Information revolution

Modern Brewery Age, July 19, 1999

Harbor Distributing Co. uses software to "push information to the boundary"

Harbor Distributing Company, Gardena, CA, services approximately 6,500 accounts throughout all of Orange County and the southwestern sector of Los Angeles County with a portfolio of prominent beer brands, including the Miller family, Corona, Sam Adams, Heineken, Beck's and Guinness. To help reap maximum profitability from this well-rounded line-up, Harbor relies on a team of equally well-rounded sales professionals.

"One of our main business goals is to push more and more information to the boundary, right down to the point where decisions were being made - at the retail front lines," says Larry Underwood, General Manager. "We start with fundamental sales information, on an account-by-account basis so that everybody can see where they stand every day. We want our Channel Managers, Supervisors and Sales Managers to have margin information as well as sales information. We want them to see how much is being sold on discount and how that effects our overall bottom line. We share a lot of information that probably the average beer distributor does not share with its managers, and that has certainly changed their context of the business. They are better rounded business people because their responsibility goes beyond pushing a box. We wanted a tool that pushed this information out to the masses, including budgeting process, volume, financial and profitability. Margin Minder fit the bill. The problem wasn't the data - our back-end system had the data. The problem was making the data useful for everybody that wanted it, and that meant it had to be instantaneous. Margin Minder has been an excellent tool within this culture because it clearly communicates data. It opens eyes."

Developed by Horseheads, NY-based Salient Corporation, Margin Minder is a set of Windows-based tools that allow individuals to work with their sales data directly on-line by capturing all of the historical facts and relationships that define their trade in sum or in detail, within seconds.

George Ambrow, Harbor's Chain Sales Manager for Orange County and a Margin Minder "power user," says that the only information he can't get from the Salient tool is "social security number and mother's maiden name." His day starts with a review of sales data, and from there, "I keep drilling down into the details of data, as deep as I want to go. I do a lot of trend studies by market, by time of year, by District Manager, and with Margin Minder, I can track the sales by the day, week, month, year. I can pull up stores in one district and compare the data to chainwide performance to see if the retailer is above or below the curve. It's amazing how my District Managers respond to seeing their numbers compared to the rest of the group. It has fostered accountability."

Margin Minder has also allowed Harbor to shed analytical light on its gross profit picture, "all the way down to the salesman level," according to Ambrow. "We want everyone to know what's driving our bottom line gross profit, and we can illustrate that with Margin Minder. Our salespeople can see how we make $5 a case on one products versus $2.60 a case on another brand, they begin to see they can contribute to our company's bottom line by selling smart. You can see their eyes growing wider and wider with more and more detail. It gives them a sense of self worth. They take real ownership in their business."

According to Underwood, Margin Minder is "so powerful and versatile," it has become an essential toot at all levels of the company, "from the President down through the sales ranks, including the financial department." For example, Melinda Butler, Pricing Coordinator, relies on Margin Minder to deliver "ad hoc" trend reports to the wholesaler's suppliers, who in turn use the information to analyze sales activity on any specific brand or package or at any account or outlet. "They want to see this on a month-to-month basis, and we can track it by chain, by store or by on-premise," says Butler. "Before Margin Minder, I would have to use our AS/400 system to create the report, and it's not always userfriendly. Margin Minder is fast and it allows me to get all the way down to the smallest detail of a transaction in seconds. If a brewer calls and wants to know about a specific package at a specific account, I can generate that report immediately. If he changes his mind and wants to see something else, I simply click over to another account or another brand or another package. We also use Margin Minder analysis to recommend specific promotions to suppliers based on like brands and packages, or based on similar accounts."

"Better information, faster information, and a more informed sales force - you can't put a dollar figure on that," says Underwood. "The access to information for the people closest to the marketplace is key. It's in language we all understand, and it's point-and-click easy."