CATEGORY MANAGEMENT GETS TEETH AT WINN-DIXIE

RAMONA G. FLOOD

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Winn-Dixie Stores here plans to initiate a category management program in its oral care departments in all 12 divisions, according to an anonymous industry source, who is working closely with the chain.

Winn-Dixie has undertaken a year-long category management assessment of its health and beauty care categories, the source said. The program began about three months ago with the shampoo and conditioner category. Cosmetics is now under way, and oral care should begin sometime in late July.

"I believe they've had tremendous results with the shampoo and conditioner category," the executive added.

Bill Scaife, category buyer for shampoos and conditioners for Winn-Dixie, confirmed that Winn-Dixie had participated in a successful category management program in conjunction with Procter & Gamble. Scaife declined to comment further other than to say that the program had done very well for Winn-Dixie.

G.E. (Mickey) Clerc Jr., vice president and director of public relations for the chain, confirmed that Winn-Dixie will implement category management in oral care and has done so in other categories as well.

"We do practice category management within the company," Clerc stated. "We have it in all areas. Of course, category management is designed to improve the performance of an entire category, of the overall category for the benefit of the company."

Clerc explained that Winn-Dixie's approach to category management is information-driven, based upon category objectives

and an action plan. "It includes information on everything. As much information as you can get to achieve your objectives," he said.

The executive added that "Winn-Dixie is very serious about category management and stockkeeping unit efficiency in general."

The new oral care category management program, which is just in the planning stages and being coordinated through a food brokerage firm, will use a combination of demographic software and category management packages, he said.

Demographics are playing an important part in Winn-Dixie's overall HBC category process, the source added. "In the near future, retailers like Winn-Dixie will design planograms based on demographics of individual local markets. Certain brands are tailored to the high-income college educated consumer. Then there are products that are targeted to middle-income or low-income consumers," he explained.

"Instead of making buying decisions just based on profit, or on movement, demographics will now be an important part of the mix," the source commented.

He expected that total stockkeeping units within the oral care departments would be reduced. "After the program is fully executed, it will probably result in the paring down of SKUs," he stated.

Michael Shinall, a consultant to the supermarket industry with Meridian Consulting, Westport, Conn., said, "Retailers like Winn-Dixie should take a careful look at how they implement category management. And they should make sure their category managers have the right tools: internal support of information systems [technology], the right partnership with manufacturers and/or brokers and have well-defined objectives and expectations."

Typically, category management deals with replenishment systems, he said. But true category management, according to Shinall, "must transcend replenishment and must also incorporate pricing, shelving, product assortment and promotion. I am of the opinion that category management is more critical in HBC than in other areas."

Joseph Ronning, an equity analyst with Brown Bros. Harriman, New York, who tracks the trends in major supermarket chains, sees category management as a strong and growing trend in many chains.