Lessons in retail acquisition: don’t leave brand integration until it’s too late

Over the past year the front-page news has included a number of massive retail acquisitions as multinational chains seek to expand their territories, market share and offering.

• Walmart recently stumped up a reputed $100m for plus-size fashion brand Eloquii.
• They had already bought a competitive advantage over Amazon in the online Indian market via Flip Kart.
• Amazon itself continued to incorporate bricks into its clicks empire when it bought Whole Foods.
• Coach (now Tapestry) bought Kate Spade in a bid to get a piece of the Millennial shopping action.

For retailers buying up a brand, the deal and how it’s executed can be complex and throw up a few surprises. With their own private label portfolio to continue to manage smoothly, they’ll need to consider the positioning of in-store brands from their newly acquired business. We’re not just talking about a single product but a multitude of brands and SKUs that may all require rebranding, repackaging and repositioning.

Let’s explore the brand integration challenges we’ve seen rattle some of the world’s largest retailers.

Private label integration challenges

Unfortunately, the sheer depth of the brand-related issues only come to light post-acquisition.

The acquisition talks will have taken place behind the closed doors of the boardroom, with the practical considerations of the shop floor a long way away. The purchase is not led by the detailed needs of packaging, labeling and technical teams: it’s led by the top-level concerns of the C-level.

Until, that is, the deal is done.

Then, and only then, it’s over to you – and this is where the devil in all that detail emerges. Inevitably the compliance, product packaging teams, on both sides, are far from ready to pick this up. Usually there will be completely different sets of artwork systems and processes in place – and occasionally the brand may have muddled along with nothing more rigorous than a creaky spreadsheet and hoping for the best.

In the best scenario where, by miracle, both teams have used exactly the same system, the likelihood of their governance and processes aligning is a hair-breadth above zero.

Retailers will typically leave it far too late in the acquisition process to start addressing details such as merging labeling and artwork, bringing the new supply chain smoothly into its mix and aligning labeling and artwork compliance procedures.

Left until after the deal is done these operational and logistical challenges will soon be demanding attention for all the wrong reasons.

Brand integration can be smoother sailing.

What’s imperative is having the right systems, processes and expertise in place from the get-go. And we should know: we’ve been handling the end-to-end labeling and artwork process for the world’s largest private label retailers for years.

Retail acquisition success factors

Every acquisition has its own challenges but the true solution every time is found in being prepared – and making sure existing and new supply chains are prepared too. If an acquisition is on the horizon for you, here are our key takeaways.

For a successful private label brand acquisition, you must have:

• A clearly defined end-to-end system to manage new and existing product development

This end-to-end system should be one, unified system – not many. From just one place you need a vantage point that offers a 3600 view of brand activity, governance/compliance requirements, real-time status updates and regulatory compliant activity tracking.

• … that will act as a digital audit trail

Forget pens and papers – you’ll need something smarter than that (and more compliant). Your audit trail must be accessible to anyone involved in your private label management process – and there will be many. This is the only way to ensure that your labeling and artwork process avoids oversights, remains consistent and does not fall prey to costly errors.

• … and it must be localized but globally consistent

Your process and audit trail must cover every territory you sell in. Fail here and it is almost guaranteed that inconsistencies and misaligned branding will start to escalate – as will the inevitable problems this causes, e.g. incorrect labeling, recalls, or worse.

• … both internally and throughout the supply chain.

It is likely your supply chain will expand with your acquisition. Having a tried and tested process, plus systems that are easy to adopt, is essential to quickly engage new suppliers and bring them into your best practice policies and procedures.

Succeed at implementing a fit-for-purpose process with supporting labeling and artwork management tools, bringing your private label brands together can be simple. Without these at the outset the risk is your private label brand protection may be impacted.

Retail brand acquisition goals

The prospect of integrating in-store brands, and potentially repackaging and labeling thousands of SKUs might initially boggle the minds of compliance, brand and product development teams.

But, having processes, management tools and expertise in place, factoring in time to onboard your supply chain, new brand managers, heads of quality, and product development managers should make this challenge procedural rather than problematic.

Making sure you have a well-planned brand integration strategy and processes ready ahead of time will help ensure you achieve your goals and minimize integration pains.

Here’s what you want:

1. Consistency and compliance across all brands, current and newly acquired

2. Private label brand integration which does not slow progress – it’s business as usual!

3. The development, growth and protection of your private label brands (existing and new).

And here are some of the ways you’ll achieve it:

1. Adopt industry standard best practice systems, process and procedures

2. Change, training and communications, engage all parties with your vision early on

3. Full supply chain engagement ensures consistency, accuracy and fast user adoption.

Now that’s a result!