Meat + Poultry - May 2006 - 26

Merchandising

he was evaluating a display in one of
the test stores. "This woman walks up,
grabs a bagged salad, some chicken,
dressing and other products from the
display," he says. "Then she looked

in her cart and must have realized
she needed more lettuce, because she
grabbed a second bag of salad. When
she started walking away she looked
at me and said, 'You got it right.'"

George K. Baum Advisors
INVESTMENT

BANKERS

SINCE

1928

EXPERT MERGER ADVISORY SERVICES
for the protein and food processing industry

gkb
a portfolio company of

Premium Standard Farms

has been acquired by
W Y N N ( ] I [ I J I I ( ] IT

has sold a majority
ownership interest to

CAP IT A I

and

Animal Nutrition Division

has acquired

has been acquired by

Farmland Foods, Inc.

CTB

INC.
CTB International Corp.

Freezer Queen Foods, Inc.
has been acquired by

has been acquired by

Home Market
Foods, Inc.

816.474.1100 | Contact: Jonathan Baum or Philip Meyer

www.gkbaum.com
George K. Baum Advisors client listed ﬁrst
For more information, see Page 93
28

MEAT&POULTRY

May 2006

www.MEATPOULTRY.com

In the past, long-term cross-merchandising programs between supermarket
departments were difficult to accomplish because of turf battles. Smits says
it was easy to get beyond those traditional barriers, because the salad program has worked so well. "The success
of the program speaks for itself," he
says. "When my team saw how well it
worked, improved sales and how much
sense it makes to our customers, there
was no resistance."
Logistically, Tyson Foods has no
responsibility for the display. "The
retailer has to coordinate execution,"
says Belsito. "Not only do they have
to have coordination among store departments, there are also some issues
regarding execution - someone has
to make sure product gets restocked in
the cooler."
"In each store someone is assigned to
make sure the case stays stocked," says
Smits. "All of the products can go in the
refrigerated produce case. The chicken
is cooked and post-pasteurized, and the
cheese can go in the case too."
Both Belsito and Smits are looking beyond their cross-merchandising
arrangement at other programs they
can initiate. Tyson Foods is talking to
other retailers about the concept, and
Belsito says they have also begun developing cross-promotional programs
with bagged salad companies. "We are
doing ads, developing signage and doing consumer promotion," he says. "It
takes some additional coordination, but
it is an idea that grows a business."
From his perspective, Smits is looking for other ways to cross-merchandise and get the same results. "We
have a couple of things in the works,"
he says. "We're not going to move the
pegboard into the deli department, but
we are looking at ideas that make sense
for our customers. Anything we can do
to simplify their shopping experience
will benefit us."
We would like to hear from you- your comments
and questions about this article are welcome.
E-mail the author at: knunes@sosland.com

http://www.gkbaum.com http://www.MEATPOULTRY.com

Meat + Poultry - May 2006

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