SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Convenience-store retailer Parker’s is pushing to double in size within the next five years, with plans to grow from a $500 million company to a $1 billion company. It has experienced 53% growth over the past three years, it said. To that end, it has renewed a multiyear agreement with grocery and foodservice supply-chain company McLane Co. Inc.
Central to that growth has been the retailer’s use of McLane’s suite of merchandising and technology services, which has boosted profits while cutting operational costs.
Savannah, Ga.-based Parker’s operates 43 convenience stores across the region and employs nearly 500 individuals throughout Georgia and South Carolina.
“Relationships with our vendor partners are key to the success of our company. McLane continues to go above and beyond to make sure we are able to serve our customer’s needs,” said Brandon Hofmann, chief marketing officer at Parker’s.
Last year, Parker’s said it saved approximately 10% on cost of goods ordered with McLane’s Virtual Trade Show, an online trade show that enables McLane’s retail customers to view and book hundreds of quarterly product specials on top of any rebates they are receiving directly from their vendors. Parker’s also takes advantage of McLane's Strategic Merchandising Portal, a complimentary Web-based gateway to the latest promotions, programs, products, services, resources and plan-o-grams that helps the company streamline operations, optimize product mix and increase profits.
Parker’s said it has reduced operational costs with McLane’s Premium Ordering Management Suite (POMS), which includes the Customer Managed Inventory (CMI) solution and Smart Hand Held (SHH) Inventory Management System bar code scanner. Driven by real-time register sales, CMI ensures retailers only order replacement products as they are sold, eliminating the need for store managers to manually place orders. The SHH scanner greatly reduces the time needed to take accurate inventory and integrates directly into Parker’s time-saving POMS applications, including the Store-Level Receiving, Store-Level Reclamation and Physical Inventory apps.
Recently the company opened its first convenience store with drive-thru foodservice in Claxton, Ga., where customers can purchase everything available in the store without leaving their car—including items from the store’s hot deli that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“Parker’s is revolutionizing the convenience-store industry with cutting-edge approaches focused on saving time, increasing profitability and allowing its managers to spend more time with customers,” said Patrick NeSmith, area sales manager at McLane.
Temple, Texas-based McLane is a $46 billion supply-chain services leader, providing grocery and foodservice supply-chain solutions for convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores and chain restaurants throughout the United States. McLane, through McLane Grocery, McLane Foodservice and wholly owned subsidiary, Meadowbrook Meat Co. Inc. (MBM), operates 80 distribution centers across the United States and one of the nation’s largest private fleets. The company buys, sells and delivers more than 50,000 different consumer products to nearly 90,000 locations. In addition, McLane provides alcohol beverage distribution through its wholly owned subsidiary, Empire Distributors Inc. McLane is a wholly owned unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Omaha.
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