The Spar Group has appointed seasoned retail marketer John Bradshaw as its chief marketing officer. Bradshaw has 20 years’ retail experience, more than 10 of which were at Pick n Pay.
The creation of this role was highlighted by new CEO Reeza Isaacs as an important step “to reinforce delivery”.
Until now, the group only had marketing directors at each of its seven regions, but there was no central decision-maker for marketing.
Chair Mike Bosman admitted at the group’s AGM this year that “advertising in The Spar Group is a relatively complex space because each DC [distribution centre] has [an] advertising and marketing budget and [the] central office and the group have marketing budgets and the [Spar] Guild itself has a massive marketing budget and these are all controlled independently”.
Leadership background
Prior to joining the group, Bradshaw was at Pepkor.
At Pick n Pay, he was marketing director from 2017 to 2021 and then moved to head of omnichannel until May 2022. He was instrumental in driving the growth of its Smart Shopper loyalty programme.
He was appointed under Richard Brasher, who served as CEO of Pick n Pay between 2013 and 2021.
The problem faced by Spar has been two-fold: getting its message to shoppers to get them into stores, and ensuring that the group’s customers – its actual retailers – are happy and buying the vast majority of their stock from the group.
Isaacs admits this, saying: “We know where we need to be better, and we’re acting on it. That starts with the everyday experience of our retailers.”
“In a tough trading environment, where store owners are navigating cost pressures and changing customer behaviour, our success depends on how well we back them – from how well their stores are stocked, to how reliably deliveries arrive, to how we support them in running a competitive, sustainable business at a local level.
“We are focused on making sure the right support shows up in practical ways, from distribution to pricing to in-store execution.”
Spar appoints new operational leadership
An arguably far more important appointment by the group, as it continues its journey to restore margins, is the appointment (from within) of Jerome Jacobs as MD: grocery and liquor in its Southern African business.
This was a notable gap that the group identified when it appointed Isaacs to the CEO role from CFO.
While it is true that Isaacs has two decades of experience in the retail industry, this has been in finance roles (prior to Spar, he was finance director of Woolworths Holdings).
It is obviously useful to have a CFO with this kind of experience, but Isaacs may well admit that he is not a ‘die-hard’ retailer at heart, nor has he actually run a store in his career.
Position focused on building retailer loyalty
This new role, an MD that actually runs the core business of the group, is going to be instrumental in building retailer loyalty (Spar relies on its Guild members to buy as much stock as possible from its wholesale operation).
It has battled with this in KwaZulu-Natal, in particular, following the botched implementation of the SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system a few years ago.
Recently departed CEO Angelo Swartz said he had spent a lot of time engaging directly with retailers. Jacobs will now fill that gap.
Importantly, he has been with the group for more than 30 years, most recently as MD of its North Rand (Pretoria/Limpopo) division. He has also served on the Spar Guild, which the group says gives “him a strong understanding of the realities retailers face every day”.
The group says “Jacobs’s focus will be on driving greater efficiency and consistency across the supply chain, with a particular emphasis on improving distribution centre performance, sharpening pricing alignment and strengthening the link between DC operations and in-store execution”.
“A key priority will be ensuring that pricing and availability are more consistent and competitive, helping retailers strengthen customer trust, build loyalty and encourage repeat shopping behaviour.”
Its internal communication is rather more direct.
Key problem faced by retailer
Jacobs will drive growth across Southern Africa through “profit and loss ownership, strong retailer partnerships, and execution excellence, while transforming logistics, merchandising and retail operations to grow market share and oversee tops!, Encore [private label] and related subsidiaries”.
It adds: “For retailers, this translates into a more cohesive and responsive operating environment, where supply, pricing and promotions work in greater sync.
“The aim is to reduce friction in the system and deliver a more consistent and predictable platform that better supports retailers in building sustainable, profitable businesses.”
This has been a key problem that Spar has faced, given how its operations are structured.
It’s one thing for a marketing team of, effectively a wholesaler, to promote a product on special, on the back of a deal with a supplier, but it’s quite another to ensure that its retailers have that on shelves.
Loyalty and brand engagement
Similarly, Bradshaw’s mandate includes ensuring Spar retailers “have all the insights and tools needed to continue to attract today’s shopper”.
“Central to this is a clear understanding of the specific shopping missions that bring customers into store and equipping retailers with support to meet those needs more effectively, every time – while also keeping SPAR’s 18 million weekly customers coming back.”
In the same internal communication, Spar says Bradshaw “owns brand, loyalty, media and reputational management strategies, with responsibility for loyalty, value-added services, retail media, and oversight of stakeholder communications”.
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.
