Carlsberg Group is a global beer brewing company present at more than 150 markets around the world. All their local branches source POSM via My Source Hub. Buyers from Croatia, South Korea or Cambodia use the platform to order identical bottle openers, T-shirts or parasols — 100% brand-consistent, following the brand manual to the point. Buyers are aware of how much they save by buying in bulk via My Source Hub and they know in advance the shipping costs and delivery dates.
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Starting Point: Unclear Delivery Dates and Purchase Prices
For Carlsberg, My Source Hub wasn’t the first unifying platform for aggregating POSM purchases. Carlsberg was well aware of the benefits of a universal POSM sourcing platform — cost reduction, a one-for-all portfolio and easily achievable MOQ (minimum order quantity). They had their previous sourcing solution developed and implemented precisely for these reasons.
Unfortunately, their former platform had many flaws that made the purchasing process, payments and even the logistics unnecessarily complicated:
- Buyers would place orders on the platform but they would be informed about the prices only 2-4 weeks after placing their orders. The percentage of order cancellations was very high due to this discrepancy.
- Buyers never knew delivery dates for all regions. They were also kept in the dark about shipping costs.
- POSM were produced by various manufacturers and lacked consistency — both in quality and brand visual identity.
- Global procurement managers didn’t have an overview about who buys what, where and for how much. Only offline reporting was possible.
Carlsberg Group devoted a great deal of time to fixing faulty processes within their platform. Still, the supplier of the former platform faced some serious difficulties in customising the platform to fit Carlberg’s needs. Inevitably, Carlsberg found themselves at a crossroads and was looking for alternative solutions.
Our previous platform brought us more pains than gains, so we decided to change it. As we started looking for a new supplier, we knew this would be our last attempt to make this type of global platform work. Had it failed again, we would have abandoned this solution forever and our local buyers would source POSM individually.
– Global Category Manager, Carlsberg Group
There was one more catch for potential suppliers of the new solution: Carlsberg Group needed to find not just a new developer of the platform but also new POSM manufacturers. The producers on their previous platform were bound to its developers.
Searching for a Solution: Looking for a Supplier Who Understands our Requirements
Carlsberg Group set these requirements for the new supplier of a POSM sourcing platform:
- financial stability,
- sufficient knowledge and experience from the beverage industry,
- reasonable pricing,
- quick and reliable communication,
- flexibility of the platform and its customisation for Carlsberg,
- reliable production of high-quality and brand-consistent marketing materials,
- knowledgeable insight into Carlsberg’s needs and a can-do attitude,
- compliance with Carlsberg’s Code of Conduct on secure responsible sourcing.
Carlsberg knew exactly what they wanted as they had a great deal of data from the previous platform. Therefore, they could make the search for a new supplier very targeted. All the details were known — types of marketing materials, how they sold across regions, whether their minimal order quantity was being reached or not. Carlsberg handed over this data to their potential suppliers and asked them to come up with their solutions.
Various suppliers dealt with these not-so-easy requirements. Carlsberg were presented solutions from established global companies with good ideas but with prices well over the budget. Smaller developers tried to sell their ready-made solutions to Carlsberg — but those weren’t scalable enough. Step by step, the search led Carlsberg to My Source Hub solution.
Moravia Propag understood our brief immediately and came up with a functional solution and an implementation plan hand in hand. Their proposal was solid, quick and the price was within our budget. They impressed us with extraordinarily fast responses and numerous experiences with POSM development, production, and distribution for Coca Cola.
– Global Category Manager, Carlsberg Group
Development and Implementation: Platform and POSM Design Ready for Launch in 5 Months
The last Ordering Window in Carlberg’s previous sourcing platform was opened in March 2019. The new solution had to be ready for the following Ordering Window in November 2019. The deal was sealed in June 2019 so there was 5 months to:
- develop the platform,
- set up all the processes
- design, develop and have all the marketing materials approved in time.
The first step was to put together a well-functioning team consisting of a project manager, a data analyst, a product manager, an e-commerce manager and a web developer — all these people were on both sides (Moravia Propag and Carlsberg). The team immediately set to work.
- They organised a series of workshops with Carlsberg representatives. We discussed the number of Ordering Windows, how they should function and what had been their most painful points to date that we needed to avoid.
- We performed a thorough analysis of data from the previous platform.
- Then suggested a complex logistics strategy for POSM distribution.
- Carlsberg’s product portfolio was thoroughly analysed and optimised.
- We designed the POSM and presented them to respective brand managers.
- We developed a prototype of the web platform and presented it to Carlsberg.
There were two lines of work to be done: We worked hard to customise the platform to meet Carlsberg’s requirements and at the same time were developing marketing materials that would be indistinguishable from Carlsberg’s previous POSM.
Quite early on in the process, we found out that Carlsberg’s POSM portfolio was way too broad and a lot of its items were purchased in minimal quantities only. We suggested limiting the POSM portfolio to approximately a quarter, justifying such a drastic cut with hard data. Carlsberg agreed with our reasoning and let us optimise their portfolio.
Thanks to our experience with POSM production and distribution, we could see straight away that Carlsberg’s portfolio contained numerous useless items — they either sold only in minimal quantities, didn’t sell at all, or were overly expensive. When we came up with an optimising solution, Carlsberg Group happily agreed.
– Michal Čujko, Senior Account Manager, Moravia Propag
We had to work with a lot of variables while developing the platform — e.g. how the platform is going to deal with specifics of local markets, such as paying VAT in Vietnam or very complicated distribution in Nepal. We were relieved to see that Moravia Propag had plenty of experience with such situations so we could easily let them set the optimal processes.
– Global Category Manager, Carlsberg Group
Result: Instant Overview of Prices, Transport and Cost Reduction Available Directly in the Platform
Local buyers, brand managers and assistant managers from Carlsberg now work in My Source Hub — the users differ from region to region. All employees have gotten used to the new platform quickly. They appreciate its user-friendly interface which looks like any other online store. That said, we still provide how-to videos or online webinars for new users.
Key aspects Carlsberg needed to implement in their My Source Hub:
- Ordering windows open four times a year. The project manager informs all Carlsberg buyers about the openings via automated e-mails and push notifications.
- During each ordering window, local buyers and regional brand managers put POS items in their shopping baskets.
- With each item added to the shopping basket, the final price adjusts, and so do transport fees, delivery dates and MOQ (whether it’s being reached or not and if not, by how many pieces). All users can see how much they saved on POSM with bulk orders.
- Orders can be altered until the end of the ordering window.
- Most popular items from Carlsberg’s portfolio can be ordered all year round, regardless of the ordering windows. We keep carefully selected items for various brands in stock and deliver them to all locations around the world in about one week.
POSM for Carlsberg are produced by reliable suppliers who we choose with great care. We evaluate and check our suppliers repeatedly. Our product managers schedule regular consultations with Carlsberg’s brand managers to discuss design adjustments or to add new items to the portfolio.
My Source Hub in Carlsberg Group: The Results
My Source Hub is a dynamic platform which we never stop improving, incorporating our clients’ requirements and needs. For Carlsberg, we have added special functionalities for local brands:
Carlsberg Group manages a number of local brands that require their own marketing materials, but in much lower quantities than our global brands. We didn’t want local brands to be deprived of the benefit of lower price when buying in bulk. We solved this by adding a variable logo and adjustable colour to some of the most common POSM items, such as ice buckets. As a result, we can have the local brand items produced with the global ones, thus helping the local brand to save considerable amounts of money.
– Michal Čujko, Senior Account Manager, Moravia Propag
My Source Hub enables the local buyers and the company’s management to see detailed analyses of POSM sales from each ordering window. Per request, we export general cost reduction overviews as well as customised reports working around the KPI and SLA goals.
My Source Hub saves us time and resources, both human and financial. Our global portfolio is easily available for all our markets in a very user-friendly interface. I like that the platform always adapts to our growth and brand identity.
– Global Category Manager, Carlsberg Group
Moravia Propag provided marketing materials for prices that we could never negotiate ourselves. It’s similar to buying media space — you can never reach the same prices as a big media agency.
– Senior Global Director, Carlsberg Group
