Last month saw the launch of a new long-term project with gum and sugar confectionery giant Wrigley to implement its Perfect Store concept in Woodlands.
by Antony Begley
When it comes to profit generators, chewing gum is right up there with the very best of them – a fact that will already be well known to retailers across Scotland. That’s why Woodlands Local has hooked up with the standout market leader Wrigley to carry out a long-term project to implement best practice in every aspect of gum sales at the store.
We have a long and very successful relationship with Wrigley and already achieve significant gum sales at Woodlands – but there’s always room for improvement.
The first step was an audit of the store to see how we performing against Wrigley’s Perfect Store criteria. The audit was carried out by Regional Sales Manager Brian Condie and the good news is that our scorecard wasn’t too bad at all – but Brian and his team did have a number of sensible suggestions to help us leverage the category even further.
The audit examined every area of the store to identify opportunities to drive core sales and impulse sales.
Gum
In the all-important gum category, Wrigley were pleased with our core product range but recommended a few additions and a full remerchandising of the area, including the addition of two new counter-top units for the best selling SKUs.
The new units sit right in front of both tills and are unmissable to shoppers, hopefully driving impulse sales of key lines and higher ticket premium bottles. The two units are identical for the sake of consistency and also to ensure shoppers at both tills are exposed to these key lines.
Below the counter top, we have completely remerchandised the top two shelves to ensure the gum range is comprehensive and well presented.
Sugar singles
The shelves below the gum were also remerchandised into a more logical order, bringing the key lines into more prominent sites and grouping the products more logically, including the medicated confectionery lines.
The end result is a neater, more logical layout that should be easier for customers to shop and should – hopefully – result in bigger sales and profits.
Hanging Bags
With just four hanging bag hooks slots below the counter, Wrigley recommended ensuring that these hooks were only used for the biggest selling lines.
To the left of the counter our extensive dedicated hanging bag display offers a wide range of products but was missing some of Wrigley’s key lines. These have now been added in.
Wrigley also recommended blocking the hanging bags by brand, rather than having the products scattered around the fixture.
In terms of range, Wrigley absolutely recommends the implementation of its Perfect Store Core Assortment along with its recommended Mint Range, as well as its Full Assortment where space permits.
Finally, on our gondola ends, Wrigley advised stocking relevant NPD and extra facings of core lines.
All very sensible and no rocket science involved – but the store already looks neater and tidier.
Look out next month for how the first set of results, and for the next phase in our project: a large-scale customer sampling campaign.
