Discount Retail Expertise

Executive Partners; '40+ years of international discount chain experience.'

Our clients are often faced with either the threat of, ..... or reality of highly professional multi-national discount chains moving in or on their markets. For this reason, they are looking for professional support to deal with such new market developments or alternatively, some of our clients feel the need to develop a stronger market position, or may have the high ambition to lead the discount segment in which they operate.

We also see that investors and manufacturers are looking for direction and support to realize their discount ambitions of getting access to this very attractive market segment. For this reason, our clients are looking for additional support from an experienced discount retail consultant to achieve that.

Discount Retail Consulting GmbH has the ultimate expertise to help with the above-mentioned professional support. This expertise forces DRC to focus on services exclusively for discount chain retail, providing expert strategic business and process advice, training, ICT, FMCG manu-facturers' route-to-market, management and interim management support at board level to:

Investors;
Discount chains;
Retail chains; and
(FMCG) manufacturers.

DRC's consulting concept is straight-forward and dedicated to discount businesses. This distinguishes us from other retail consulting companies, that advise on a generally broad range of retail businesses. In our professional field of discount, we have enough leverage and a pool of discount experts to deliver usable and quick solutions and we are small enough to care.

We are not a theory-based consultancy model; we apply a “been-there, done-it-before’’ model which is pragmatic and tailored to the market. Whether your business should be developed from scratch, should be nurtured, should be turned around, ..... or should be adjusted when the current business is wrestling with the market, DRC can help and contribute with our best practice experience and sector reference models.

We analyze, we bring on the potential practical solutions, and we follow-up the plans with a genuine involvement partnership during the whole pre-implementation and implementation stages, and whenever the client requires, during the control audit stage as well.

Investors

DRC is able to provide a market entry concept with a profound strategic and financial business plan based on local market research and reference models. The potential business plan encompasses at first a discount retail format, and consequently makes recommendations on management & organisation, procurement & supply chain management, assortment building & product range, category management & price strategy, branding & concept development, store locations strategy & criteria, planograms & merchandising, performance & KPI management, cost control management and many more strategies and policies.

With our deep knowledge of the potential costs and efforts needed, we can help to launch a new discount business. As a result, our services can be used by investors as support for initial fund raising for an early-stage start-up venture.

In case of long-term projects (12 - 36 months), DRC is able to support or even lead a detailed implementation of the initiated plans for developing a brand new discount retail chain. We can guide and accompany the investor up to the first wave of store openings ..... and beyond.

Discount chains

The Partners of DRC and its Associates have a wide scaled experience in the discount field from hard-discount food and variety formats to value-for-money concepts, and their way of working. Based on this almost lifelong experience, DRC can help discount chains with developing, adjusting or even turning around their discount format; strategically and operationally.

We can contribute significantly to rescuing less successful discount chains by refocusing their efforts in the right strategic direction and by focusing or refocus-ing on a clear business vision, on customer-needs, DNA, lean business processes and on cost control.

Retail chains

Many retail organizations around the world struggle with the strategic question; "will we miss the boat if we don't set-up a discount channel next to our current retail channel format, or do we need to remain focused on our existing market approach?" DRC might be part of such a strategic decision, but we can certainly help and contribute when the decision has been made to develop a discount chain concept next to the clients' existing business.

DRC is able to provide retail organisations, a discount chain concept with a profound strategic and financial business plan. In addition, we can also ad-vise, contribute and develop different parts of the discount chain business.

(FMCG) Manufacturers

Introducing private label product ideas to a discount chain usually starts with reminding them about their basic business concept: "who is the customer, why does the customer choose this particular channel and what are the customer's needs?" Accordingly, offering the "best-product-match" to the discounter is key. This can be done by utilizing regular and thorough analysis tools. These tools should examine the role every product play as a part of the limited discount chain assortment.

Each FMCG manufacturer should be aware that modern discounters also use the tool of Category Management. Discount chains apply for instance a strict 'cutting-the-tail' principle and the 'one-in is one-out' rule. Also, discount chains are extremely interested in the process of supply chain management and in the efficiency of handling the products from a logistic and merchandise point of view.

DRC is able to show larger FMCG manufacturers, together with our Cooperation Partners and Associates, the path of private label and contract manufacturering in food, and / or in & out non-food products to discount chains.