The solution for improvement of horeca chanel in unilever food solution at Ho Chi Minh City

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
CHAPTER 1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ………………………………………………………………………………. 2

1.1. Unilever Vietnam…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 2

1.2. Unilever food solution Vietnam …………………………………………………………………………………….. 2
1.2.1. The business goal ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2

Figure 1.2.1: Structure of product portfolio in 2020……………………………………………………………. 2
Figure 1.2.2: Proportion of customer segmentation in 2020 ……………………………………………….. 3

1.2.2. Competitors………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
1.2.3. The suppliers ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3

1.2.4. Target customers and brand positioning ………………………………………………………………….. 4

CHAPTER 2. SYMPTOM…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
2.1. Symptoms of the problem……………………………………………………………………………………………. 5

2.2. Symptoms validation……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5
Figure 2.2.1: The Revenue in the same period in Ho Chi Minh from 2019 to 2020 …………………. 6

Figure 2.2.2: The Comparision of Revenue in the same period in Ho Chi Minh ………………………. 6
Figure 2.2.3: The Comparision of Revenue in the same period in Mekong Area …………………….. 7

Figure 2.2.4: The number of consumer using knorr products from 2015 to 2019 …………………… 8

CHAPTER 3. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION……………………………………………………………………………………. 9
3.1 Potential problem ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9

3.1.1 The market has fierce competition …………………………………………………………………………… 9
3.1.2 The price of products has not enough competitive advantage …………………………………… 10

3.1.3 The promotion does not satisfy the demand of consumers ……………………………………….. 11
3.2 Problem Validation……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 12

CHAPTER 4. CAUSE VALIDATION ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 18
4.1. Potential causes ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18

Figure 4.1: The Cause and Effect Map……………………………………………………………………………… 18

4.1.1. Invest not enough properly in the sales team and tools to support……………………………. 18
4.1.2. The influences of market………………………………………………………………………………………. 18

4.1.3. Competitors………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 19
4.1.4. Promotion of Knorr products don’t touch right insight of consumers ………………………… 20

4.2. Validating causes……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 20
CHAPTER 5. SOLUTION …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 22

5.1. Solutions for sale and marketing………………………………………………………………………………….. 22

5.1.1. Enhance the image of Unilever Food Solutions brand, enhance and improve the quality of the introduction of the culinary solution …………………………………………………………………………………. 22

5.1.2. Develop attractive promotions for customers and distributors …………………………………. 22
5.1.3. Develop the program working on electronic media …………………………………………………. 23
5.1.4. Create solutions to support the customers’ business……………………………………………….. 23

5.2. Solutions for distribution ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 24
5.3. Building a professional sales staff ………………………………………………………………………………… 24

5.3.1. Theoretical Insight……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 24

5.3.2. Enhancing the capacibility of sale force ………………………………………………………………….. 25
5.4. Innovate method of monitoring sales staff…………………………………………………………………… 26

APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE…………………………………………………………………………………… 28
APPENDIX 2: CHARACTERISTICS OF SURVEY SAMPLE ……………………………………………………………….. 30

APPENDIX 3 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 33
Improvement Of Horeca Chanel in Unilever Food Solution 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Horeca is an acronym for the words Hotel (Hotel), Restaurant (in general, Restaurant, food service), and Catering or Coffee (in general, Food, Beverage, Coffee service). , Bar, Club …). In Vietnam Horeca is defined as a HIGH-CLASS SALES CHANNEL for the Food & Beverage Industry (Food & Beverage). Economic development, the demand for entertainment of the people in the country is increasing, in parallel, Vietnam is also one of the attractive destinations for international tourists. Therefore, the amount of goods and services for this special consumption channel Horeca is in great demand. And there are now a lot of companies supplying input materials that are entering this market, so the need for rapid innovation and innovation is an issue that the company needs to focus on. With the presence of more than 25 years, Unilever’s brands have become so familiar in Vietnamese consumers’ minds. Therefore, Unilever is no exception for timely changes and improvements to keep pace with the rapid development of the era, especially the Food Solutions division with products specializing in providing culinary solutions for customers. found in fast-growing pace and stiff competition. Ho Chi Minh City is a key market, with the largest number of customers in the horeca channel, but the business situation is declining and failing to meet the targets set by the management. This also comes from a number of subjective and objective reasons. Regarding objective issues, this is a force majeure element, hard to solve. The article will analyze in depth the problems and causes stemming from the company such as price policy, promotions and sales team. To help the company overcome the current limitations, increase the efficiency in business operations and increase the competition in the fierce market today, the author decided to choose the topic: “THE SOLUTION FOR IMPROVEMENT OF HORECA CHANEL IN UNILEVER FOOD SOLUTION AT HO CHI MINH CITY”as the research topic for her graduation thesis.
Improvement Of Horeca Chanel in Unilever Food Solution 2

CHAPTER 1. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1.1. Unilever Vietnam

Unilever is a global company that specialises on fast-moving consumer products in more than 190 countries across the world. Established in Vietnam from 1995, Unilever started to invest more than 300 million USD with a modern factory in Ho Chi Minh City and Bac Ninh Province. Through its network of more than 150 distributors and more than 300,000 retailers.
1.2. Unilever food solution Vietnam

Unilever food solution is the dedicated foodservice business of Unilever in general, Unilever Vietnam in particular. The portfolio encompasses many of the world’s big food brands including Knorr, PG Tips, Flora, Colman’s and Hellman’s. A combination of a winning product portfolio, customer insight, and investment in our people, helps Unilever food solution deliver year-on-year growth through offering our bright minded chefs and caterers tailored solutions, helping them to expand their business and do what they love. As the dedicated foodservice business of Unilever, food solution leads the industry in providing innovative and high quality professional food ingredients and value adding services created by 300 professional chefs. Covering 50 cuisines, in 200 million dishes a day. Unilever food solution Vietnam has 3 main brands: Knorr, Lipton and best food
1.2.1. The business goal

The target growth of Unilever Food Solution is 20% per year and business results achieved the highest growth rate of all parts of Unilever Vietnam in recent years.

Figure 1.2.1: Structure of product portfolio in 2020 (Source: Company financial statements 2020)
Improvement Of Horeca Chanel in Unilever Food Solution 3

In the horeca chanel, Food Solutions’ customer segments are restaurants, restaurant chains, hotels, canteens, supermarkets and wholesale markets. Currently, the most important customer segment is wholesale market, followed by supermarkets, restaurants, hotels and restaurant chains. It is shown in Figure on the 2019 customer segment chart as follows:

Figure 1.2.2: Proportion of customer segmentation in 2020 (Source: Company financial statements 2020)

1.2.2. Competitors

As a leader in the FMCG industry in general and food services in particular, Unilever

Food Solutions currently has competitors both domestically and internationally.

For Knorr spices: the main competitors are Aji and Maggi.

The Mayonnaise brand line has fierce competition from rivals from Japan, Kewpie and

Aji.

 

Lipton tea products have strong competition from foreign rivals Dilmah, Twinings,

domestic rivals Cozy, Tra Thai Nguyen …

1.2.3. The suppliers

Currently Unilever Food Solution products are mostly imported products from the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, three products produced in Vietnam are Knorr Seasoning Seeds, Knorr Chicken Powder and Knorr Seafood Powder.
With the global scale, the suppliers of Unilever Food Solutions are big, reputable suppliers, ensuring raw materials and quality as required.
The problem here is that the current production capacity of the plant still does not meet the needs of countries in Southeast Asia, leading to a shortage of some peak season.
Improvement Of Horeca Chanel in Unilever Food Solution 4

1.2.4. Target customers and brand positioning

The product is positioned as “Product for professional chefs”, and the target customers are chefs of restaurants, hotels, restaurants, so Food Solutions products give customers the whole prize. The culinary solution, not only at providing spice products with common features, will UFS provide products that bring optimum benefits, the combination of products together to have benefits and helps delicious food become the best.
In addition, Unilever Food Solution also provides special services to assist the chefs to develop recipes, support the training of kitchen management, food safety and hygiene … through UFS’s domestic and international professional kitchen team.
On the other hand, Unilever Food Solutions also organizes programs to help develop the talent of the kitchen, the contest helps cooks have the opportunity to show their talents.
Improvement Of Horeca Chanel in Unilever Food Solution 5

 

2.1. Symptoms of the problem
CHAPTER 2. SYMPTOM

Vietnam has always been rated as the favorite food and drink country and the most attractive culinary culture of Asia. Statistics of Dcorp R-Keeper Vietnam and Statista show that Vietnam’s F&B industry currently has 540,000 restaurants, 22,000 coffee shops, bars and over
80,000 chain-based restaurants. Revenue in 2019 hits $200 billion, up 34.3% compared to 2018. The industry’s revenue forecast is likely to reach $408 billion by 2023. Along with the development of the country, each year the number of new restaurants, hotels, restaurants … is very large. World famous food chain brands and restaurants together with local investors have created a colorful picture of this service industry. Statistics in recent years show that retail sales of food and beverage items account for 17% of total retail sales of goods and achieve increasing growth. Food and beverage currently accounts for the highest proportion in the monthly expenditure structure of Vietnamese consumers (accounting for about 35% of the spending level). Ho Chi Minh is the most potential region with the highest number of restaurant and luxurious hotel in the whole country, but the total sale revenue of Ho Chi Minh’s horeca chanel does not get the target that the board of management expects and the growth rate is increasingly going down
2.2. Symptoms validation

The business areas are divided into 6 regions such as Ho Chi Minh, Mekong, East, Ha Noi, Central, North. When separating targets for those regions, the firm has calculated based on every potential area. The price of products will go up once a year of two years. The board of management has expected that the growth rate of B2B channel, including wholesale, restaurant and hotel, chain, in 2020 is 20% higher than that of 2019. However, in the first three months of
2020, the revenue of Ho Chi Minh’s horeca chanel has not achieved the expectation. These chart will show more specifically
Improvement Of Horeca Chanel in Unilever Food Solution 6

 

6000

5000
THE REVENUE OF FIRST QUATER

4714 4950

4000

3000

2000

 

2226
3550

 

2085

2950

1000

0

 

The sale of HCM’s horeca

Figure 2.2.1: The Revenue in the same period in Ho Chi Minh from 2019 to 2020

(Source: Company financial statements 2020) and unit measurement: million dong

 

 

THE COMPARISION OF REVENUE IN THE SAME PERIOD IN
HO CHI MINH

 

6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0

 

 

 

 

Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20

 

 

THE FACT
THE TARGET

Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20
THE TARGET 5220 2560 3830
THE FACT 4950 2085 2950
THE TARGET THE FACT

 

Figure 2.2.2: The Comparision of Revenue in the same period in Ho Chi Minh

(Source: Company financial statements 2020) and unit measurement: million dong

In the January of 2020, the revenue increases approximately 5% compared to the one of 2019 and near to target. But in the next month, this number has a significant decrease about 200
Improvement Of Horeca Chanel in Unilever Food Solution 7

million compared to the total sale in February of 2019. Ho Chi Minh is considered as the center business area but not to achieve target. While other regions with smaller scale of economy such as
Mekong nearly obtain the target.

THE COMPARISION OF REVENUE IN THE SAME PERIOD IN
MEKONG AREA

 

4000

3000

2000

1000

0

 

 

Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20

THE FACT THE TARGET

Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20
THE TARGET 3700 1895 2683
THE FACT 3553 1820 2330

THE TARGET THE FACT

Figure 2.2.3: The Comparision of Revenue in the same period in Mekong Area (Source: Company financial statements 2020) and unit measurement: million dong Market demand is currently very large for the food service segment, according to
statistics in Vietnam, restaurants and eateries provide about 100 million meals a day, an estimated average market growth of 6.3% each year.
The main service channel is domestic restaurants and eateries, most of which will be traditional Vietnamese eateries, followed by European and Asian restaurants such as Korean, Japanese, Thai … and Restaurant restaurants are not traditional Vietnamese with less than 25% market share.
Restaurant chains are a trend and booming in the coming years. Currently, the chain of restaurants belongs to two big brands: Golden Gate with nearly 200 restaurants for 19 different brands and Red Sun with more than 100 restaurants nationwide.
In addition, the demand of eating out of Vietnamese people is increasing, people ‘s life is getting more busy so the demand for eating out is getting higher and higher, not only in the morning and in the afternoon, but in the evening, the number of customers comes. statistic eating places also increased significantly. Moreover, the development of the new generation with the current globalization, the need to explore cuisine and show lifestyle, sharing with friends through
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social networks is becoming more and more popular making the meal also becomes easily shared in the community, the need for unique new meals also increases.
The below chart will show the Knorr products consumption in the market from 2015

to 2019

THE NUMBER OF CONSUMER USING KNORR PRODUCTS

 

 

2500

2000

 

1568

1890 1958
2365

2060

1500

1000

500

0
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

 

THE NUMBER OF CONSUMER USING KNORR PRODUCTS

Figure 2.2.4: The number of consumer using knorr products from 2015 to 2019 (Source: Company financial statements 2019) and unit measurement: operators According to Nielsen Market Research Company in Vietnam, from now until 2022,
each year the seasoning industry will grow 25-32% + (double-digit growth), in which fish sauce and soy sauce , seasoning seeds, monosodium glutamate, soup powder, marinated spice products, instant noodles are highly competitive items. Particularly in the market of seasoning seeds, Knorr is always stable in the top of the dominant brands in Vietnam. For the past four years, Knorr has been consistently in the top 50 of the Brand Footprint report, proving the status of one of the prestigious spice brands with a lifespan of 179 years.
Ho Chi Minh is a place that has the most rapid growth rate of the food and beverage sector in the country and Knorr brand has the strong position in the market but the enhancing in the amount of output sale in Ho Chi Minh is not high.
Improvement Of Horeca Chanel in Unilever Food Solution 9

 

CHAPTER 3. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

3.1 Potential problem

3.1.1 The market has fierce competition

Competition in the market is an objective existent factor that the company is difficult to control. As more and more competitors emerge, and the company does not have new innovations that go faster than its competitors, especially in the catering and spice industry, the company will face many difficulties. The first problem that comes up is the reduced revenue.
Not as bustling as other food products always pay attention to consumers by events, promotion to gain market share is quite cumbersome and “monumental”, the market of wedge seeds takes place silently, but downright fierce and fierce. Companies that already have a foothold in the market always launch “moves” to gain market share, while new brands try to find a gap to continue exploiting each customer.
In Vietnam, spices always prove to be an attractive market and have a lot of potential for exploitation. This is evidenced by the fact that more and more “giants” in the domestic and international food industry have invested in production expansion (the latest is Long Thanh Ajinomoto Plant), which can include floating brands. excels are favored by many consumers and known as Knorr (Unilever), Maggi (Nestle), Aji-delicious (Ajinomoto), Chin-su (Massan), Vedan (Vedan), … With growing demand, in recent years, the domestic processing and processing food industry has developed rapidly with the rate of 150-200% / year. Since 2001, Maggi seeds have been added to Vietnam market, and Maggi has also jumped in. Previously, Ajinomoto and Vifon created a fierce competition to gain market share. According to a study conducted in 2003, Vietnam market consumes about 10 million liters of soy sauce and about 1,500 tons of seasoning seeds each year.
Currently the market share of the three foreign brands of grain are Knorr (Unilever), Ajinomoto (Ajinomoto) and Maggi (Nestlé) if the average in the world is approximately the same. According to Kantar Worldpanel Brand Footprint 2013, the Maggi wedge of Nestlé was chosen to buy the most with 1,580 points, Knorr 1,290 points and Ajinomoto 980 points.
But product competition is still the hottest “battle” because a brand has just announced a new strategy, then soon other brands have launched a strategy to follow.
For example, in July 2013, Ajinomoto announced a quality improvement for Aji-Ngon seasoning seeds with an investment of US $ 3 million for bone and meat basement extracting workshops, and improved packaging. With this strategy, Aji-Ngon believes that it will quickly
Improvement Of Horeca Chanel in Unilever Food Solution 10

increase its market share because it is the first company to invest in the extraction line of the stewed water in the bones of the bones, ribs, lean shoulder meat and pork lean meat. Most recently, the product “Aji-delicious Pork with Calcium supplemented” seasoned by this company in late September 2014 has appeared dense in distribution channels.
In addition, Nestlé then released Maggi 3 sweet wedge-flavored wedge seeds with two types of pig and chicken. Unilever also did not slow down when it announced that it had cooperated with the Nutrition Institute in the program of National Nutrient Supplement; and the middle of August last year officially launched Maggie products that added vitamin A.
And yet, these three foreign brands also take advantage of more market access in remote areas. Kantar Worldpanel’s latest research results show that growth in seasoning value is
4% in urban areas and 15% in rural areas. The proportion of households that choose to buy seasoning grain products currently accounts for 72% in urban areas and 62% in rural areas.
3.1.2 The price of products has not enough competitive advantage

Unilever Food Solutions products are priced according to the market-leading strategy, with prices commensurate with quality. Knorr, Best Food, Lipton products are all priced at least
5% – 10% higher than other competitors.

I do survey to research customer perception of price activities. In the survey questionnaire, customers have 5 factors related to price. The first Cronbach’s alpha test results are variable GC5 “Flexible payment form” because the correlation coefficient is 0.287 <0.3. After variable type, we have the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient from 0.697 to 0.717. Running Cronbach’s
alpha for the second time gets the following results:

Observed variables Size

Form
Medium

Value
Difference

Standard

UFS product prices compete with similar products 290 3.72 .861

 

UFS product price is commensurate with quality 290 4.29 .900

 

UFS product price is stable 290 3.76 .864

Debt is well supported 290 3.83 .895

Total 290

According to the survey results, customers are satisfied with the product price because the product quality is equivalent (4.29), in terms of debt, it is also evaluated quite well and the