At their virtual tradeshow back in November 2020, Scotland’s largest independent retailing and distribution company, CJ Lang and Son Limited (SPAR Scotland) announced they had appointed data and digital specialist, TWC to partner in the development of a new sales data reporting service that would be available to suppliers and stakeholders.

SPAR Scotland Sales Track has new launched and gives CJ Lang’s suppliers access to the company’s wholesale shipment data and company owned retail sales data, in what is believed to be an industry first. The portal that has been developed provides suppliers with a very clear read as to what is happening in the Scottish market.

Since launching SPAR Scotland SalesTrack, a number of key suppliers are now using the portal including Hovis, PepsiCo, Nestle’ Confectionery, St. Pierre and Coca Cola to name but a few. Regional suppliers are also using the service such as Tunnocks.

Graham Harkness, Account Manager at Thomas Tunnock Ltd said: “We are excited about gaining access CJ Lang’s company owned stores retail data.  The information we hope to derive from this will help us understand how our brands are performing in the category across a broad breadth of stores and enable us to formulate more specific plans and actions that are based on real insight rather than speculation.”

Kate Taylor, National Account Manager at Coca Cola adds: ““CCEP have signed up to the new SPAR Scotland SalesTrack system as we believe data is key in making decisions to mutually grow our businesses, through understanding how the retailers are working and how the consumer is shopping.  As we try different instore solutions its vital that we can understand the impact of such investments. SalesTrack allows us to analyze basket spend, understand rate of sale impact and how we are performing against competitors, against our own brands and within off shelf features such as Gondola Ends, FSDU’s and meal deals.

We are very excited to be able to get a category view as well as a CCEP view of performance and how use of such data will shape and focus the way we work going forward.”

With its impressive distribution centre in Dundee housing ambient, chilled and frozen goods, CJ Lang and Son Limited provides an essential service to over 330 SPAR stores across Scotland.  The group combines product sourcing, warehousing and distribution with vital support services such as marketing, store refit project management, business development and training.

Colin McLean, CEO of CJ Lang and Son Limited said: “Harnessing data in a way that gives all our partner suppliers visibility and knowledge of what is happening across wholesale shipments and at a retail point of sale will enable us all to work closer together.

“Importantly, we wanted to create a system that is easy to navigate and interpret and TWC impressed us with their ability to apply tech in a way that is manageable, understandable and surprisingly addictive.

“We believe Sales Track will deliver a range of benefits that include sales growth, more customers, greater loyalty and customer retention.”

Tanya Pepin, TWC added: “The TWC team is delighted to be working with CJ Lang on the SPAR Scotland Sales Hub.  We see this as the first step in a long term strategic data partnership, where insight from sales data drives growth for SPAR Scotland and its suppliers.  I can honestly say that the CJ Lang team have made the launch process so easy – their IT team and their Traders have completely embraced the TWC technology and, as a result, the launch schedule has been met and supplier feedback has been fantastic, which means the onboarding process has been extremely rapid.”

Suppliers interested in learning more about the SPAR Scotland SalesTrack data reporting service can do so easily by discussing with their existing Trading contact or by emailing gill.scott@cjlang.co.uk

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