Is this the worst job – being a Coles National Account Manager or Business Manager. Competing against a heavily supported house brand, reduced promotional activity, reduced ranging, delistings and on top of that a request for more trading terms.
Request is probably not the correct word though is it?!
Any Comments, anonymous of course – use a name like Idi Amin or Robert Mugabe.
Tim
This post was written by Tim on February 17, 2009
Word is Coles are announcing 500 redundancies on Monday!
Buyers are not exempt and Wesfarmers are not happy with the buying performance. Buyers have reacted by not accepting price rises and pushing more terms for less activity.
Tim
This post was written by Tim on December 11, 2008
Frank additions yesterday from Coles CEO – Ian Mcleod as reported in The Age;
“If you’ve got a CEO (Brian Quinn) that ends up in jail and you end up firing your merchandise director (Peter Scott) for corruption, it’s a bit tricky for people to actually have belief in the leadership,” he said.
What about an MD with no retail experience and a mustache (John Fletcher), a director who is a major supplier (Sol Lew) and no wonder there have been some issues at Battlestar Galactica.
The canny Scot described the business as “fundamentally broken” when he took over, with management just looking at the next quarters sales/profit cycle and not long term.
So supplier such as Nestle and Unilever are now being asked for more trading terms to cover Coles’ poor management and lack of reinvestment in Fixtures and Fittings. That makes sense!
How about Coles suck it up and actually offer the suppliers a decent business to deal with before they start screwing the account managers for more funds.
Any thoughts Ian?
Tim
Posted under Uncategorized
This post was written by Tim on October 15, 2008
So it’s been confirmed that Mitre 10 is looking at its options, as extracted from the AFR on the 24th Sept 08;
“Hardware group, Mitre 10, staged its annual convention on 23 September 2008. The organisation’s CEO, Bernie Bicknell, claimed that in the past 12 months, a lack of funds prevented the company from purchasing about half a dozen strongly performing stores. Bicknell reaffirmed that Mitre 10 is considering options such as an outright trade sale or a capital injection”
Well I believe it may well be Metcash who is the preferred bidder or injector. The complex franchise structure of Mitre 10 is proving a bit too much of a challenge for the Corporate Heads at Woolworths and they are getting cold feet. Without ultimate control of the entity they think it will be too hard to turn around this loss making network. Metcash on the other hand has the buying experience and understands the challenges of dealing with individual owners at store level. Read More…
Posted under News
This post was written by Tim on September 26, 2008
Hardware buying supermarkets, we have seen that, supermarkets investing in hardware, watch this space.
Mitre 10 has been struggling for the past decade to have an impact in the Hardware channel, particularly in metropolitan areas. The Australian Financial Review has reported that Mitre 10 and Woolworths are in discussions regarding a capital injection or outright purchase of entity.
The AFR also indicates that Mitre 10 will be holding a shareholders meeting during its National Convention next week on the Gold Coast. With the vast majority of shareholders in attendance this is an ideal opportunity to present a restructure or buyout proposal.
Hardware should not pose any ACCC issues for Woolworths as this is one of the few areas that WOW do not participate in in the Australian market.
Tim
Posted under Retailers
This post was written by Tim on September 18, 2008
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