Since 2009, when Coles first introduced the concept of shelf ready packaging to its stores, the retailer has seen an increase in sales density of 27%, and the number of customers has increased from 9 million to 16 million per year.
Given this increase in customers and sales density, improving store efficiency is a priority for Coles and shelf ready packaging is seen as key to achieving this goal by making store replenishment fast and easy.
For this reason, the retailer has revised and updated its SRP guidelines.
The most significant revision is a change to the carton depth from 1.5 cases per shelf to two cases per shelf. Coles says this will significantly improve instore efficiencies while also providing improved on-shelf display.
The guidelines outline a strong preference for tray and hood formats to help replenishment in store, and a set max weight per SRP case at 10kg to help Coles team members handling replenishment.
Coles has introduced a preference of no tape showing on the front of the SRP on shelf and has disclosed its shelf dimensions. There is now a set front profile dependent on your product height. The old 20% of product height rule is now redundant.
Coles says some suppliers are already working towards these standards with their category managers; for those who aren't, it's expected that any range review landing after May 2016 be compliant to the two-case deep directive.
Here is the complete set of guidelines: Coles SRP Supplier Guide
