hooray, you’ve just secured the listing!

The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best but legendary - Sam Walton

What’s next?

It’s not enough to just get your product on shelf, you’ve got to keep it there.  You’ll often hear me saying, ‘it’s not rocket science’ and quite honestly, it’s not.  However, if you’ve been lucky enough to supply any of the major multiples then you will know that there is a way of doing things.

The retailers are all fundamentally different businesses and have notoriously different ways of working. For instance, did you know that a particular retailer has two depots that require different pallet specifications to the rest of their network? You wouldn’t if you haven’t supplied them (unless you’ve read their supplier handbook in your spare time?). Or that a certain retailer requires shortages logged in a system within a given period to avoid charges?

Supply is everything! It’s your responsibility to make sure product is available and you will most definitely be judged on your ability to do so.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re a big brand or a small one, there is a hard truth here, empty shelves are very very costly. Your new favourite buyer will not tolerate out of stocks for long and the buck really does stop with you.

What does good supply look like?

Stock on shelf (duh!) but we will all have supply issues from time to time. It’s as much about how you manage shortages as it is about the shortages themselves. Make sure you’re working in a collaborative manner with your supply chain analyst and let them know quickly if you expect any supply issues. The worst thing you can do is bury your head in the sand. Have the awkward discussions and be very clear with what you’re going to do to fix it.

Remember – your analysts cover a lot of suppliers so be clear and concise. Don’t bombard them with mind-numbing emails.

 A bit of food for thought;

Collaborative forecasts – big promo coming up? Check forward forecasts and reach out to your analysts to make sure that you are all on the same page and that volumes stack up.

Fresh is best – waste can occur at lots of points in the supply chain. Appealing as it may be to send short dated stock into depot it can also be incredibly short sighted. It might not waste in your warehouse, but it will waste in theirs and, if it does, it won’t go unnoticed.

Learn from the experts – work with manufacturers, 3rd party warehouses, and service providers who know what they are doing so that you don’t have to worry about the minutiae. A trustworthy 3rd party logistics provider can make all the difference.

Young Foodies backoffice solutions

We have created our backoffice ops solutions so that exciting small brands can spend more time doing what they are really good at and less time processing orders, raising invoices, and managing logistics.  We believe that running a small business is harder than it needs to be - talk to us.