When it comes to getting convenience right, milk is always somewhere near the top of the list, but how do you keep such an important category at the forefront of your staff and customers’ minds?
by Kevin Scott
Milk’s got a lot going for it on a lot of levels. For consumers, it’s a healthy staple part of most people’s diets. For retailers, it’s a category that keeps customers coming back to your shop, day after day, week after week. No one gets in the car to drive to Tesco for just a pint of milk. That’s good news for retailers. What’s better news is that shoppers who buy milk as part of their basket will spend up to 25% more than an average shopper who doesn’t buy milk.
The message is clear – get the milk fixture right and incremental sales will follow.
The team at Robert Wiseman Dairies is keen to help retailers make the most of their milk and are on hand to provide category management, advice and support.
Milk as a category is one of the top earners in convenience retailing, driving footfall and creating opportunities for stores to sell other products. But ironically, fresh milk fixtures are often neglected and sited away from the counter.
And milk is changing too – no longer just an option of skimmed or semi-skimmed, the sector has developed to offer a far wider range of competing products, while branded milk is also commanding more shelf-space in the average milk chiller.
This expanding range of milk products offer more opportunities to use the footfall that is driven by milk to generate increased sales.
Once the customer is through the door the key issues then become the availability and display of milk products. It is essential that customers can see exactly what is available and the display is set out to reflect optimum sales. What’s more, it is equally important to ensure the fixture is clean and tidy at all times and many stores name a member of staff as a ‘milk champion’ to ensure that the fixture is checked every hour, on the hour. It’s a simple system and one which could ensure that your sales are maximised.
Robert Wiseman Dairies has always been keen to work with retailers to develop and grow their sales and help them create a modern milk fixture. The first thing the company points out is that milk is purchased at all times of the day therefore, Wiseman’s advise that its customers maximise sales by ensuring that their milk chiller remains well stocked, clean and that stock is rotated.
The Wiseman sales team will work with customers to regularly review their product range and fixture, look at merchandising plans and implement regular checks of stock levels and cleanliness using the on the hour every hour tool.
Wiseman’s range of products can help to meet a wide variety of consumer demands. The famous Wiseman Black and White range is not only available in the traditional whole, semi and skimmed variants, it has a regional portfolio extension which helps to meet the consumer-led demand for provenance, at no extra cost to the retailer or the consumer.
Barry Cuthbertson, Marketing Manager at Wiseman, says: “By offering milk which is clearly linked to the area where it is produced, without adding cost to the retailer means that Wiseman is adding value to our milk which can be passed on to consumers. There are six regional labels currently in the portfolio, these being Grampian, Milk from Scotland, West Country, Cornish, Milk from Wales and more recently milk from our Northern Dairy.”
And, for the more health conscious, Wiseman’s The One, was the first 1% milk brand in the sector and leads the industry in establishing this fourth milk category. Cuthbertson adds: “Given its popularity it is now a must stock product for c-store retailers and allows Wiseman customers to expand the variety of milk on offer to suit the needs of the customer and replicate the offering that customers will find in the multiples.”
Finding a flavour
As well as a wider range of branded milk, flavoured milk also continues to be a popular draw. With an array of new entrants, flavoured milks have nearly doubled the choice for consumers over the past 18 months (from 16 lines in 2010 to an estimated 30 for 2012). The flavoured milk category continues to grow at +13% value. Among the many brands out there, Yazoo is one which has earned a place in the dairy chiller – and it currently commands a 20% volume share of the market.
One of the reason’s for the brand’s popularity is it makes milk consumption even more popular with children. For parents, it’s good to know that Yazoo has a 94% milk content so it is packed with natural goodness such as calcium and protein, which a typical glass of milk provides. The drink only contains natural flavouring, no artificial colours, is low in fat and is nutritional, and one 500g bottle provides 70% of your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of calcium as well as other vitamins and minerals.
That’s important for consumers for retailers, what’s important to know is that milkshakes tend to be drunk at lunchtime and mid-afternoon. Helen Cridge, Trade Marketing Manager at FrieslandCampina, says: “Yazoo fits perfectly with this trend, offering a truly great tasting milkshake which can be enjoyed either as an accompaniment to sandwiches or as a refreshing pick-me-up snack to top-up in between meals.”
She continues: “We would advise retailers to stock Yazoo in the chiller alongside other popular soft drinks, to ensure that consumers can easily find their firm favourite and best selling products. As the milkshake category is continuing to grow, stocking a strong chilled range will help to maximise sales opportunities, particularly amongst young male adults looking for a top up on-the-move.
“Yazoo has undergone a recent packaging makeover merging the simplicity of the recipe, the natural texture of milk and the great tasting flavours to create a bigger, bolder, design.” Cridge adds: “Flavour is one of the key purchase triggers for consumers when choosing flavoured milk and it was vital that our new design brought each of our great tasting flavours to life. The redesign reflects the healthier credentials which consumers associate with the Yazoo brand through increasing the amount of crisp white colour, representing the high milk content.”
Wiseman’s top tips to maintaining the milk cabinet
- Ensure that the refrigeration of the milk is below 5 degrees. Wiseman works hard to ensure the “ chill chain” is not broken from the moment the milk is collected from farm to the point of delivery. It is vitally important that this is continued in-store for the quality of the product to be maintained.
- Maintenance of the milk fixture is key. Wiseman’s team encourages retailers to review the chiller every hour to ensure it is tidy and that stocks have been rotated to minimise waste.
- One statistic to consider is that most milk is sold after 3pm so it is critical that this is taken into consideration when reviewing ordering.
- Allow milk to be visible from the door: making it visible from the door of the store and ensuring the most popular variants i.e. two litre semi-skimmed are at eye level will help boost sales.
Nurishment gets active
Enco Products is building on the success of its “nutritionally enriched drink” Nurishment, with a new drink specially formulated to help active consumers “get back their spark”. Nurishment active is a low-fat, high-protein milk drink, enriched with a unique blend of 22 vitamins and minerals.
“Nurishment active is specially formulated for consumers with active bodies and minds,” says Nyree Chambers, Head of Marketing for Enco Products. “With 35g of protein per pack and a unique blend of 22 vitamins and minerals, this milk drink is ideal for before or after exercise or any kind of physical activity.
“With growing interest in the use of milk as an aid to sports activities, milk-based drinks are becoming even more appealing to active consumers. And with consumers’ interest in general wellbeing at a high, now is the perfect time for retailers to stock up on drinks such as Nurishment active which will drive sales in the functional milk drinks category.”
The launch will build on the success of Nurishment Original, which sees sales of more than 17 million packs annually and has over 25 years of proven sales and market performance. Nurishment is the fastest growing impulse brand in the flavoured milk drink category which is expected to grow YOY as more added value products enter the market.
“Consumers have been looking to added value brands like Nurishment for years to provide them with some of their essential nutrition,” says Chambers. “Launching from this strong foundation, Nurishment active will appeal to a more targeted sector of consumers: those who are specifically seeking a product to help give them the edge when it comes to physical activity.”
Nurishment active, available in Vanilla, Strawberry and Chocolate flavours, is served in a convenient PET pack (rrp £1.99). The launch will be supported with above the line activity including national TV advertising.
It’s been a busy month for Nurishment with the launch of a peanut variant to its standard range, bringing the total to six. “The new variant attract new consumers to the fixture and remind brand loyalists why Nurishment is their number one when it comes to enriched milk drinks,” says Nyree Chambers, Head of Marketing for Enco Products.
