Local food retailers to gain market-leading insight into shopper demand thanks to new partnership
By: Communications
(Photo credit: Getty Images)
The University of East Anglia (UEA) has begun a new partnership with grocery retail analytics company Atheon Analytics, in a move that will offer small food and drink producers a market-leading insight into the demands of shoppers.
The partnership will see Atheon team up with the Who Buys My Food initiative, run by Prof Andrew Fearne, Professor of Value Chain Management at UEA. Now in its 19th year, Who Buys My Food has worked with companies such as Tesco and dunnhumby to benefit over 700 small food producers who struggle to understand shopper behaviour.
Atheon has over 15 years’ experience helping people at UK grocery suppliers to gain insight and develop their understanding of trading performance, helping them to make complex decisions with confidence. Atheon’s flagship SaaS, SKUtrak, uses best-in-class visualisation to guide grocery suppliers in analysing how their products move through their retail customers’ supply chains.
The partnership between WBMF and Atheon will offer affiliated suppliers a more detailed understanding of product performance across the supply chain than ever, to give grocery suppliers greater confidence in their decision making and the actions they take, to improve availability, reduce wastage and better meet customer demand, and help grow their businesses.
Prof Andrew Fearne said: “Our partnership with Atheon Analytics will enable us to increase the impact of the project by incorporating a diversity of data sources and extending its reach to a larger pool of small food and drink producers, enabling more effective (evidence-based) decision-making and greater connectivity and co-ordination along the supply chain.”
Guy Cuthbert, CEO at Atheon Analytics comments: “We have worked informally with UEA for a number of years and I’m excited that, through this new partnership, we will be able to provide more advice, assistance and resources to Andrew and the Who Buys My Food team.
“Their focus - helping small food producers to use modern analysis and insight techniques - is critical to improving UK food supply. With our deep experience in grocery supply chain analytics, our modern cloud-based data platform and our renowned analytics technology, we believe we can extend the Who Buys My Food service in scope and market reach.”
Snack brand Love Corn, soft drink company Nic & Kix, and family business Trewithen Dairy are just three of over 700 businesses that Who Buys My Food has supported.
Jamie McCloskey, Co-Founder of Love Corn, said: “As a start-up we were starved of market data and it often felt like we were driving blind. Who Buys My Food helped us understand the value of shopper insight and grow our business by targeting our marketing resources more effectively. With Atheon on board I am sure the learning curve will get steeper and we will become better at anticipating and responding to changes in consumer demand.”
Julia Brooks, National Account & Category Insights Manager at Nix & Kix, said: “We need to understand how demand is changing and adapt our business accordingly. Our involvement with the Who Buys My Food project has made a huge impact on our ability to make more informed marketing decisions. We are excited by the collaboration with Atheon and the prospect of extending our knowledge of buyer behaviour in more of the markets we serve.”
Craig Nicholls, National Accounts Controller at Trewithen Dairy, said: “Who Buys My Food has become such a valuable resource enabling us to punch above our weight as a small supplier. In this highly dynamic and fast-moving market, it is essential to have the data and insights you are providing, as we can’t effectively plan and manage what we don’t know. The partnership with Atheon Analytics will make a great project even greater – giving us more insights and greater confidence in our marketing decision-making.”
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