Client Situation
Our client is a recognized grocery leader in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with a retail business model. The client has ambitious expansion plans across the UAE, with 30+ existing retail stores and 13 new stores. Thus, the client approached Cedar to review its current business model, develop a way forward growth strategy and create a robust execution plan.
Cedar’s Approach
To materialize this vision, Cedar employed an engagement framework that involved an in-depth External and Internal assessment, followed by way-forward recommendations for different business areas. This included:
- Market and Competitive Assessment – Thorough external assessment to understand the grocery retail market in UAE, competitive landscape, industry trends and emerging retail channels, identification of local and international benchmarks
- Internal Assessment – Detailed review of the existing business and internal capabilities through financial and operating data assessment, and primary meetings with key internal stakeholders
- Way-Forward Recommendations – Holistic Strategy map development with recommendations across Financial, Customer, Process and Organization objectives:
- Financial - In-depth financial analysis and category profitability
- Customer and Products - Channel growth, sales split, private label segmentation, loyalty reach and gap identification
- Process - Procurement and distribution cycle of grocery retail, location analysis and benchmarking with industry best practices
- Organisation and Technology - Analysis of organisation structure and technology benchmarking with best market practices
Outcome
The program resulted in a detailed Way Forward strategy and group-wide recommendations for the organization with Cedar:
- Identifying the correct orientation of different business verticals and proposing 12 group-wide initiatives, 9 quick-wins that are achievable within 20-24 weeks’ timeframe
- Designing a strategy map with all the recommendations aligned to the group’s objectives, with identification of key initiatives and measures.
- Offering Strategic guidance to business units - Private Label, Loyalty, and Retail business
- Recommending the following way forward strategies across companywide objectives
- Financial – Completed Income analysis across different product categories to derive a profitable category mix; recommendation of a 3-year financial model
- Customer and Products - Proposed recommendations for brand positioning (Grocery and Organic Retail), channel recommendations, category-Mix, marketing and promotions initiatives
- Process - Charted an ideal and cost-efficient distribution cycle
- Organization - Proposed a redefined organization structure with clearly outlined shared functions, with emphasis on independent business verticals