GB Foods: putting business goals back at the heart of field activity

“There's a method we can explain, with stores and a workload plan. We can show the workload to everyone in the team. It's a process, and that's reassuring.”
Nicolas Andries, National Sales Director, GB Foods

GB Foods at a glance

GB Foods is an international group with more than 3,000 employees, present in around fifty countries in pasta and rice, sauces, flavor enhancers, teas and infusions, as well as soups and broths. What sets it apart: local brands that are generally leaders in their markets. In France, these are Liebig and Royco in the grocery aisle and La Ferme d'Anchin in the fruit and vegetable section, produced at the Le Pontet and Liévin plants.

This testimonial comes from Nicolas Andries, National Sales Director. The sales force has 46 people: five regions, each divided into 6 to 8 territories, plus two people at head office working on business development.

stat: 46 | people in the sales force

stat: 5 | regions of 6 to 8 territories

The challenge: keeping a multi-category workload under control

In ambient and chilled alike, ambitions translate into marketing mix levers: assortment, promotion and shelf space. Without a framework, the workload plan can quickly spiral out of control. Three challenges stood out:

• Keeping the workload under control as generated by a multi-category portfolio.
• Putting business objectives back at the center: revenue and market share, in both absolute terms and growth.
• Adapting to day-to-day changes in the trade, with agility and flexibility.

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“If we don't set a framework, if we're not somewhat methodical about all these ambitions, we can end up with a workload plan, and therefore a workload, that spirals out of control.”
Nicolas Andries, National Sales Director, GB Foods

The Datakiss solution: from diagnosis to action plan

GB Foods relies on Datakiss Territory Planning, combined with data from the panel provider Nielsen to factor in business objectives.

1. Numerous discussions to understand the organization
2. A diagnosis carried out with the Datakiss team
3. A shared assessment
4. An action plan built with Datakiss's decision support
   • The workload plan combines visit frequency, visit time and routing to produce a workload per territory.

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“A lot of listening, proactive suggestions and decision support. Overall, we make a diagnosis. Once that diagnosis is made, there's an assessment and we put an action plan in place.”
Nicolas Andries, National Sales Director, GB Foods

Project benefits

• Objectives achieved: the ones GB Foods had set at the outset.
• Meaning for the whole company: field activity is linked to business objectives.
• Reassured teams, thanks to a method that can be explained and a workload everyone can see.

The key to success

For Nicolas Andries, the collaboration was built on listening, discretion and trust, with a team that was available, agile and fast, just like the tool.

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“We achieved the objectives we had set ourselves. It gave meaning to our activity across the whole company and also reassured the teams.”
Nicolas Andries, National Sales Director, GB Foods

In summary

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“Go for it! The tool is powerful, it can do a lot of things and it's fast. Don't hesitate: it provides a lot of answers.”
Nicolas Andries, National Sales Director, GB Foods