Retailers Rank Top 10 Suppliers
Unilever, Nestl and Kellogg’s are finding favor with America’s top retailers, according to Kantar Retail’s US PoweRanking 2012 report.
P&G performed as the “Best of the Best” (32 percent) as viewed by retailers in the suppliers’ section of the study, which evaluated the relationship between manufacturers and retailers. Metric scores are reported as the percentage of respondents ranking a trading partner among the top three.
However, the gap closed among the leading manufacturers in the PoweRanking. Unilever climbed 1.7 points taking it from fifth to fourth place in the rankings. Nestle and Kellogg’s each improved their scores by 2.9 points.
Those manufacturers who understood their customers the best had a competitive edge in the rankings. Using consumer insights to drive penetration and total category growth proved a driving force in this year’s results.
The annual PoweRanking study — now in its 16th year — included input from 600 retailer and manufacturer respondents in the United States to benchmark how they view each other in the most important areas of the manufacturer/retailer relationship.
The overall lesson to be drawn from the study is the importance of customer centricity to both partners. Those companies that ranked as best in class had strategies that aligned with those of their partners and placed customers at the heart.
The PoweRanking study is split into eight individual measures. The “Best of the Best” Composite is an aggregate of all measures.
Most of the measures told a similar story, with P&G taking top spot in a number of sections but with a reduced lead.
Retailers ranked the Top 10 suppliers as follows:
1.P&G – 32.2% (-6.1 points versus a year ago)
2.Kraft Foods – 30% (-2.7)
3.General Mills – 27.7% (-0.7)
4.Unilever – 23.5% (+1.7)
5.PepsiCo – 20% (-2.7)
6.Nestl – 15.7% (+2.9)
7.Coca-Cola – 11.8% (+1.3)
8.Kellogg’s – 11% (+2.9)
9.ConAgra – 6.6% (-1.6)
10.Kimberly-Clark – 6.3% (+2.3)
?Key findings from Kantar Retail’s US PoweRanking 2012 report are:
•Retailers again ranked P&G “Best of the Best” although Unilever made up significant ground on its major rival across a number of individual measures and made the biggest gains.
•Unilever moved from fifth position to fourth, thanks to a 1.7 point improvement.
•Unilever made the biggest gains on P&G in the “Most Helpful Consumer/Shopper Insights Category Leadership” metric with retailers crediting Unilever’s unbiased category reviews, actionable insights, and overall understanding of consumers for their success.
•Nestle has made significant progress this year in a number of categories, particularly in the “Supply Chain Management” metric where it was up 6.3 points and surpassed Unilever to fourth place. The performance reflects Nestle’s efforts to resolve some of its challenges in its supply chain.
•Retailers praised Kellogg’s company strategy, highlighting that it provides “clear, consistent growth, planning, promotion and new item strategy”.
The US PoweRanking 2012 report also revealed the top retailers as ranked by manufacturers. Amazon is challenging Walmart as the Power Retailer in the next 15 years in this side of the report with some large gains from discount retailers such as Costco. CGT will publish those results next week.
Overall, the results showed that companies reward partners who place the customer at the center of their strategies and who have actionable ideas based on a compelling insight into shopper behavior.
Virginia Valkenburgh, senior vice president at Kantar Retail, said: “Unilever’s performance is a continuation of improvements it has been showing over the last few years. They have created a Center of Excellence for category management, consumer and shopper insights, and shopper marketing which has helped them to develop a more cohesive understanding of shoppers and consumers. They also understand the strategies of their trading partners and align themselves with them.”
The annual study by Kantar Retail is comprised of customized questionnaires for retailer and wholesaler respondents in food, drug, mass merchandiser, dollar, convenience and club channels and manufacturers in food, household products, general merchandise and health & beauty care.
Jonathan Phillips, chief executive officer for Kantar Retail Americas Consulting, said: “Customer centricity has been around for some time. This year it seems to have more teeth as a concept and a higher bar to live up to in practice.”
P&G performed as the “Best of the Best” (32 percent) as viewed by retailers in the suppliers’ section of the study, which evaluated the relationship between manufacturers and retailers. Metric scores are reported as the percentage of respondents ranking a trading partner among the top three.
However, the gap closed among the leading manufacturers in the PoweRanking. Unilever climbed 1.7 points taking it from fifth to fourth place in the rankings. Nestle and Kellogg’s each improved their scores by 2.9 points.
Those manufacturers who understood their customers the best had a competitive edge in the rankings. Using consumer insights to drive penetration and total category growth proved a driving force in this year’s results.
The annual PoweRanking study — now in its 16th year — included input from 600 retailer and manufacturer respondents in the United States to benchmark how they view each other in the most important areas of the manufacturer/retailer relationship.
The overall lesson to be drawn from the study is the importance of customer centricity to both partners. Those companies that ranked as best in class had strategies that aligned with those of their partners and placed customers at the heart.
The PoweRanking study is split into eight individual measures. The “Best of the Best” Composite is an aggregate of all measures.
Most of the measures told a similar story, with P&G taking top spot in a number of sections but with a reduced lead.
Retailers ranked the Top 10 suppliers as follows:
1.P&G – 32.2% (-6.1 points versus a year ago)
2.Kraft Foods – 30% (-2.7)
3.General Mills – 27.7% (-0.7)
4.Unilever – 23.5% (+1.7)
5.PepsiCo – 20% (-2.7)
6.Nestl – 15.7% (+2.9)
7.Coca-Cola – 11.8% (+1.3)
8.Kellogg’s – 11% (+2.9)
9.ConAgra – 6.6% (-1.6)
10.Kimberly-Clark – 6.3% (+2.3)
?Key findings from Kantar Retail’s US PoweRanking 2012 report are:
•Retailers again ranked P&G “Best of the Best” although Unilever made up significant ground on its major rival across a number of individual measures and made the biggest gains.
•Unilever moved from fifth position to fourth, thanks to a 1.7 point improvement.
•Unilever made the biggest gains on P&G in the “Most Helpful Consumer/Shopper Insights Category Leadership” metric with retailers crediting Unilever’s unbiased category reviews, actionable insights, and overall understanding of consumers for their success.
•Nestle has made significant progress this year in a number of categories, particularly in the “Supply Chain Management” metric where it was up 6.3 points and surpassed Unilever to fourth place. The performance reflects Nestle’s efforts to resolve some of its challenges in its supply chain.
•Retailers praised Kellogg’s company strategy, highlighting that it provides “clear, consistent growth, planning, promotion and new item strategy”.
The US PoweRanking 2012 report also revealed the top retailers as ranked by manufacturers. Amazon is challenging Walmart as the Power Retailer in the next 15 years in this side of the report with some large gains from discount retailers such as Costco. CGT will publish those results next week.
Overall, the results showed that companies reward partners who place the customer at the center of their strategies and who have actionable ideas based on a compelling insight into shopper behavior.
Virginia Valkenburgh, senior vice president at Kantar Retail, said: “Unilever’s performance is a continuation of improvements it has been showing over the last few years. They have created a Center of Excellence for category management, consumer and shopper insights, and shopper marketing which has helped them to develop a more cohesive understanding of shoppers and consumers. They also understand the strategies of their trading partners and align themselves with them.”
The annual study by Kantar Retail is comprised of customized questionnaires for retailer and wholesaler respondents in food, drug, mass merchandiser, dollar, convenience and club channels and manufacturers in food, household products, general merchandise and health & beauty care.
Jonathan Phillips, chief executive officer for Kantar Retail Americas Consulting, said: “Customer centricity has been around for some time. This year it seems to have more teeth as a concept and a higher bar to live up to in practice.”