MILLBROOK, P&G SET TO EMBARK ON CATEGORY MANAGEMENT TEST

JOHN KAROLEFSKI

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Millbrook Distribution Services will begin testing category management principles for dental care products next month. It is the first in a series of pilots the distributor will conduct over the next two years in various categories with retailers and brand marketers. Testing will begin in all 14 stores operated by Dierbergs Markets, Chesterfield, Mo. A similar program will follow later in the year chainwide at Star Market Co., Cambridge, Mass., which operates 33 stores. The brand marketer partnering with Millbrook is Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati. Plans for the tests came up during a panel discussion on category management here at the first national convention and expo for Millbrook, based in Leicester, Mass., and Harrison, Ark.

Executives from more than 100 supermarket companies were among the approximately 1,000 attendees. There were nearly 300 exhibits for general merchandise, specialty foods and health and beauty care products. Following the panel discussion, John Massaua, Millbrook's senior vice president for purchasing and merchandising, told Brand Marketing the category tests aim to "analyze what's going on in those stores and decide what [the category] wants to be. There is a great deal of difficulty in deciding what it wants to be. We are viewing the analysis that has to take place as critical to helping a retailer make a decision about how much space to allocate, how to place [products] and go out to market. Typically in the food store business,

it just happens." Massaua described Millbrook's evolving role as "the glue" between manufacturer and retailer.

"We are in the process of structuring the relationship between the manufacturer, ourselves and the retailer," he said. "As the walls of mistrust get broken down and information becomes more readily available, the opportunity we have to add value is we will take more of an unbiased view [of a category] than a manufacturer or even a retailer might take. Collectively, we might be able to come up with a stronger planogram."

Millbrook has recently re-engineered and repositioned itself from a company that focused on service merchandising to one focused on value-added distribution (see related story, Page 2).