Annual Kantar Ranking of the Top Retail Supply Chains for 2016

Little Change in Top 10, as Walmart Still Dominates, Followed by Kroger, Costco Jan. 18, 2017 SCDigest Editorial Staff What companies have the top retail supply chains across sectors such as grocery, mass merchants, and drug and dollar stores? Well as usual, the analysts at Kantar Retail once again tried to answer that question in late 2016, continuing the annual PoweRankings report that was started many years ago by Cannondale Associates, which Kantar later acquired. This marked the 20th edition of the annual report.  Supply Chain Digest Says... One manufacturer noted that "Kroger has clear metrics, processes and accountability throughout their supply chain." What do you say? Click here to send us your comments Click here to see reader feedback The full study covers a number of company performance measures for both consumer goods manufacturers and retailers, including such areas as brand power, marketing programs, sales teams, overall business fundamentals, and more. Supply chain management is one of the categories included in the survey. The rankings for this year, as always, were developed through the interesting methodology of asking retailers to rate manufacturers on each of these categories, and manufacturers to rank retailers on a similar set of attributes. Most major CPG companies and retailers take part, with about 80 participant companies in each group. Both manufacturers and retailers are from the consumer packaged goods, food and beverage areas. That means manufacturers in such categories as apparel/soft goods, electronics, hard goods, etc., are not included. Similarly, the participating retailers are drawn exclusively from sectors such as mass merchandise, traditional grocery, warehouse clubs, and drug store chains that focus on consumer packaged goods sales, and does not for example include department stores or most specialty retail areas. For the last couple of years, however, Amazon.com has been included in the retail group. The scores represent the percentage of respondents that place a given manufacturer or retailer as having one of the top three supply chains in the industry. Last week,week, looked at the top consumer packaged goods results, which you can find here: Annual Kantar Retail Ranking of the Top Consumer Packaged Goods Supply Chains for 2016 In a recent Supply Chain Graphic of the Week, we also published a chart from the report on What Retailers Do CPG Companies Think are Best to Do Business With? (See More Below) CATEGORY SPONSOR: SOFTEON Learn More about Softeon's Innovative Supply Chain Solutions   As it has for many years, Walmart again topped the list, with a score of 81% putting its supply chain in the retail top 3, though we’ll note that is down from the low 90 percentages Walmart was receiving a few years ago. There was very little change in the rest of the top 10 – top 12 actually, with a three way tie for 10th place. As you see in the graphic below, Walmart was followed by number 2 Kroger, then Costco, Publix, Target, Amazon, Meijer, HEB, and Walgreen’s, with Dollar General CVS and Wegman’s sharing that 10th position. Top Retail Supply Chans 2016 Source: Kantar Retail As usual, the Kantar report included a few comments from manufacturers on specific retailers: "Walmart is collaborative, forward-thinking, and has a total cost lens. Additionally, vendors have visibility to their data, which provides for best in class planning," one manufacturer observed. Other noted that "Kroger has clear metrics, processes and accountability throughout their supply chain." "Costco focuses on fewer, bigger, better. There are rare instances of disappointment. The strategy is clear, and there is adequate but tight inventory," said another manufacturer. Walgreen's made the top 10 this year after being off in 2015. None of last year's top 10 fell off the lis of this year's top 12.