26 |^ Progressive Grocer^ |^ Ahead of What’s Next^ |^ July 2019
Cover Story
FARMER ENGAGEMENT Farmers are an integral
part of LOTS’ business and it prioritizes purchasing
directly from farmers to provide transparency.
Taking another step towards farmer’s development,
LOTS has collaborated with the Ministry of Food
Processing Industries (MOFPI) and conducted a
workshop with over 1,500 farmers in Bhatinda. Th e
workshop provided a platform to farmers to interact
with industry leaders and gave them insights on
procurement models and practices for backward
integration. Also, in line with the government’s
eff orts to increase the farmer’s income, LOTS is
making them its business partners with each store
that it opens. Staying true to its commitment, it
has also opened up its fi rst collection center and is
aiming to open more in the coming future. Th ese
centers will make it convenient for farmers to not
only drop their products but also seek education
about better production practices.SMES CONNECT One of the key pillars of Makro
Capabilities Engine for sustainable mutual growth
is local love, which empowers LOTS to source a
large majority of assortments locally and help its
partners grow their own businesses. Following
its philosophy of shared growth, LOTS is closely
working with SMEs and other manufacturing
companies, promoting entrepreneurship, and
encouraging the youth to secure opportunities in
the Indian retail industry. Th e company currently
engages with more than 400 SME suppliers who
provide it a range of their products.DISTRIBUTION To ensure that it stays ahead in
providing a seamless shopping experience, LOTS
has been implementing various steps and measures- right from tech-enabling its workforce to
digitising the back-end solutions at its stores. It has
put in place a fi rst of its kind business development
application, which enables it to reach out to a wider
audience in India and allows it to personalize its
distribution strategy. To serve its customers better,
it is also digitising its distribution networks and
using geo-tagging to ensure quick and on-time
delivery of products. Its warehouse is managed with
a customized WMS to cater to the specifi c need
of the cash-and-carry business, which is integrated
with its Master Data, Procurement and Inventory
Management systems. Th ese systems are set-up to
automatically allocate stock basis customer demand
at stores and trigger physical shipment of goods.INVENTORY MANAGEMENT LOTS is using its
marketing analytics tools along with its business
development application to simplify the process of
inventory management. Th is approach enables it
to stock products and maintain a larger inventory
for providing a vast assortment of products as
per customer’s need. Th e retailer aims to be less
dependent on third parties and focus on buying
in bulk directly from the manufacturers, thus
providing more transparency and cost benefi ts to
its customers.INVENTORY TURNOVER Owing to its expertise
in the food segment, LOTS’ focus is on continuing
to deliver freshness to its customers across segments.
It will continue to keep enhancing the supply chain
and focusing on optimizing costs.DELIVERY LOTS’ delivery service consists of
an unloading facility at the shop, free packaging
support, easy returns and a call centre with a
stringent turnaround time for complaint redressal.
Being a responsible member of the corporate
community, LOTS has implemented sustainable
solutions with CNG trucks for transportation and
is looking to introduce electric trucks as well.PROCUREMENT Catering to the highly
competitive consumer-focused environment,
LOTS’ eff orts are concentrated on providing the
right products for meeting its diff erent customers’
demands. It has adopted advance procurement
strategies and technologies that go far beyond the
traditional focus on just cost savings eff orts and
thus have become the fi rst B2B retailer to open a
warehouse to ensure product availability 24×7. In
India, LOTS’ approach is to replicate its global
collection centre model by opening collection
centres at multiple locations. For procurement
and replenishment, it also has in-house systems,
which automatically create purchase orders based
on set parameters managed by its supply chain.
Additionally, LOTS’ suppliers are connected through
a portal (LOTS S2P) to provide real-time visibility
into purchase orders and shipment of goods. PGKeeping
innovation at
the core, LOTS
is constantly
implementing
technology
to serve the
changing needs
of customers
to deliver
best price
and quality
with a focus
on inventory
management.