TEMPLE, Texas -- Two new facilities have McLane Co. Inc. moving toward an expansion of its distribution capabilities and product innovation. As McLane prepares to open a new distribution center in Findlay, Ohio, early next year, the convenience-store distributor has launched the McLane Center for Category Innovation (CCI).
Distribution Center
McLane broke ground on the 337,831-square-foot distribution facility in Ohio in the summer of 2014, investing $119 million and committing to create hundreds of jobs. It expects to open it in January 2017.
Hundreds of job seekers attended McLane hiring events, according to a report by The Courier.
The facility will employee 200 to 250 people when it opens, ramping up to 425 by December 2017, said the report. Its biggest need is for 165 truck drivers.
Ruben Santana, director of teammate relations for McLane, told the newspaper that job seekers are coming from as far away as Toledo and Lima, Ohio; Indianapolis; and Detroit.
McLane’s distribution center will provide groceries, foodservice and beverages to convenience stores and drug stores, chain restaurants and other merchants in Michigan; in Ohio as far south as Interstate 70; in the eastern side of Indiana; and in the western side of Pennsylvania, the report said.
Center for Category Innovation
Meanwhile, McLane has rebranded the service formerly known as the Lab Store as the Center for Category Innovation to reflect not only the facility’s physical presence as a hands-on retail store where customers can explore innovative new products, but to recognize the service’s in-depth data analytics, industry-leading category development expertise, dedicated manufacturer expertise and unbiased guidance focused on helping customers design a product mix and planograms to achieve overall category excellence and increase profits, the company said.
“McLane’s Center for Category Innovation sessions allow category-leading manufacturers, McLane and the retailer to collaborate and create a geographically relevant assortment that meets the needs of the consumer,” said Alan Tobin, senior manager for category strategy and insights for The Hershey Co. “By utilizing a combination of shopper insights, industry trends and market and retailer data, the very best planogram is built.”
CCI senior category development analyst Jennifer Hutto said having the right participants in the room serves as a check and balance between multiple data sources. Also, the collective breadth of industry experience is one of the reasons why the CCI has been so successful in helping customers increase sales.
“We discuss overall performance of the categories, contributing factors that are affecting success, where the category is headed and how we hope to help drive future success with our customers,” she said.
Through CCI, Tom Thumb Food Stores, which was in the midst of a major rebranding effort and renovating its stores with new products and flavor profiles to improve profitability, collaborated with McLane’s category managers, supplier partners, IRI and exclusive analytical resources from McLane’s extensive data warehouse, and was able to customize planograms tailored specifically to each store’s zip code. That offered the chain’s executives in-depth knowledge of what would sell to their unique consumer demographics. As result, total purchases have increased over a three-year period with double-digit sales growth in snacks, grocery and HBW categories. Tom Thumb Food Stores now visits CCI on an annual basis.
“Another key advantage of working with McLane and the CCI is the depth of information resources. With one of the industry’s most robust data warehouses, the CCI utilizes an aggregated class of trade-specific data and compares these findings with multiple syndicated data sources so that customers can make data-driven decisions on product assortment,” said Hutto.
Temple, Texas-based McLane is one of the largest distributors in the United States, providing grocery and foodservice supply chain solutions and services for convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores and chain restaurants. McLane, through McLane Grocery, McLane Foodservice and wholly owned subsidiary Meadowbrook Meat Co. Inc. (MBM) operate 80 distribution centers across the United States and has one of the nation’s largest private fleets. The company buys, sells and delivers more than 50,000 consumer products to nearly 90,000 locations nationwide. It provides alcohol-beverage distribution through its wholly owned subsidiary Empire Distributors Inc. McLane is a wholly owned unit of Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
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