Small Vendors Can Gain From Shared Data, Says Food Lion

While Food Lion here has described the mutual benefits of sharing store-level data with large manufacturers like Kraft Foods and PepsiCo, smaller suppliers can also benefit from leveraging this data, said Elliot Dickson, Food Lion’s director of supply chain.

SALISBURY, N.C. — While Food Lion here has described the mutual benefits of sharing store-level data with large manufacturers like Kraft Foods and PepsiCo, smaller suppliers can also benefit from leveraging this data, said Elliot Dickson, Food Lion’s director of supply chain.

Dickson participated yesterday in a webinar, “Food Lion and Kraft Foods on the Power of Data-Sharing,” hosted by SN and sponsored by Kraft Foods.

“Smaller vendors have less data to go through, which makes it easier for them to drill down into the data,” said Dickson. Ultimately, it’s not the size of the vendor that matters but the “amount of time they invest in leveraging the data,” he added.

To date, more than 100 vendors are participating in Food Lion’s data-sharing program, called Vendor Pulse. Data elements shared by Food Lion include sales, margin, reclaim, shrink, inventory, service and delivery.