11/20/09

Nolan's Finest Foods

Category Management

RETAIL MANAGEMENT
GROUP 6

Rawandev Kaur Amrita Datta Ankit Goel Abhinay Bajpai

Divyadarshan 1
 11/20/09

Nolan’s
 Nolan’s Finest Foods is a
full-service retailer that
offers shoppers the
convenience of one-stop
shopping at its high-end
food-and-drug combo
stores in the San
Francisco Bay area.
vO ffe rs h ig h q u a lity fo o d w ith p ro m o tio n a l
p ricin g .
vIn th e fa ce o f h ig h co m p e titio n , N o la n ’ s is
experimenting with category
m a n a g e m e n t. 2
 Question1: What are the national sales trends in the shampoo category?
Total U.S. Supermarket Dynamics: Shampoo
52 Weeks % Active UPCs % New UPCs # UPCs UPC Dollar
Handled Velocity
Category 1,974 15% 235 $ 1.64

Brands 1,714 16% 229 $ 1.65

Private Label 241 12% 5 $ 1.33

Generic 19 n/a 1 $ 1.00

Exhibit 1


v There has been a dramatic increase in the % New Stock

Keeping Units.
v Specifically, Brands have increased by 16% and Private
label by 12%.
v Only Generics remained the same with no measured
increases or decreases.

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 Question1:Cont

Shampoo Dollar Share

Exhibit 2

Trade Channel 12 M 12 M Change
v The change is not that Last Year This year
impressive.
Food 51.7% 50.5% - 1.2%
v Only mass merchant has
increased by +1.8% Drug 25.6% 25.0% - 0.6%

Mass Merchant 22.7% 24.5% + 1.8%

E x h ib it 3
Shampoo Growth O u tlin e s S h a m p o o G ro w th b a se d
Trade Channel Dollar Sales % Change o n th e D o lla r S a le s % ch a n g e
Compared to a Year ago
Food 0.9% ve rsu s a ye a r a g o .
Drug 4.2%
Mass merchant 8.1% v T h e M a ss M e rch a n t Tra d e
C h a n n e le xp e rie n ce d th e
g re a te st g a in (+ 8 . 1 % ).
vFo llo w e d b y th e D ru g
C h a n n e l(+ 4 . 2 % ). 4
 Question2: What are the differences in shampoo sales trends at Nolan’s
compared with national trends?

Dollar Sales: Percent Change versus a Year Ago
Market Nolan's
13 weeks 52 weeks 13 weeks 52 weeks
Total dollar sales +0.1 +1.2 - 10.6 - 4.5
Health Beauty Dept. +1.5 +4.2 - 8.5 - 4.3
Shampoo category - 3.5 +0.7 - 19.6 - 9.7

Exhibit 4
vThe Dollar Sales Percentage change in the Shampoo category for
the Market (All food stores) has increased very slightly over a 52-
week period (+0.7%) and moderately declined over the most recent
13 weeks (-3.5%).
vAlthough the national figures are far from impressive, even on an
annual basis, Nolan’s fared far worse. Over a 52-week period the
retailer’s Dollar Sales Percentage sharply declined (-9.7%), and the
last 13 weeks have been worse (-19.6%).

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  Question 3: What would be causing these differences?

Competitive Price Comparison for Shampoo: Counts of Items Showing Differences from Nolan’s


Nolan's Food#1 Mass Merch Chain Drug Food#2

Competition is higher 0 87 0 101 0
Competition is same 103 0 0 0 59
Competition is lower 0 16 103 2 44
Competition does not carry 0 0 0 0 0

Exhibit 5 :
vCompetitive Price Comparison for Shampoo between Nolan’s and
competitors suggests that Nolan’s pricing may be one factor.
vOnly the Mass Merchandiser consistently charges less for shampoo
products than Nolan’s.

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 QUESTION 3: Cont

Brand Importance Report for Shampoo: Nolan’s Foods versus Remaining Market for 13 weeks

Description Chain Sales Chain Rank Remain Mkt Remain Sales Chain Mkt Chain Cat. Rem. Mkt.
Rank Share Impt. Cat. Impt.

Clean & Soft $108,826 1 1 $512,345 17.5% 14.5 13.0

1st Impressions 77,672 2 3 370,341 17.3 10.3 9.4

Mane Tame 64,446 3 4 244,160 20.9 8.6 6.2

Bargain Bubbles 56,864 4 2 433,300 11.6 7.6 11

Silky Style 43,198 5 6 147,773 22.6 5.8 3.7

Elegance 30,869 6 5 181,075 14.6 4.1 4.6

Exhibit 6: Brand Importance Report for Shampoo illustrates that

Nolan’s brand emphasis are marginally different than the rest of the
market.
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 QUESTION 3: Cont

Product Mix Summary Report: Shampoo Dollar Sales 13 weeks

Clean & Soft 1st Impressions Mane Tame Bargain BubblesSilky Style Elegance Private Label

Items Carried

Nolan’s 25 25 15 21 13 5 7

Rem Mkt 25 39 28 42 20 16 28

Sizes Carried

Nolan’s 6 6 6 2 4 1 4

Rem Mkt 7 10 11 3 5 4 6

Types Carried

Nolan’s
6 7 6 19 4 5 6
Rem Mkt
6 10 8 32 5 7 21

Exhibit 7:
Product Mix Summary Report illustrate that Nolan’s product mix are
marginally different than the rest of the market.

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 Question 3: Cont


Slow Seller Report: Shampoo for Nolan’s Foods, 13 Weeks versus a Year Ago
Chain Sales Chain Mkt. Share Rem.Mkt. Growth Chain Growth

Golden JJB Lq T 3 oz. $3 9.9% -51.2 -50.0

1st Imprs. DF ND Lot. 11 oz. 10 0.7% -59.4 -99.4

Gentle GLD Lq. 11 oz. 11 100.0% -100.0 9.6

Golden AV Lq. T 3 oz 12 22.4% 13.2 -69.2

Suds PB Lq. 8 oz. 14 6 107.1 2.9

Silky Style X-B Lq.18 oz. 14 1.6 -65.6 -99.5

Exhibit 8
vSlow Seller Report , which features data describing what Nolan’s’
worst selling shampoo UPCs are, provides the greatest insight into
the problem of any of the information that is currently available
v
v
v

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 11/20/09

Question 4: A plan of action.

v The only plan of action as of

now will be to have “knock
off the slow seller” approach,
which involves replacing the
slow selling UPCs with new
products and/or increasing
shelf space for existing
products.
v They can also install category
management software.
v
v

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11/20/09

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