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Morrisons

Strong Focus Leads to Morrisons Strong Results

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Morrisons have just declared their preliminary results which appear relatively strong. These strong results of Morrisons are underpinned by the fact that it had the right balance of focus on consumers, shoppers, on ensuring the sustenance of category values and focus on employee welfare. Provision of more premium ranges and a higher focus on quality further strengthened consumer trust and sentiment. Better availability, fewer out of stocks and shorter check-out times supported by better ordering systems and more tills ensured higher shopper satisfaction and increased shopping trips. Key component also supporting better financial results was sustenance of category values as a result of better range and stronger collaboration with suppliers. Focus on better employee welfare including proposals  for a higher entry pay point of £8.50 per hour have also supported stronger employee engagement. This also proves that the right consumer and shopper proposition needs to be the whole package as demonstrated by Morrisons in these results and doesn’t only need to focus on price.”
Financial Results and Strategic Summary as declared by Morrisons are as below:

Financial summary 

·       

LFL sales ex-fuel/ex-VAT up 1.7%, positive in all four quarters and 2.5% in Q4 

·       

Turnover up 1.2% to £16.3bn (2015/16: £16.1bn) despite store closures

·       

UPBT up 11.6% to £337m, at the upper end of the £330m-£340m guided range (2015/16 UPBT before restructuring costs: £302m)

·       

UPBT up 39.3% (2015/16 UPBT including restructuring costs: £242m)

·       

Underlying EPS up 39.8% to 10.86p (2015/16: 7.77p)

·       

Reported PBT up 49.8% to £325m (2015/16: £217m)

·       

Free cash flow of £670m (2015/16: £854m)

·       

Operating working capital improvement of £360m

·       

Gross debt reduced by £717m, net debt reduced by £552m to £1,194m

·       

Triennial pension valuation complete, with funding surplus of £111m

·       

Final dividend of 3.85p, full year total dividend up 8.6% to 5.43p (2015/16: 5.00p)

 

Strategic and operating highlights

·       

First year of positive LFL sales and UPBT growth since 2011/12

·       

Strong cash flow, gross and net debt down substantially

·       

First year of new dividend policy. Dividend sustainable and covered around two times by underlying EPS 

·       

Fix, Rebuild and Grow strategy starting to build a broader, stronger Morrisons

·       

New partnerships with Amazon, Ocado, Timpson, Rontec, and the revival of the Safeway brand are all capital light growth opportunities 

·       

Further forty ‘Morrisons Daily’ forecourt convenience stores planned with Rontec

 

Financial targets update

·       

£18m of the £50m-£100m incremental PBT target delivered in the first year 

·       

£1bn cost savings achieved. Further productivity and cost savings to come

·       

Good progress with medium-term cash flow targets: achieved over £900m of £1bn working capital, and almost £900m of £1.1bn disposals

·       

Net debt expected to fall to less than £1bn by the end of 2017/18

This information above is from Morrisons update on 9th March 2017. Asbicon has only provided its analysis in the first paragraph

(Asbicon is a Consumer Goods & Services specialist firm focused on “Growth Solutions for Aspiring Brands”. Asbicon enables this through its 5 verticals of Research, Assisted Advisory®, Capability Development, Data services & Design services providing Retail & Distribution effectiveness to its clients)

Aditya

Asbicon congratulates Aditya Bhardwaj on his 5th Asbiversary

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Asbicon heartily congratulates Aditya Bhardwaj on his 5th Asbiversary (Years with Asbicon). Aditya is an Operations Director with Asbicon based in Chandigarh, India. Aditya’s experience and expertise in need assessment, resource allocation, and project management have been instrumental in taking the company to great heights. We wish him all the best for many more years to come.

Rachel

Asbicon Learning appoints Rachel Osbourne ex P&G Training lead as Global Head

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Asbicon Learning, the capability development arm of the Asbicon Group(www.asbicon.com)has appointed Rachel Alexandra Osbourne (nee Dingwall) as its Global Head. Rachel comes with a wealth of experience that includes many years at Procter & Gamble where she worked across functions in Sales & Trade Marketing and also led the training for field sales in the United Kingdom. She also spent time at Mutley & Mog where she managed all aspects of sales and logistics.

Rachel will also oversee Asbicon’s properietary capability development framework “GAIN and WIN” and will be instrumental in ensuring the capability development needs of Consumer Goods & Services clients across geographies are met.

Rachel is an outstanding Consumer Goods and Services Industry professional and Asbicon Group is proud to welcome her in her new position

For more information, please contact on: info@asbicon.com or visit asbiverse.com/learning

ADS

Asbicon’s design vertical Dezign Services launches Dezign Insta Packs for Consumer Goods and Services Sector with Transparent Pricing

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Dezign Services, the Shopper Focused Design and creative agency specialising in the Consumer Goods and Services sector launches Dezign Insta Packs for its clients. Dezign services provides Shopper focused design solutions for Consumer Goods and Services sector by focusing on sector specific design needs at:

Corporate Level
Category Level
Brand Level
Pack Level
Personal

With the launch of Dezign Insta Packs, Dezign Services aims to bring simplicity and transparency in the way its clients can book their services. Dezign Insta Packs have been configured based on most common needs of Consumer Goods and Services clients at various levels of Corporate, Category, Brand, Pack and Personal.

At the Corporate level, 4 Dezign Insta Pack solution packages( Bronze, Silver,Gold and Diamond) have been developed with a nominal monthly cost to meet small to large design and social media management needs of the clients. This is also aimed at ensuring regular support to clients as required.

For clients requiring Design services that are different than pre-configured Dezign Insta Packs, they can submit their specific requirements through the forms on the website or contact on info@dezignservices.com

Dezign services is An Asbicon Group Company(www.asbicon.com). Asbicon’s Design and Creative vertical is supported by Dezign Services. Please visit www.dezignservices.com for more details

Asbicon Services

Why is Asbicon chosen by Consumer Goods and Services organisations as a Growth Partner?

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Asbicon meets the needs of Management of Aspiring brands who are looking for Growth Solutions and dissatisfied with Multiple Single Service Agencies with generic sector focus.

Asbicon is an Advisory and Creative Agency specialising in Consumer Goods and Services Sector that enables Retail & Distribution effectiveness.

Asbicon does this through 5 key verticals of:
Assisted Advisory®
Creative and Design services (Dezign Services)
Capability Development (Asbicon Learning through GAIN and WIN)*
Data Services
Research (Shopper focussed)

With its headquarters in UK , regional offices in Dubai and India and partners in Americas, Africa and South East Asia, Asbicon supports it’s client needs across geographies and channels. Its total focus on the Consumer Goods and Services sector allows Asbicon to offer sector relevant solutions with learnings and experience from more than 50 countries where Asbicon has supported client projects.

Asbicon’s clients trust Asbicon to deliver the right results for their objectives and there are many instances where a client has started working with Asbicon through one of Asbicon’s verticals and then has gradually moved to using all 5 verticals. Asbicon’s key differentiator is the love and passion for the Consumer Goods and Services sector and the desire to see it’s clients grow

For more info please look through the website www.asbicon.com or get in touch on info@asbicon.com

*Asbicon learning’s bespoke website asbiverse.com/learning is launching soon with a simple yet revolutionary way to enable capability development for Consumer Goods and Services organisations

Asbicon-Offerings

Asbicon’s “GAIN and WIN” framework granted TradeMark in Europe

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We are pleased to share that Asbicon’s proprietary framework “GAIN and WIN” to support structured and progressive Growth for Consumer Goods and Services organisations has now also been granted a TradeMark in Europe.

Asbicon - Veedol

Veedol launches digitally enabled B2B Loyalty Program powered by Asbicon in Saudi Arabia

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Asbicon is proud to have powered the launch of first of it’s kind B2B loyalty program for Dealers, Mechanics & Puncture shops for Veedol in Saudi Arabia. The “First Choice” loyalty program was developed by Asbicon on a Turnkey basis.This included:

  • Conceptualisation of the Loyalty Program – Led by the Assisted Advisory® vertical of Asbicon
  • In Market Research in Saudi Arabia- led by Asbicon’s Research vertical
  • Mobile App Design including technology & creative design- led by Asbicon’s Dezign Services vertical
  • Collaterals design to support First Choice program launch and ongoing communication including dedicated website design of “www.veedolfirstchoice.com” and all Below the line communication material- Led by Asbicon’s Dezign Services vertical
  • Orientation and on boarding of Veedol & Distributor Resources & In Market End users on the First Choice Program and Mobile App usage- Led by Asbicon’s Capability Development vertical.

Please click on the below image for the Launch video:

 

The passion & dedication of Veedol’s Middle East & Global teams to make this a success was a huge contributing factor to an outstanding development and launch of the “First Choice” program. This is the first of its kind digitally enabled B2B loyalty program where Dealers, Mechanics & Puncture shop owners can earn loyalty points upon Veedol Product’s purchase and redeem them through the Mobile App itself for amazing rewards. The App also contains product information on most of Veedol’s Automotive lubricant products. It makes the experience seamless for the End User.

 

vfc-fp

 

The conceptualisation, development, launch and support of Veedol’s “First Choice” Program is a classical example of how Asbicon provides “Growth Solutions for Aspiring Brands”. Asbicon enables this through its 5 verticals of Research, Assisted Advisory®, Capability Development, Data services & Dezign Services.

 

One stop provision for Insight to Execution Growth solutions

We wish Veedol many such successful launches in many markets.

 

Regards,

Team Asbicon

 

To know more about Asbicon’s offers please contact on info@asbicon.com or submit a query on www.asbicon.com

One stop provision for Insight to Execution Growth solutions

One stop provision for Insight to Execution Growth solutions

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One stop provision for Insight to Execution Growth solutions

Asbicon is proud to have been a partner of choice for Consumer Goods and Services clients in more than 50 countries supporting Growth through Insight all the way to Execution. Unlike other agencies which support bits and pieces of the requirements, Asbicon meets most of the client needs through in house capability & infrastructure on its five verticals of Research, Assisted Advisory®, Capability Development, Data Services & Dezign Services.

Whether it is Quantitative or Qualitative Research you need to undertake or you are just looking for trends, maybe you need a structured guidance on Route to Market options, maybe it is a strategy on winning with Shoppers that you are looking for support on or potentially capability development of your sales force, maybe insight through data is your current need or you need to develop campaign designs for an in store execution, Asbicon can support you on all such requirements and with most Asbiconians being Consumer Goods & Services veterans can help provide that sector specific flavour as well.

Having an in house end to end solution enabled through efficient cost bases in India and a strong physical presence with Subject Matter experts in Europe, Middle East, Americas & India allows Asbicon to provide Growth Solutions to Aspiring Brands in a flexible and affordable way. This eco system also enables Asbicon’s clients to focus not only on domestic markets but also supports expansion/effectiveness in International markets. Asbicon prides itself on its nimbleness and ability to respond to client requests extremely quickly.

Success of our clients is our passion and we are guided not limited by Project briefs.

For more information on how we have enabled Growth for our clients and more details on our offer, please visit www.asbicon.com. you can also reach us on info@asbicon.com

One stop provision for Insight to Execution Growth solutions

Asbicon

Asbicon is proud to secure a mandate from the leading Pharmacy-led Health and Beauty retailer in the UK to help define Category Growth road map for a multi-million pound key category

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Asbicon has initiated a project to drive shopper focused growth for a key multi-million pound category in the UK with the leading Pharmacy-led Health and Beauty retailer. This project will be led by the “Assisted Advisory®” team of Asbicon supported by Asbicon’s “Research” and “Dezign Services” verticals. The project will involve use of shopper focused Category Management principles, primary research techniques including Focus Groups and the use of technology such as Eye Tracking, Virtual Reality, etc.

Asbicon’s structure of having the five verticals of Assisted Advisory®, Research, Capability Development, Data Services & Dezign Services in-house ensures seamless support to our Consumer Goods & Retail clients on their projects. For more information on Asbicon’s services for the Consumer Goods & Retail Sector, please visit – www.asbicon.com

Asbicon

Asbicon‘s Research & Advisory team hosted a co-creation week at Asbicon’s UK offices with the world’s leading Personal Care and Consumer Electronics European Multinational

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Asbicon’s Research & Advisory team hosted a co-creation week with the client at Asbicon’s UK offices for a project underway on winning at the Point of Purchase.

The objective of the sessions was to define/ refine the key elements of new packaging to enable clear brand positioning and concept statement. In addition to running focus groups streamed globally, Asbicon also conceptualized a dummy store of a leading UK retailer to conduct ‘Eye Tracking’ on the shelf. Real time insights were shared with the client to evaluate the current packaging vis–à–vis the preferred packaging option in the category/ cross categories.

Asbicon looks forward to initiate the second phase of the project that would involve conducting quantitative research to gauge brand fitment and further augment the qualitative insights of the proposed packaging options.