SUPPLIER SUMMIT TO NBG AND BEYOND
In 2018, Nick Oates stood up in Liverpool, and launched the NBG message Building Strong Brands to the Supplier Summit. On the organisation’s return to the city, the NBG Managing Director looked forward to the continuing development of the group.
A
n awful lot has happened since the launch of our Building Strong Brands ethos, NBG Managing Director Nick Oates told the assembled Suppliers and Partner delegates. The idea of building strong brands wasn’t just a strapline for the Conferences, Oates explained. It runs through the heart of everything that NBG stands for. “As merchants, our job is to get the Suppliers’ products to market. To cement that two-way partnership, we need to build strong brands. At NBG we don’t have an own label; we want to avoid confusion, and to be known as brand supporters. And we ask that you support us in return.”
However, Oates acknowledged that times are not that easy. “It is tough out there. This has been the worst year for business failures since 2009. We have already seen some closures within our sector, and others could be vulnerable. Many of you will have seen reduced margins and sales. There have been branch closures, and even factory closures.” He added that, unfortunately, 2024 is unlikely to get a lot better. “When things are tough, that’s when partnerships really come into their own,” Oates said. “This begs the question; do we have the right dialogue between NBG Partners and Suppliers? I really hope that we are not taking each other for granted. It’s a two-way relationship and it should be open and honest.”
To check this, Oates asked the delegates at the Supplier Summit to use their Conference App to fill out a short survey on how good Suppliers and Partners believe the sales support they are giving and receiving is. This covers areas such as visits to branches, planned appointments, agreeing sales plans, providing staff training and promoting new products. In short, helping merchants to win more business.
Oates said: “We’re doing this so that we can get a real sense check on where we are today, where we can improve, but also, it’s important to recognise where we are doing well. We want to help Suppliers help us and vice versa.”
The results, which were displayed on the big screen in real-time, showed that Suppliers believed they were sitting at 8.1 in their supplying service to merchants. However, from the Partner side, they put the Suppliers at 6.8. “That’s up from 5 last time and 4 the time before that, so things are moving in the right direction.
“Looking at sales support, the Suppliers put themselves at 7.7, and merchants put them at 5.9, still not too bad but there is a gap still and we need to look at understanding that gap.”
In terms of accessibility, it flips round to 6.5 for Suppliers 7.5 for merchants, which Oates pointed out means that merchants think they are more open to Suppliers than the Suppliers themselves believe. This year’s Conference had a new theme, that of Strengthening Our Sales. Oates said: “The market has definitely changed, unfortunately for
12 THIS IS YOUR LIFE SO FAR... January 2024
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