Supervalu is looking to move away from promotional activity and towards every-day-low-prices, the US supermarket’s management revealed today (28 July).
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The retailer indicated that it has re-evaluated its position in the market as it posted a drop in first-quarter sales and earnings and lowered its full-year guidance.
Speaking at his first results conference call since taking over as CEO, Craig Herkert (pictured) said the company was shifting its emphasis from promotional activity.
“It’s not that we are too promotional – but the gap between our promotional price and everyday price has become unsustainable. When we have lowered our everyday prices consumers have responded well. We are fixing our value proposition so that everyday prices are more in line,” he said.
Herkert said the company would hope to minimise the impact this new direction would have on margins.
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By GlobalData“Our guidance on sales and earnings would anticipate that we do this right. Our goal here is not to decrease our earnings,” said.
Supervalu is implementing the new pricing strategy on a market-by-market basis, using information on customers to target pricing and promotional activity.
“We’re trying to be very specific and focus on things that matter. There is no chain-wide programme, we are doing this market by market,” he revealed.
While Herkert admitted that Supervalu faces a number of “challenges”, he remained upbeat on the company’s prospects for future growth.
“I love the supermarket business… I also saw an opportunity to grow this company and to be a great grocer in the United States of America. And I like a challenge, and I think there are a lot of challenges here,” he said.
