Case Histories Joost van der Laan
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We help companies to raise profitability, by improving marketing, logistics and store operations.
And we advise, coach and train retailers, manufacturers and students to employ effective techniques.
One long term client has become "Best Supermarket Chain" in The Netherlands.
Case histories are completed projects by Joost van der Laan. They are examples for future activities for clients. These overviews of consultancy projects are
anonymous, unless they are published in trade magazines or presented in a public presentation by client consent.
CATEGORY MANAGEMENT ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES
Category Management project for A-brand supplier and national food retailer; focus on establishing a CDT (“Customer Decision Tree”) by consumer panels and Nielsen research;
we detected a significant change in buying patterns by younger consumers; result was a major change in assortment and presentation in favor of 18+ mix-drinks, and at the expense of 50+ assortment (sherry and vermouth).
CATEGORY MANAGEMENT PRODUCE
Category Management project for Produce supplier and local food retailer; focus on assortment and logistics; logistics result was a reduction of lead-time (from order to delivery) by 35%, fresher products in the stores and possibility to deliver Produce during entire day.
CATEGORY MANAGEMENT DETERGENTS
Category Management project for A-brand supplier Unilever and retailer Jumbo; focus on new presentation rules, based on consumer buying behavior;
project results (including increased sales and profitability) were presented by Unilever CEO during plenary session of ECR Europe congress.
CATEGORY MANAGEMENT DESERTS
Extended Category Management project for A-brand supplier Mona (Campina) and retailer Jumbo; focus on shrinkage reduction of slow-moving fresh products by product rationalization, new product introduction and automatic store replenishment;
change from direct store delivery to central warehouse delivery.
CATEGORY MANAGEMENT WINE
Exploring critical success factors for Wine category of national food retailer; no supplier sponsoring; applying the wine-index of a postal code information system in order to benchmark fair-shares of stores with different wine consuming behavior;
we found and applied an effective and unique critical success factor for the Wine category.
CATEGORY MANAGEMENT AIR REFRESHERS
Category Management project for A-brand supplier and national retailer; wide differences in shelf profitability of sub-categories was reason to rearrange shelf space.
ECR EFFICIENT PROMOTIONS
Project management of Promotion Cost research for A-brand suppliers Campina (dairy), Johma (salads), Uniekaas (cheese), Stegeman (meat products), retailers Jumbo, Konmar, Hermans, and knowledge institutes Coopers & Lybrand and Wageningen University;
the first documented promotion cost analysis for the entire supply chain; result was a large financial improvement opportunity and a “Promotion Protocol” for efficient promotions;
presentation of results by Campina CEO Bob Steetskamp and Joost van der Laan during plenary session of ECR Europe Congress in Amsterdam.
ECR SCORECARD
Translation of ECR Scorecard; ECR SCorecard is used as first phase of many Category Management projects.
CATEGORY MANAGEMENT TRAINING
Category Management training for buyers and category managers of national food retailer; practical case: implementation of space-management system.
CATEGORY MANAGEMENT WORKSHOPS
Developing and performing category management workshops for inter-company groups of 10-12 managers.
EUROPEAN IMAGE SURVEY
Image survey for non-food supplier at retailers in 12 countries; in each country different customer service improvements were identified and implemented.
NATIONAL IMAGE SURVEY
Customer service survey for A-brand supplier of specialty beers at national food retailers; resulting in operational merger of two business units in order to improve trade marketing power.
OUTSOURCING FRESH PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTION
For national food retailer outsourcing of Fresh Products distribution to logistics service provider; selection and negotiations; writing Service Level Agreement and contract; much attention to low and flexible activity based rates.
WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Selection and implementation of WMS system for regional food retailer; improvement of assortment management information, customer service and logistics efficiency.
ECR EDUCATON
Promotion tour for Procter & Gamble in three Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; three 6-hour sessions for local retailers.
EDI PROJECTS
Negotiations for Superunie buying group with consultancy companies on project approach and costs of electronic data interchange (EDI)
OUTSOURCING DISTRIBUTION AND PURCHASING
Selecting new distribution and purchasing partner for national foodretailer Coop; requirement planning; selection and rate negotiations based on Activity Based Costing;
Van Eerd Group became new partner for distribution and Superunie for purchasing
DISTRIBUTION OF DAIRY PRODUCTS
For dairy products supplier and national food retailer comparing of direct store deliveries and central warehouse deliveries of dairy products; independent intermediary to process confidential information; analysis resulted in maintaining direct store delivery system.
LOGISTICS WORKSHOPS FOR COMMERCIAL MANAGERS
Workshops on logistics for multi-company groups of 10-12 commercial managers; Efficient Consumer Response, DPP (Direct Product Profitability), inventory management, food distribution strutures, optimal case-size,
effects of order- and delivery frequency on store shelves, lead-time reduction and prevention of out-of-stocks.
TRANSPORT OPTIMALISATION
Development of transport optimalisation system; rate calculation tool as additional feature.
DISTRIBUTION BLOKKER COMPANY
Project manager development of automated distribution center of Blokker company; automatic pallet elevators and hanging transportation system for roll containers in five story warehouse.
FULL-LINE DISTRIBUTION CENTER ALBERT HEIJN
Project management of development and first site manager of regional full-line distribution center of Albert Heijn in Zwolle.
AUTOMATIC ORDERING SYSTEM
Implementing automatic store replenishment at national food retailer; interface with space-management;
development of business rules for central control of local assortments and shelf presentation.
SHELF VISIBILITY
Improving turnover and profitability of razor blades and batteries Gillette at Albert Heijn,
by moving from counter sales to self-service (“open sale”); development of effective shrinkage prevention measures;
presentation of first results at ECR Congress. Similar project at second national retailer.
SHRINKAGE REDUCTION
Analysis of shrinkage cause and effects for regional retailer resulting in five results:
- effective system for inventory control
- lower administrative shrinkage
- reduction of pricing errors
- (almost) error free data management
- transparent net margin calculations for fresh producs
STORE PRODUCTIVITY
Development and implementation of store productivity planning at three retail companies;
norms for working hours and costs per hour based on Internal Store Benchmarking of activities;
resulting in considerable reduction of labor costs.
ACTIVITY BASED COSTING
Modeling and analysis of distribution system of snacks A-brand supplier; efficiency improvement of out-of-home distribution to 25.000 outlets.
STORE BALANCED SCORECARD
Implementing a Balanced Scorecard for stores of national retailer; a trigger and action system for four success factors:
productive and creative employees, efficient store processes, customer service and customer loyalty, financial results.
ACTIVITY BASED COSTING
Development of Activity Based Costing model of central warehouse, transport and stores of national retailer;
using the system for flexible rates of logistics service provider, output based budgets and employee planning.
COST-PROFIT MANAGEMENT
Development of Cost-Profit Management model for PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS
VCA project Sara Lee UK; financial analysis of assortment profitability and logistics efficiency. Unexpected profit makers caused product managers to change the assortment.
TRAINING QUALITY COST ANALYSIS
In-company training for consultants and auditors of Quality Assurance company. Quality Cost Analysis is now additional product offering of the company.
RATE NEGOTIATIONS
Rate negotiations for retailer with wholesale company; finding a balance between high delivery frequency and low rates. The new rate structure makes it interesting for both parties to continually search for cost reduction and process improvement.
BUSINESS PLAN ONLINE RETAILING
Screening business plans of two internet retailers for informal investor.
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