How Ascania FMCG Created a Unified Nationwide Merchandising System due to effie

The effie system allows us to quickly receive information about whether a certain product has appeared or been removed from the assortment, and we can make changes to the assortment matrix in the shortest possible time.

— Andriy Voychuk, Trade Marketer at Ascania FMCG.

About the company

Ascania FMCG is part of the diversified Ukrainian holding “Ascania”, which comprises 12 different companies (including food production and distribution, import, logistics, small arms production, agriculture, and security services) and has over 2,500 employees across Ukrainian, German, and Chinese offices.

Scale of activity:

• 25+ years of experience in FMCG and B2B food services.
• Portfolio of international and own brands of food and non-food products.
• 500 full-time employees.
• 50 partnership companies in Ukraine.
• 7 distribution companies under their brands.
• 18,000 retail outlets deliver.
• Own merchandising structure, production, and warehouse facilities.

Expedition structure with a fleet of vehicles of various carrying capacities, including transport with refrigeration units.

Before implementing effie, the company used manual methods of merchandising control, which created significant difficulties in managing an extensive network of retail outlets and a field team.

The problem

Ascania FMCG faced significant challenges following the restructuring of its merchandising department. When the department was transferred from sales to marketing, critical shortcomings in the control system were revealed:

Main problems:

• The lack of a single assortment matrix hindered effective sales and created confusion when working with retail chains.
• Uncontrolled shortage of goods — due to the lack of digital control over the balance of goods at points of sale.
• Low discipline of field staff — old manual control methods proved ineffective in motivating merchandisers.
• Ineffective process management was especially evident during pandemic restrictions, when route flexibility became critical.

The company lost opportunities to increase revenue due to an ineffective field team management system and the lack of unified work standards.

How effie solved it

After thoroughly testing various solutions on the market, Ascania FMCG chose effie in 2019 due to its high-quality analytical data visualization.

Key changes in processes:

1. Automation of assortment control — a single digital matrix was created, which gives a holistic view of the representation of brands and allows you to calculate costs for each brand in the portfolio.
2. Digitization of shortage management: Paper reports were replaced with digital formats, enabling instant responses to balance and order volume changes.
3. Implementation of a KPI motivation system: Merchandisers’ discipline is now tied to their achievements, allowing for a clear link between their performance and compensation.
4. Optimization of mobile employee routes: Flexible route planning and review allow prompt unscheduled visits to retail outlets.
5. Effective management under restrictions: the platform helped comply with pandemic restrictions and solve logistical problems.

Results

A year after effie implementation.

Before → After:

• No assortment matrix → A single nationwide system with proportional distribution of costs for each brand.
• Uncontrolled shortage → Optimized balance management with the possibility of instant changes.
• Low staff discipline → 100% increase in merchandiser discipline due to KPI motivation.

Key indicators

The most impressive result of the cooperation was a 100% increase in merchandiser discipline, achieved through tying salary to key performance indicators. This enabled the creation of a single, nationwide merchandising system, which contributed to increased sales across the entire network.

Optimized stock management resulted in a significant reduction in product shortages at retail outlets, thereby positively impacting product availability for consumers. Simultaneously, improved assortment coverage was achieved across the entire retail outlet network, ensuring broader product representation.

The system also enabled proportional distribution of costs for each brand in the portfolio without additional management effort. As a result of this comprehensive approach, there was an overall improvement in the situation with retail chains and their efficiency.

Having weighed all the pros and cons of other offers, we recognized effie as the most interesting application on the market. As a result of its implementation, the service met all our needs.

— Andriy Voychuk, Trade Marketer at Ascania FMCG.

Further plans

Ascania FMCG continues to develop cooperation with effie within the strategic goal of becoming one of the strongest FMCG players on the Ukrainian market. The company has achieved high consistency in building business processes and plans to:

• Expand the use of effie analytical modules.
• Further optimization of mobile team routes.
• Deepening integration with internal accounting systems.

What makes effie unique

The example of Ascania FMCG shows the key advantages of the platform:

• Visual control without visits. The photo gallery allows office workers to control the situation on the shelf in real time.
• Full assortment analytics. The assortment matrix report gives a full brand presence and tracks the dynamics of changes.
• Instant response. Ability to quickly make changes to the assortment matrix and routes.
• Trade activity control. The Trade Marketing Activities Management tool helps control the timely start of promotional activities, the quality of promotions in specific retail chains, and the availability of promotional products, among other aspects.
• Customization of business processes. Adaptation of control logic to the specific rhythms of each client’s work.