Procurement Professional is the official publication of CIPS Australasia

#119 - Why Coles need a CPO with a property background

27 Feb 2010

Yes, obviously, Coles have lots of property in their portfolio. But, actually, nowhere near enough thinks The Buyer. Any pom will tell you that supermarkets in the UK offer a sublime experience compared to Coles and Woollies here. The leading UK supermarkets are world leaders in the genre – Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Waitrose and, even, Marks & Spencers.

Each also has their own unique selling point [USP] which are respectively .... range, quality, price, service, luxury.

Whilst UK supermarkets offer everything Australian ones do, they also offer a whole heap more, such as;

• Enormous international stock range
• 48 staffed checkout points [not 10 unstaffed ones]
• Conveyor belts ten meters long [not one meter long)
• Self service hand scanners or self-service POS
• Aisles wide enough to drive a car down
• Oceans of car parking
• Trolley’s that do as they are told
• In house bakeries, fishmongers, butchers and deli’s etc....
• High quality ready-meals sections
• Cafes and crèches
• Clean toilets, change stations and rest rooms
• Dry cleaners, post offices and chemists in-store
• Appliances, white goods and cheap grey imports [a bit like Harvey Norman too]

Innovations include the internet shopping service plus entertainers, cooking demos, free stuff, prize promotions and 24/7 opening hours – as well as cheapo petrol on-site.

The Buyer’s wife is eloquent on the whole subject.

At Waitrose you can even push your trolley at a checkout kid as you leave and they unload it, scan your stuff, charge it to your account, pack it right and have it delivered two hours later in a refrigerated truck by a bloke in white-gloves on who puts it away in your fridge then makes the wife a cup of tea. Free of charge. Seriously.

But all this extra value ultimately demands the one thing that Coles [and Woollies] do not have – space.

You see most UK supermarkets are out-of-town hypermarkets on ‘reclaimed land’. Destinations in their own right, between suburbs. One stop shops. And they are huge.

Most Aussie supermarkets are small buildings squeezed behind the high street with low ceilings, high racking, little space and less parking.

A property problem then, and not a marketing problem.

So, maybe Wesfarmers have figured this out? Maybe they have a plan? The Buyer’s wife hopes so.

That would explain the appointment of Simon Le Gear the former Nab CPO, who has a background in property management, as the new GM – Strategic Procurement [for non-merchandise] at Coles.

Just like the CPO at Coles back in 2005-6 who left during the clearout at the time – Andrew Target, who is  also a qualified surveyor as well as MCIPS, and is now a category master at The Faculty ..... for property.

So, actually, maybe they have just gone around in a circle over these last four years, perhaps, and just feel property maintenance is a high priority for their shabby stores? We’ll see, but either way it’s a big job.

The Buyer – posted 27 February 2010

The views of THE BUYER are personal and are not necessarily those of Procurement Professional magazine, BTTB Marketing nor CIPS