Kohl's wants Non-Traditional Grocerant niche Retail Partners

When you can’t beat them join them.  Kohl’s department store’s like all retailers wants to drive top line sales, bottom line profits while edifying customer loyalty.  Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® knows Kohl’s is making the right choice for a retail partner as they look for the proper foodservice company as grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat prepared food is the leading driver of retail growth in every retail sector.

Kohl’s announced that they are planning to partner with retailers like convenience stores or grocery stores to lease the white space left by the roughly 300 stores it has “right-sized” over the past several years, CEO Kevin Mansell told CNBC.

Kohl’s has created new operationally smaller, more profitable stores within its roughly 87,000-square-foot boxes. That downsizing leaves unused footage, which Mansell said would benefit from traffic-generating retailers like those that sell food.

Mansell  stated "If we had our preference, we are going first after well-capitalized companies, and preferably ones that have high traffic in grocery and convenience," according to Johnson the retail success of grocerant Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh the undercurrent of retail in person sales growth.

The department store brings with it strong real estate, big parking lots and its own traffic. A food and apparel duo would be able to compete against a number of retailers employing similar strategies, like Target and even Walmart, according to CNBC.

Mansell noted that not all of Kohl's roughly 300 right-sized stores will necessarily lease space, at least at the onset. Kohl's may partner with several retailers in group rollouts, and potentially partner with some as a one-off. The retailer would consider partnerships with competitors, he added.

Mansell declined to say whether Whole Foods is one of its in-store partners. Kohl’s already has a partnership with Whole Food’s new owner, Amazon, through which it sells Amazon products and accepts returns.  "It's not about Whole Foods, Aldi, or anybody else … we want a partner, ideally in food or convenience, to help drive traffic,"

Regular readers of this blog I am assured are not surprised that a department store wants to add grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food. Neither was anyone here at Foodservice Solutions® there is a reason for that, because this is just what we do.  Are you ready for grocerant products?

 Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant