Chicago -- Paul Wietecha, President/CEO, Blacksmith Applications was asked to speak at a foodservice industry meeting hosted by Technomic, Inc.  In a presentation entitled “A Call for Action - Expect more of the same without a new game plan” Paul shared what the industry could expect to see over the next five years including: Industry growth; purchasing consolidation; differentiated products; trade a “survival” mechanism; and what he called “The Race to the Bottom.”  His reference title includes such trends as survival versus performance funds, category RFPs and closed-coding, GPO proliferation as well as a spread of deviated pricing ending meaningful “street business” among others.

He also shared with the group actions that can be taken to turn a positive result.  The more up-hill climb, investing, for manufacturers to design and develop true relevant points of difference within the product offering; or, to become truly operator focused and what exactly that might mean.  He also discussed trade spending and what can be done to make major strides forward from focused trade and pricing strategy to accountability, identifying issues such as spending decisions among groups with opposing responsibilities and objectives, to developing analytics as a core competency.

This look at trends and inevitable outcomes without positive modifications was followed by a group discussion focused on the opportunities, required actions and dramatically improved outcomes .

About Technomic

Technomic, Inc. provides clients with the facts, insights and consulting support they need to enhance their business strategies, decisions and results. Its services include numerous publications and digital products, as well as proprietary studies and ongoing research on all aspects of the food industry. (Source: Technomic, Inc.)

Chicago, Business Wire – Technomic and Blacksmith Applications have announced a continued collaboration of their Foodservice trade spending study, both in terms of adding a second wave of participants as well as extending the scope to focus on tactical methods to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of trade practices for some of the original participants and other interested parties.

The findings from the original study confirm the tremendous challenges facing manufacturers and the need for executive level commitment to take aggressive steps to improve the return on investment relative to trade dollars.

The study identified some industry "best practices" and provided insights to alternative ways to approach trade spending as well as "industry benchmarks" to identify how the industry is actually spending versus how they say they'd like to perform.

"Manufacturer trade spending in foodservice continues to increase in cost and complexity, and for most manufacturers, has become the second largest P&L line item after cost of goods," said Gary Karp, Vice President, Technomic, Inc. "Historically, however, in many cases the trade spending burden is assumed as a cost to do business and the appropriate strategic focus is not given to trade spending considering the size of the budget. Leading companies are now realizing they need to take greater control over spending, minimize the trade spending 'tolls or greens fees' and manage trade spending more strategically to drive profitable volume."  

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