LRB supplier breakfast

The LRB Management team brainstorming before the event kicked off.

Legendary Retail Brands (LRB) held its supplier breakfast at the Indaba Hotel in March. Chaired by Nareen Daya, the object of the breakfast was to share with suppliers LRB’s plans for each division in the group.

Daya started by sharing the LRB Vision and Mission statements. The company’s mission is to be the best provider of products, services solutions, value adds, general support and operating methods for the independent retailer. The realisation of this mission would be achieved by implementing the following:

Improve store model
Grow new business
Invest in people
Increase number of retailers

LRB’s competitive advantage is that its directors are retailers themselves. This competent director team understand the implications when implementing new ideas hence avoiding hiccups in implementation. The Directors are responsible for driving the business from behind.

Daya emphasised the advantages of being part of the LRB group of companies highlighting the benefits of shared services: dedicated operational support structure, category management merchandising, information technology expertise, training, business processes and customer service.

Suppliers were then given a current outlook breakdown on each of the brands within the LRB group:

MICA

Managing Director: Henry Oberholster

Stores: 140+

Format: Medium to large stores:

Focus: General DIY, Hardware, Paint and Building Materials. Conveniently located.

Outlook: Expanding its footprint with a strong focus on SADC regions. Rollout of Value Added Services. IQ Retail rollout and a concentration on ‘Build’ stores.

The current model concentrates on quality being better than quantity and hence growth is slower, but business growth is guaranteed through loyalty and improved execution.

DIY Depot

Managing Director: Mark Reeves

Stores: 160

Focus: Small to medium sized stores nationally. Core focus on general DIY, hardware, paint and building materials. It has a large number of country stores and a strong rural footprint, giving it a different model to Mica.

Outlook: DIY Depot will be focusing on aggressive footprint expansion with supplier grading and category management. Formalisation and implementation of product promotion programmes, including VAS rollout.