Page 9 - Food & Drink Magazine April 2020

given to the store by a supplier. “So, our idea was, what if,
instead of building up points to get things for yourself, you could nominate a local community group to receive a percentage of your spend, donated by Ritchies every time you shopped?”
The idea harked back to 1870, when the founder of Ritchies, Thomas Ritchie, started a charitable Penny for Every Pound program to support his local community.
Community Benefits program to other areas,” says Harrison. “It’s better than running
huge, awkward ads in the papers for things at half price – we could never get better support than clubs and schools asking their communities to shop at Ritchies instead of one of the big chains.”
Ritchies passed the $50 million mark for donations to local organisations in February, with a $5000 donation to the
being updated with an app that allows customers to track their nominated groups for Community Benefits,
as well as receive offers on favourite and new products.
PROMOTING QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
Ritchies stores offer most things households might
need in a weekly shop, but Harrison admits, they tend to be the secondary shop because they can’t compete against the big chains on price or bulk-buy deals. But they do see customers more often during the week.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be the primary shop, but we’ve got to play to our strengths,” he says.
“The trend back to preparing more meals at home is very good for us and our suppliers, and we’re marketing aggressively around having a whole lot of locally-sourced lines that just aren’t available at Aldi, Woolies and Coles.”
“One of the great things I’m seeing with our local suppliers is that everyone is raising the bar. There’s a big demand for food that’s good for you – and premiumquality.” ✷
✷ TOP THREE FRED’S KEYS
TO BUSINESS SUCCESS
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not be a lot more than inflation, they might be two to three per cent, but you have to reach them consistently, to give yourself a chance to be successful.”
LEFT: Ritchies Dromana store won International Retailer of the Year in 2019.
BELOW: Fred Harrison was inducted into the IGA Hall of Fame in 2016. “Independent retailing is in my blood,” he says.
INDUSTRY INSIGHT
Ritchies piloted the new Community Benefit program at one of its worst performing supermarkets, in Hastings, at a cost of $150,000 for new registers and backend IT.
Word soon got out, attracting new customers and motivating regular shoppers to spend more in that one store.
“Sure enough, we saw a noticeable increase in sales for Hastings, so we introduced the
Dromana CFA from its flagship store (Ritchies Dromana won an International Retailer of the Year award in 2019).
Looking back over the data collected during the program reveals interesting insights into the causes Australians care most about.
The top three causes are emergency aid, animals and cancer research.
The loyalty program is
MONITOR WAGE COSTS:
“Independent businesses can
HIT YOUR TOP LINE SALES
TARGETS: “Your profits may
“ It is a sad truth that local businesses often come off second best when they get caught up in price wars started by bigger rivals.”
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MARGIN TO MAKE SALES: “Too many sellers want to sell $1 for 95 cents or at half price. Margin isn’t just your accountant’s problem – it’s imperative to keeping a business open.”
3
be a little slow on wage control. We set wage costs by the week and monitor them daily to make sure we have the right number and balance of staff for each shift, otherwise it can eat so much into your profitability.”
DON’T SACRIFICE TOO
MUCH GROSS PROFIT
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | April 2020 | Food&Drink business | 9