Popular Indian food products company Britannia Industries Ltd is planning to shift its focus to direct supply by operating with zero-day inventory. The company wants to increase its sales with this. Direct Distribution model will definitely help them in expanding the reach of their products in the retail market. Time is a major factor in the modern world and by saving this Britannia is showing its future plans.
The distance between the retail stores and distribution centres will be reduced and will customers who want quick service. Gunjan Shah, the vice president (sales), Britannia revealed that company wants to focus on non-metro cities as they contribute a big portion in Britannia’s sales.
Other big players in the market have made Britannia do this. As of now, the Indian brand only serves around 6.5 lakh retail stores directly which is very less as compared to Pepsico brand Fritolay’s direct reach of 1.1 million stores despite being 1/4 of Britannia’s size.
Britannia has decided to attach 2 lakh stores in their direct network every year. According to company’s research, there are nearly 11 million retail outlets in the country out of which 8 million sell biscuits.
With the direct distribution model, Britannia wants to control the complete supply chain itself. Right now, the company has more than 20,000 employees who visit retail stores to analyse the need of sellers and suggest them products. These workers then take orders and send to the distributors by using mobile apps. In this new model, the distributors will have to send the products within one day to ensure the increase in sales.
Before distributors, Britannia sends products to wholesale dealers after manufacturing. The whole process takes around 7-10 days and this time will be saved from now on. Of course, it will take more manpower and advanced technology, but to improve the business it was much needed as rivals are already following these policies and customer these days just cares about service.
Parle-G is the largest distributor in the country because of its quick delivery service. With more than 70 factories across the country, Britannia wants to increase its share in the biscuit market.
Although this model has been running in some cities but, it is not enough. With direct distribution model retailers will know the location of their orders products at any instant before delivery.
Britannia has probably recognized the need of advanced technology in the business world. Change is the rule of this world and if any company wants to achieve and maintain success, they can not ignore the technology factor.
