Kohl’s & Aldi Customer Commonality Equals Partnership

Success does leave Clues and understanding your customers is a clue that Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® at the top of your list. When sales are lagging more often than not it’s because you are not listening, seeing, or understanding your customers well enough according to Johnson.

Kohl’s is showing signs of renewed strength as its Q4 earnings per share (EPS) came out to $1.99, well ahead of the $1.77 estimated. Revenue was $6.78 billion as opposed to the $6.74 billion expected by Wall Street, and same-store sale growth was up 6.3 percent compared to the anticipated 5.7 percent.

Kohl’s CEO Kevin Mansell in a statement that they are “committed to rethinking how it uses physical spaces, right-sizing its retail footprint and considering how to rent portions of its stores to grocery and convenience stores, among other options. The company revealed during its earnings call that it would tap grocery retailer Aldi as its first partner to sublet space in downsized stores.”  Kohl’s may have found its ‘new electricity’ to fuel traffic while reducing its footprint overload according to Johnson.

The simple fact is Kohl’s has a common understanding about today’s customers just like Aldi Kohl’s understands that “poor people must save and rich people like to”.  It’s that consumer commonality that has positioned Kohl’s to entice Aldi to lease space in some of its locations. Aldi is a master of success utilizing non-traditional locations and garnering customers from every walk of life into their stores.

Kohl’s Aldi partnership me be the right fuel to drive new electricity into Kohl’s top line sales and bottom line profits according to Johnson.  In the minds-eye of Johnson, there is one dominate element that will power success within retail and foodservice over the coming years and that is partnerships.

Johnson calls it the new electricity that is partnerships specifically strategic partnerships.   The new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh food, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing.

Retailers the ilk of Kohl’s to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable in some form.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

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