Background
The retailer had unveiled a comprehensive effort and three-year commitment to provide their customers with healthier and more affordable food choices.
This commitment identified and outlined five key elements of the program:
Reformulating thousands of national and private brand packaged food items:
- Reducing sodium by 25%
- Reducing added sugars by 10%
- Removing all remaining PHOs
Achieving the above whilst making healthier choices more affordable and clearer in their packaging.
Solution
Supply Pilot rapidly deployed a section of the supplier engagement portal dedicated to this strategic initiative. Within weeks the retailer was able to quickly and accurately collect the necessary baseline data and do so on a regular basis, enabling them to monitor the reduction of sodium, sugar and trans fats over time.
Such visibility allows the retailer to be more proactive and identify any roadblocks quickly, giving them more time and foresight to plan. A sophisticated communications plan ensured that the accuracy of contact information was enhanced and maintained throughout. In addition, automated chasing and escalation meant the best possible results in the shortest amount of time with minimal resource.
Over the course of the three-year initiative, this regular reporting across thousands of private brand and national brand products allowed for the necessary reformulation, sourcing and ranging decisions to be made to achieve the ambitious goals set out by the retailer.
Impact
The success of the initiative led to a dramatic reduction in the total amount of salt, sugar and trans fats contained in products sold by the retailer.
This included over one million pounds of salt and sugar being removed from national brand and private label products over the course of the three-year commitment. Supply Pilot’s solution achieved this result using 50% less resource than the campaign managed by the retailer in the previous year. The total number of products covered by this initiative was 32,000, up from 17,000 in the previous year.
As well as capturing the data, an added benefit of utilising The Supply Pilot Platform was that suppliers were more informed and engaged with the retailer. Having engaged and motivated suppliers will lead to faster, higher response rates and better quality data.