#In Focus
ASTOUNDING SUCCESS
joint efforts, the brand portfolio has become more compact and the
business is now easy to understand for our distributors, retailers
and our consumers."
RESULTS OF THE PORTFOLIO OPTIMIZATION
PROGRAM “FOCUS ON THE CORE”
D
uring the period from the second half of 2016 through
March 2017 our Russian team implemented the pro-
gram “Focus on the Core”. The project was aimed
at brand portfolio optimization, which would con-
tribute to achieving Imperial Brands’ global objective – an
increase in market share. As a result our SKU range has been
reduced by nearly 50%, from 78 SKUs to 36 SKUs. The strate-
gy has proved to be effective: within a very short period we have
focused our investments and team effort on the brands that are
most essential for success of our business in Russia.
Nataliya Pushko, Head of the portfolio op-
timization program in Russia: “The project
has turned out to be really cross-functional.
During those eight months all employees
made their contributions towards imple-
menting our objective. All the departments,
from the accounting staff to merchandisers in
the most remote areas of Russia, worked to fo-
cus on the core and make our portfolio strong, interesting and
attractive.”
Olga Rusnak, Head of Global portfolio op-
timization program of Imperial Brands:
“The project in Russia has turned out to
be so successful that this experience will
be expanded to other markets of Imperial
Brands in order to create the best product
mix based on the successful experience of
the Russian team.”
"Our team has quickly developed special tools for implementing the program, concluded contracts for
the new assortment and helped retail outlets to sell out or replace removed SKUs with our strategic
SKUs. We have launched
a new mobile app, iFocus,
and expanded the 360Con-
nect functions now encom-
passing all information
about retail outlets and
the new product assort-
ment, as well as all required
forms of financial and ac-
counting documents. With-
in record-breaking time the
HR department organized
training sessions for 750 of
our employees and near-
ly 2,000 specialists of the
sales force of our partner –
Megapolis. Through our
Oliver Kutz, General Manager, Rus-
sia and Central Asia Cluster: “This
is one of the company’s most suc-
cessful projects. It is really impressive
how the project has been carried out:
this is true team work that has united
various functions within the Group, as
well as different departments within Imperi-
al Tobacco in Russia. We’ve managed to strengthen our pres-
ence and the representation of our core SKUs. We now see
our market share growing in those points of sales where the
optimized product portfolio is presented.”
Vadim Rudnik, Market Manager, Russia:
“The results of the team’s stupendous
effort speak for themselves: we have
formed an optimal assortment in just
3 months at 95% of points of sale.”
“The team has managed to accomplish that
strategic task within extremely tight deadlines, and this
is a true success that has helped us learn a lot. The team’s
well-coordinated work has been key to such great results. I
would like to thank the entire team for their efforts. This is an
excellent result! Thank you!” said Oliver Kutz.
The Империалист | | 5