Cover Story
What’s In Store for 2020?
COLIN SMITH Chief Executive, Scottish Wholesale Association As SWA enters its celebratory 80th year, 2020 will be our year to celebrate. A time to celebrate a calendar of events designed in conjunction with our supplier members to showcase how wholesalers can harness the opportunity that the sustainability and environmental challenge offers them and their customers. We will celebrate enhancing our people and their digital skills with the first phase of our new Training Academy, initially focusing on younger workers and skilling new recruits entering our industry. This will develop throughout 2020 to include supervisors and middle managers. We will celebrate the high profile of SWA, our sector and our members that we’ve strengthened within Holyrood during 2019. This has enabled us to make our voices louder than ever as we work with the Scottish Government on the next round of HFSS (High Fat, Sugar & Salt) consultations, the Circular Economy Bill, the National Living Wage, Local Enterprise Zones and any new election pledges that impact Scottish wholesalers, suppliers and customers.
As retail and foodservice markets continue to merge, let’s celebrate our collaborative efforts with industry partners. Projects such as the National Food Tourism Strategy and work with the seafood industry have ensured that SWA is helping create new opportunities that will enable our members to ride the economic challenges ahead. It’s clear however that 2020 will start off the same unpredictable way that 2019 will end with Brexit and DRS high on that agenda. Let’s celebrate that January and March we will hopefully have some financial clarity on what both will look like and we can start shaping our businesses for the future. Let’s celebrate too that in 2020, whatever the challenges, whatever the opportunities, SWA will continue supporting our members with guidance, lobbying and ultimately a strength in membership. A strong, skilled, knowledgeable and opportunistic wholesale sector means a strong, skilled, knowledgeable and opportunistic retail sector.
JIM ECCLESTON Managing Partner, 56 Degrees Insight Our research identifies four specific challenges likely to face the Scottish convenience store sector in 2020:
BLAKE GLADMAN Strategy & Insight Director, KAM Media In a short space of time the value of the ‘low & no’ category has grown rapidly and I see it being a major category in 2020. In the off trade in the past year, £43m was spent on low/no-alcohol beers, for example, and we’re also seeing a rapid growth in demand for low and non-alcoholic versions of spirits and wines. The low & no category is being driven by growing trends of ‘tee-totalism’ and consumers looking to reduce their alcohol consumption for health reasons. KAM Media research showed that 2 in 5 18-24-yearolds describe themselves as teetotal; more than twice the number of UK adults in general. Knowledge of this relatively unknown category is currently limited across the convenience retail channel. However, I believe it hits a potential sweet spot for the channel. We already know that awareness and demand for health and well-being products is now a mainstream trend across UK consumers, but couple this with the heritage for small format retailers being the ‘go-to’ channel for alcohol and soft drinks and you can start to see the opportunity that this could provide. Distress purchases, entertaining and meal for tonight are just some of the key shopper missions which are the heartland of the convenience store and the low & no category fits snuggly into these shopping trips whilst helping to future-protect them for retailers in 2020 and beyond. In summary, the growing demand for a decent low & no range is not going away and it should be an area which the convenience channel sees as an opportunity to be ahead of the curve and create a real point of difference.
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Q Health & Wellbeing:The search for the healthier option will be a continuing trend in 2020. Scots are increasingly likely to pay attention to ingredients – not just calorific content but artificial flavourings, sugar and unsaturated fat. When it comes to alcohol, the recent Minimum Unit Pricing legislation is delivering a reduction in volume of take-home alcohol bought overall, and drinkers paying more for what they do imbibe. In 2020, the non-alcoholic and low alcohol sector will continue to grow at a faster rate than elsewhere in Britain, as a growing proportion of the population looks to moderate their drinking habits. Q Sustainability and environmental issues: As consumers become ever more aware of the environmental impact of their choices, packaging is increasingly recyclable. C-stores have an opportunity given the growing consumer desire for plastic-free fruit and vegetable aisles and a move to paper bags instead of plastic. Q Provenance: knowing where your food and drink comes from and how it is produced is increasingly important to Scots consumers. Telling the story of the product on packaging and display materials will become increasingly common next year as brands seek to develop an interest and intrigue. This approach can highlight the provenance of the product in an engaging way which can appeal to the consumer – with display opportunities to be had for the convenience store. Q ‘Scottishness’ and importance of locality: National identity has always been important to Scots and manifests itself in food and drink branding too. We recently undertook research which explored how Scots felt when faced with a direct choice of two identical food items – one with a UK flag and labelled ‘100% British product’ and the other with a Scottish flag and labelled ‘100% Scottish product’. The value of Scottish branding was clear: 56% would choose the product branded ‘Scottish’ whereas only 4% would choose the ‘British’ labelling. This has implications about how products are displayed and promoted in store to maximise their appeal.
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04/12/2019 14:56:54