Leading Food and Beverage Manufacturer Uses Ivy Direct Store Delivery for APAC Expansion

From mineral water to milk products, beverages to instant foods, and even baby products, a large Swiss consumer goods company with 200+ brands, has been impacting the lives of millions of consumers in 175 countries across the globe for 150+ years. Some of its brands generate 1 Billion USD of annual sales, and the company is one of the trusted names in the consumer goods industry. The Swiss F&B company has always been ahead of the times in equipping its field force with the latest technology. The company has been leveraging our Route-to-Market solution in the APAC region for the last 12 years to support its expansion into this distributor-led region.

Expansion to Asia pacific region

The First World War established the brand’s market presence in the USA, and in the early 2000s, the Swiss brand slowly started expanding to Asia and the surrounding markets. In 2010, the Swiss leader chose Ivy to support their distributor operations in the Indian Market, with expansion to neighboring markets in the pipeline.

In 2010, when we started working with the consumer goods leader, we introduced digitization early on and helped the switch from pen and paper to digital. The Indian market was primitive and focused more on rural trade, van sales, and pre-sales. The model was new for the company, and we helped them ease their way into seamless order-taking and improved sales month on month. Having built a sales strategy based on data as a single source of truth, the company relied on sales performance, field force productivity, and channel-wise data from our solution to chart out the course of action for their sales force.

Polishing Operations as per the Market

With Ivy, the Swiss conglomerate was able to identify and apply unique customizations that were market-centric and allowed easy functioning within the governmental norms. We also allowed seamless integration to their Distribution Management System (DMS) via custom APIs to transfer order details from our DSD solution for achieving a single source of data.

With a consolidated view of various sales channels on our solution and a single customer view, the field force operates smartly and has more data-driven conversations with retailers. Our team also created automated workflows and approvals to save time and drive sales team productivity. Within a year of implementing our solution, the sales force recorded almost twice the number of visits.

Over the years, the relationship grew strong, and in the year 2016, we helped the Swiss company establish pre-sales for the rural market in India. The sales network of the company covers more than 50,000 villages in India, and the numbers are growing year on year. The rural market continues to trend upwards, and the company now has infrastructure and operations to cater to rural consumers. In 2017, we added van sales capability to support van-sales operations under their rural trade initiative.

Expansion backed by a Strong Data Foundation

With all the field activities available in one place, the leadership team had a consolidated view of sales operations, monitored sales performance in real-time, and could make data-driven strategic decisions. Over the years, the data from various channels in India allowed the company to identify fast-selling SKUs and terminate SKUs that didn’t fly off the shelves. Success in one market allowed the company to experiment with other markets, and in the year 2016, the company started operations in Sri Lanka with the Ivy Direct Store Delivery solution. A few years later, we also supported the company’s expansion to Hong Kong in 2020.

Last year in 2021, we started Ivy Marketplace for the company in India to enable retailers to place orders for the company’s products directly and eliminate the need for sellers to collect orders.

After implementing our solution, the Swiss consumer brand understood the importance of data being the single source of truth from a single source. It provided them the ability to make informed decisions based on the data specifics while analyzing and forecasting future sales requirements. Access to data shifted power back to their teams, who now provided products based on market demands.

Integrations have become seamless for this corporation as they have custom-designed APIs to connect different systems. Real-time data transfer ensures that all integrated systems access real-time stocks, inventory, and order details essential for smooth operations.

In the last two years, the total number of orders placed increased by 44%, and the company’s sales volume has increased by 11%.

Collaboration Highlights

Solution: Ivy Direct Store Delivery/ Sales Force Automation

Field Users: 5000+ users across 4 Markets in the APAC region

Daily Order Count: 60,000+

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