DMV Case Study
DMV Diedrichs Markenvertrieb is a leading German distributor and service provider, for branded health, beauty, cleaning and washing products. The company works across mass market channels in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with major retailers including Edeka, Rossmann, REWE and Metro. It offers a full range of sales, marketing, logistics, distribution and encashment services.
Working with both small and large brands such as Meister, Proper, Old Spice and Carmex, DMV also helps with brand building and growth. DMV approached Cosaris to work on a project to evaluate, design and introduce a new service product they could offer to existing and new clients leveraging their existing sales force.
Markus Spieker, Commercial Director at DMV:
Changes to the way business is done in the food retail industry have meant we have had to look at our practices and consider ways we can adapt. The way of order-taking and the processes our salesforce use have become increasingly old-fashioned. Better IT systems have helped retailers manage their inventory more effectively than in the past and increasingly centrally-controlled warehousing has meant they have less need of our services.
Increasingly, more and more articles are sold to central warehouses instead of direct to store which has reduced the workload of our sales team. This has had an effect on our costs and led to less use of our salesforce.
I first approached Cosaris to work with us after seeing Rene Schneider give an interesting presentation in Brussels. I felt Cosaris could help us with ideas to overcome the disruptive factors we are facing within our business.
With Rene, we set about developing a business plan for further expansion and to create a new innovative service for our customers. This will allow us to better utilise our existing sales teams and add additional value in store for both retailers and branded manufacturers.
We had an initial kick-off meeting where we discussed the topics for the project and the issues that were most pressing and relevant. Part of the project also involved surveying manufacturers and retailers to see if there was a demand for a new kind of service. In addition, Cosaris looked at our competitors, what their sales teams are doing and what is happening not only in our industry but in others as well.
With Cosaris’ help we were able to test and develop a new business plan for a service that will allow us to identify gaps in processes or improvements in sales and marketing for our existing and future clients.
Cosaris arranged internal and external analysis, looked at our organisational structure, processes and synergies, and conducted in-depth interviews with existing and potential customers before developing a detailed plan for the new service and necessary changes in our organisation.
The experience has been very beneficial for us. Rene is extremely professional and target-oriented. He consistently gave 100% - even though he was badly sick one day he managed to conduct our workshop with a lot of stamina.
Ironically, we have yet to implement the new business plan because we are currently enjoying rapid growth. But I have no doubt that when we do, we will again use the services of Cosaris and it will be of great benefit to DMV.