Hello Nicolas, could you introduce yourself and tell us what is your function at GB Foods?
Hello, Nicolas Andries National Sales Manager at GB Foods for a little over 3 years.
GB Foods is an international group with more than 3,000 employees working in about 50 countries around the world in different product categories.
We are present in pasta and rice, sauces, flavour enhancers, teas and infusions, and soups and broths.
The particularity of GB Foods is to be on brands that are only local and that are very generally leaders in their local market.
Our brands in France at GB Foods are Liebig and Royco on the grocery, ambient soups either liquid or instant or La Ferme d'Anchin.
Our brand La Ferme d'Anchin is present in the fruit and vegetable department.
We are made in France. Liebig and Royco are manufactured in our factory in Le Pontet, near Avignon, in the south-east of France and our brand La Ferme d'Anchin is manufactured in our factory in Liévin in the north of France.
What is your sales force organization?
Our sales force organization is quite simple, quite classic, we are 46 people. France is divided into five regions, each region is headed by a regional director, each region is divided into 6 to 8 sectors and each sector is headed by a sector manager. In addition to this army, there are two people who work with me at headquarters on sales development.
What problems did you want to solve by calling on Datakiss?
Don't do it myself anymore!
Beyond the joke, we wanted to respond to several issues.
The first problem is the workload. I'll explain, when you're dealing with multi-categories, i.e. ambient and fresh, with all the ambitions and objectives that you can set yourself. Our role is to respond to this through the levers of the mix, i.e. assortment, promotion and shelf space.
And if we don't get our act together, if we're not a bit methodical about all these ambitions, we can have a workload that explodes.
So we wanted to provide an answer to this problem.
The second issue we wanted to address by working with Datakiss was to put business objectives back at the heart of our activity.
Business objectives are sales and market share, whether in terms of mass or evolution.
We wanted to put them back at the heart of our daily work.
And to do this, by working with Datakiss and the Nielsen panelist with whom we work, we were able to put these objectives at the heart of our activity.
And the third issue we wanted to address was that of adapting to the day-to-day evolution of the Trade.
We can see this clearly, through the creation and dissolution of different groups and different negotiations.
The Trade is constantly evolving, and as a service provider within our own organization, we have to be agile and flexible to be able to respond to these issues.
How did the project with Datakiss go?
Good! It went well. Everything went well because already, something that is extremely important, I think today: it is good mood all the time. And it is extremely pleasant to work in this framework.
A lot of listening and proposing, helping with the decision. Let me explain. In fact, when you first meet Datakiss and the Datakiss team, there is a lot of discussion at the beginning. We make a general diagnosis. And once this diagnosis has been made, there is a report and an action plan is put in place.
That's where I say there was a lot of listening and helping with the decision because it made it all happen.
It was a rich collaboration, with a lot of discretion in the exchanges and that is extremely pleasant. And then knowing how to trust
And then after Datakiss, I think it's just like the product and the solution they sell, extremely available, agile, fast. Very positive.
What are the benefits of using Territory Planning?
We have already reached the goals we set for ourselves.
This is extremely positive and, for me, it's extremely important, to give meaning to the whole company's activity and also to reassure the teams.
That is to say, there is a method that we are able to explain with stores, a load plan.
What is a workload plan? It's the frequency of visits, the time of visit, it's the routing. We mix all that. And then in the end, we arrive at a workload.
We are able to show the workload to all employees. It's a process, it's reassuring and it's perfect!
Would you recommend Datakiss to another National Sales Directorate?
Go for it!
In my opinion, we have to go.
The tool is powerful, the tool allows a lot of things and it's fast.
Don't hesitate and, quite honestly, it provides a lot of answers.