Overwaitea’s Darrell Jones says right staff, format crucial to success at Thought Conference

Canadian Grocer’s fourth annual Thought Leadership Conference showcased some of the top trends happening in the grocery industry on Monday, November 24. Taking place at the Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto, more than 300 of the sector’s leaders listened to two one-on-one interviews.

First up, Tom Barlow, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers interviewed Darrell Jones, president of Overwaitea Food Group.

Jones said to the audience that it’s crucial to deliver the right format to its customers. He pointed Overwaitea’s PriceSmart banner that offers the right product mix, and one-stop shopping to Asian consumers. Jones also added that hiring staff reflecting the multicultural society we live in today as crucial to success in its ethnic grocery stores.

Next Metro’s CEO Eric La Fleche, in his interview with Canadian Grocer’s Rob Gerlsbeck said that loyalty starts with the customer experience in store. Pointing to the work they’re doing with a local sourcing strategy in its Quebec stores, La Fleche said that finding innovative local suppliers differentiates their banner.

The afternoon also featured presentations by IGD, the UK global food and consumer goods experts; loyalty firm Aimia; and Nielsen Canada.

Here are FIVE key learnings we gathered for independents from the presentations:

1. Do the ordinary, extra-ordinarily well. Consumers are moving from BIG to smaller stores, said IGD’s Joanne Denney-Finch. People like to shop around and with online shopping there is no more automatic loyalty. Her five point recipe for success: do the ordinary extra-ordinarily well; intensify your focus on shoppers; add excitement to shopping; link the channels; and invest in people.
2. Use customer insights to drive business. Pointing to the work Aimia did with UK’s Sainsbury’s, retailers can employ customer insights, targeted marketing, and vendor collaboration to grow their sales, said David Buckingham of Aimia.
3. Small is BIG and a best bet to 2020. Nielsen’s Carman Allison said smaller stores, shpping local and meal solutions are the growth areas in grocery. Male shoppers are a force to be reckoned with, with 24% of Canadian household males doing more than 50% of the grocery shopping.
4. HMR is a key driver of growth. Eric La Fleche, CEO of Metro noted that HMR is a big part of its formula for success in the growth of conventional. Nielsen also pointed out that 59% of consumers said that fresh prepared foods and meal solutions are a top store choice driver.
5. PROMOTION inefficiency is getting worse. Nielsen research showed that increasing feature prices by +5% is a billion dollar opportunity.