Bloom to vendors: Fred’s is ‘open for business, poised for growth’

MEMPHIS — There is a new team at the helm of Fred's Super Dollar, and besides a core focus on building a sound pharmacy base to drive that business, that new Fred's team is fast at work reorchestrating its entire front-end and store operations to support its more than 900 pharmacists who are practicing behind the back bench.

 

With the recent additions of Mike Bloom, president and COO, and Bryan Pugh, chief merchandising and marketing officer, the message for the supplier community is clear: Fred's is open to implementing the kind of profit-bearing partnerships across its more-than 660 store base that generate success stories for all involved. 

 

“Bryan and I just attended the National Association of Chain Drug Stores’ annual conference and conducted strategic meetings with about 50 of our top CPG suppliers in our industry,” Bloom told analysts last week. “Our message was clear. We are open for business and poised for growth. Come on down to Memphis and together we will develop a strategic business plan for mutual growth,” he said. "We also recently hosted the Consumer Healthcare Products Association here in Memphis for an immersion into the Fred’s story. We hosted CEOs, presidents and various senior executives from small- to mid-sized healthcare companies. We conducted a Fred's seminar and a store tour. The interest in Fred's and their willingness to partner with us to grow our mutual business is very positive."

 

Pugh — a former Walgreens product pioneer — and his team are implementing a new business review process designed to ensure the right assortment at the right value for Fred's customers. "We have completed 19 [category] reviews thus far and those businesses where we have executed the changes are experiencing anywhere from mid-single-digit comp growth to double-digit comp growth," Bloom said. "The process is working. We still have a lot of reviews to complete and the teams are working hard at prioritizing them through the balance of the year."

 

As a component of those business reviews, Fred's is addressing pricing, marketing and shelf presentation — which looks at where one brand goes versus another brand based on market share. "It's a pretty intense process and a lot of great dialog. And like I said, it never ends," Bloom said. 

 

Fred's is utilizing Nielsen insights as a basis for information, Bloom explained. "Where our customer is shopping, where she is purchasing items that she is not purchasing in our stores, market share, items not carried, we're doing a lot more competitive shops and visits, we're working closer with supplier partners to get their resources and information surrounding the categories, we have a complete new focus on new items," he said. "We're going to market faster with new items, which is very important, you'll hear me say, over and over new items drive comp sales in our business."

 

As Fred's focuses on retooling its front-end planograms, the company has placed its remodel program on hold. "We have made nice progress toward a new layout that will include new space allocation based on the new customer-focused need-it-now assortment, improved site lines and navigation as well as better adjacencies that coincide with the roll of the category and how our customer shops the store," Bloom said. "We anticipate having this new model up and running during the third quarter, so we can measure the financial results and the overall customer experience."

 

Fred's is also focused on store operations in an effort to improve execution and reduce out-of-stocks. "We have executed a new store cycle count policy that became effective in March that will improve in-stocks for our customers," Bloom said. "The policy has been in place for 15 weeks and we are starting to see in-stocks improve at store level. We have executed a new door-to-floor initiative for our stores to ensure that we are processing freight in a timely manner to again improve in-stocks for our customers."