The Retail Journey
Welcome to the Retail Journey where we will cover important topics, interview industry stakeholders, and address emerging trends as we journey through our mission of helping our listeners thrive in retail. Your hosts for this show are CEO James Harris and CGO Charles Greathouse.
The Retail Journey
Introducing High Impact’s Private Brand Hub: A Conversation with Simone Parry
In this episode of The Retail Journey, Simone Parry, former Vice President of Private Brands for Consumables at Walmart, joins us to discuss how private brands are evolving in today’s retail environment. She reflects on her time at Walmart, where she worked across cross-functional teams to build private label strategies, improve supplier partnerships, and support category performance.
Now with High Impact Analytics, Simone leads Growth & Development. She has been integral in launching High Impact’s Private Brand Hub - built to equip your team with tailored support through product ideation to the retail shelf.
This episode offers a practical look at the challenges and opportunities in managing private brands at scale—and where the industry is heading next.
Hello and welcome to the Retail Journey podcast. I'm one of your hosts, charles Greathouse.
Speaker 2:And I am James Harris, and today we've got the privilege of sitting down with our very own Simone Perry. We've spoken once before, but that was before you joined High Impact, so excited to jump into all things private brand and what you've been working on here over the last several months Growth and development.
Speaker 3:Growth and development. Thank you, welcome to the retail journey.
Speaker 1:Simone, we're glad you're here.
Speaker 3:Thank you, charles. Thank you, james. I'm also very glad to be here. What have I been up to the last year? I took a few months, as you know, and did absolutely nothing. I spent time with the family and did a bit of travel and then I had the joy of meeting all of you and then came to spend some time here at High Impact, met the team, met the analysts, met all the people who work with suppliers on the client growth side and, of course, charles, I've known you for a long time. So it was a great time for me because I got to spend time with like-minded people who spend time helping suppliers and solving problems with suppliers.
Speaker 3:I love doing that at Walmart. I loved product development, but really I enjoyed working with suppliers and understanding where we could help along the way. Many issues to solve, many problems to collaborate on, and so now I get to do that at High Impact as well. So growth and development, I think, is really the two words that I love. I like growth, everyone likes growth, and normally the growth is for both parties, for Walmart and for the client, and that's really the best place to be. And then development looking at processes and finding ways to do things more seamlessly.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, anyone who's gotten to spend any kind of amount of time with you, simone, has seen how you take a development-centric view of, I'd say, most conversations. It's not simply about where we are, but it's a bit of where we are, perhaps how we got here and where we might be going next. Or, as I tended to struggle as a merchant, even further into the future, where we might be going next. Or, as I tended to struggle as a merchant, even further into the future, where we might be going or how we might get there on time and so being able to understand the depth of a calendar that is necessary for commercializing a private brand item.
Speaker 1:I thought I knew it all as a merchant and I was quite sure I was behind those timelines and I've since learned there's quite a bit more, even yet to the process calendars, that you didn't even make me aware of because I didn't do those parts. But there's people working all over to make private brand come to life at Walmart and I'm sure many retailers have very similar processes and approach.
Speaker 3:I think the word timeline has, as you just alluded to, many things underneath it.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:In terms of role players, the different people that make it work, get it to the shelf on time, and there's also, I think, systems and processes in most retailers. Walmart's no exception, but Walmart does do it very detailed yeah and to protect the customer in the end. I certainly know Walmart does that, and so that involves things that we shouldn't bring to the merchant's attention. It should just be done in the background so that the item gets to the shelf on time.
Speaker 1:I think we found that you know multiple clients coming from plenty of private brand experience across retail as they enter into how Walmart is doing and growing private brand in a meaningful way. It's very much with the end in mind, very much with strategic long-term growth in mind, and includes a lot of detail for great purpose. But it's nuanced versus where they might have otherwise experienced a private brand or even private label manufacturing in the past.
Speaker 3:I agree completely.
Speaker 3:I think one of the things I've noticed since being out of Walmart and here at High Impact is that everyone has different issues going on at any given time, and even though some private brand suppliers are actually quite mature in their relationship with Walmart, they can go into a new department or a new category and then they find that it's completely different in the ways of getting it commercialized, in the way that department does things, which roles are deployed to make it happen. And so you know, it's not just new suppliers coming into Walmart, it's actually suppliers who are going into new categories and new departments.
Speaker 2:The conversation is so relevant. Just a little bit of history, I'm sure most people are aware. Since COVID and then into inflation, private brands has increased shares substantially with kind of no end in sight. The private brands that have been around, that we're all familiar with, they've grown. There have been new ones introduced, many from a premium perspective. Can you talk a little bit about just the undercurrent of kind of where private brands is and where you think the industry is going?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's actually a great topic because if you look at private brands, for the last 20 years it's been through about four or five different phases we talk about pre-2000, we talk about pre-2010, where really then private brands started to bring in premium and to be high quality and I guess maybe before 2010,. It wasn't that there wasn't quality, it's just that it was mostly just about the national brand comparison.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then now where we're at post-COVID is is in a completely different phase, because during COVID a lot of customers went into private brand or store brand or different options, thinking that, okay, it would just be a temporary move away from national brand.
Speaker 2:The brand was out of stock or something A hundred percent, for whatever reason.
Speaker 3:It was because national brand did go out of stock first in the beginning of COVID, as people bought and pantry loaded, but they actually found they enjoyed the experience, and so some of them stayed with private brand after COVID, and that did a couple of things.
Speaker 3:It impacted the private brand supply chain in terms of both upstream and downstream, because it put pressure on volumes, it put pressure on certain raw materials, and so it also made it attractive for other private brands to start entering, and so it also made it attractive for other private brands to start entering. And so I think now what's happened is that private brand. The trends that are coming out of private brand right now is that they've earned the right to have premium, they've earned the right to innovate and they've earned the right to actually stand up and say, hey, I could be even better than the national brand, because that was my intention when I developed this product. So I think those things are all in play right now, and I also think that a lot of retailers, given the increased penetration and participation of their store brand portfolio, have invited a lot more private brand suppliers from a diverse supply base into their mix, and so that's also been positive, very positive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so pretty significant undercurrent, significant personal career change as you leave Walmart, take some time, get to join the group here at High Impact and then, as you do, with some process and a very thoughtful approach, you've done a lot of assessment on where the needs are in the market, what kind of support is necessary to help people thrive, and after all of that, we're here to announce and share the Private Brand Hub, and so can you tell us a little bit about Private Brand Hub and that sort of origin story of how we got here and then what's coming out of the Private Brand Hub, I think.
Speaker 2:Firstly, thank you for introducing it and thank you for recognizing how much I enjoy process.
Speaker 1:There's great reward when you follow something with intentionality, you come out with a much better end result, as you taught me multiple times as a merchant, I think process has its place.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, coming into High Impact and seeing the suppliers and realizing that everyone has different issues going on at different times, I thought let me spend time and, as you know, I spent time with different suppliers, being on the calls, listening to them, listening to conversations around in the office, and I realized that there was a nuancing opportunity in taking processes from retailers, processes from suppliers, and finding a way in between to marry them together and to be more agile, make timeline, because there's nothing worse for a merchant, as you know, for an item to be laid to shelf. It's a hole on the shelf, it's a hole in the P&L that is hard to fill In fact, almost sometimes impossible and suppliers all have the best intention. Everyone wakes up in the morning wanting to make it successful, but something goes wrong. So what I thought was let me divide it into phases, starting from ideation right through to landing on shelf. Let's put it into some digestible phases that can be given to a supplier and let them understand that there are steps in that process where we can assist, where we can help, we can offer some solutions based on experience of things that have gone wrong in the past. So I think that's the most important thing is, we're not these are not problems that are unique to a supplier in the type of problem, but it's unique in the timeline and it's maybe unique to that product that they're developing.
Speaker 3:So, having different phases in the process, starting from a discovery phase, moving through a prepare phase which gets everyone ready to go to Walmart, in the execute phase, which is then about actually making it happen, commercializing it, and then actually growing after that, because getting an item to shelf is just the first step and you know this, charles and James, you see it all the time with the conversations we have on a daily basis with the analytics team. There is a massive amount of opportunity to grow once you're at shelf, so there's no stopping once you hit the shelf. It's more about what actions do I take now to maximize that particular product that's at shelf, but also bring in innovation, given that Walmart right now is in an innovative phase. Everything's about assortment, opportunities for the customer and making sure that there's choice.
Speaker 2:Well, you've never been able to be as creative as you can be right now in product development for private brands. The Better Goods launch in the last year that's been exciting just to watch because it's very, very high quality products that I would have to imagine. Many of the shoppers aren't even aware that it's a store brand.
Speaker 3:I think you're 100% correct about the not even aware it's a store brand. I walk Walmart stores probably two, three times a week for my personal grocery but also just to see where the new items are. Having been there at Walmart when the ideation phase of Better Goods was happening around me, it's been great to actually go into a store and try them.
Speaker 3:And see it in real life, because now it's like seeing something being developed and now you can actually go physically try it. So that's been exciting for me. It's also exciting for me because it's leading in a lot of way, and I like the fact that private brand can lead. There's always a place for national brand equivalent. That is the bulk of what private brand and store brand programs do. But the ability to lead and actually be successful and it looks great on shelf and it's still a great price point, that's an achievement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, One of the things I'm excited about with this, with our private brands hub, is, yes, it can help some companies maybe break down some barriers that have been not barriers, but help them resolve issues that they were having internally to kind of get over the finish line. I'm excited about that of equipping companies to be successful, but I'm also I'm really excited about what companies are we going to be able to partner with to build that three-year growth plan, to build that multi-category expansion strategy and enable them to go after it.
Speaker 3:Well, you mentioned a really good phrase a three-year plan.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of suppliers are very focused in the year and the 12 months ahead because they're getting the product to shelf. At the same time, though, we should always be thinking about the second and the third year for that growth plan, and so one of the things that we can do with more mature suppliers is actually sit with them and look for continuous improvement in the existing processes. What are they thinking about in terms of innovation, and what can we pre-prepare them with to actually help them get that to shelf and get that to Walmart the right Walmart merchant? I think just because you're successful in one category doesn't automatically mean success in another category, because of the unique differences by department that exist in Walmart. So, certainly, the growth plan is something that is a facilitation element that the high impact team can do and, at the same time as developing the three-year plan, look for opportunities in process, look for upstream and downstream issues, roadcks, deductions, things that are happening that maybe they're not solving because they're so focused on getting the item to shelf.
Speaker 1:We can facilitate and help them with that yeah, yeah, I find there's a trap, uh, kind of like the execution trap.
Speaker 1:On the one hand, if you don't execute you have no business sort of being at the dance. And I'd say from my experience I don't know, maybe the majority execute pretty well, but barely a majority, you know, it's like kind of 60-40, perhaps 40% of the time there's some sort of major gap in execution. So it's very important and as a merchant or as a supplier, if you get stuck in the headspace of just executing and you don't do discovery on where we might be, or preparation in a way that you should, or you look at growth with an actual long range point of view, you're selling yourself short, the category short significantly In your experience. What does it take for I think it plays on both sides for the retailer to be able to think beyond just simple execution, as well as the supplier to be able to be prepared to go beyond execution. What's it take to elevate the conversation from just execution to that sort of exponential growth that happens when you're thinking beyond?
Speaker 3:Well, I would take that question back to the start to finish process. So for me, a successful ideation process and discovery needs to include all the things that will happen during the prepare phase and the execute phase. So discovery is not just about finding the new item, it's about understanding where is it going to fit and shelf. What role is it going to play? How can I get to the correct cost of goods? Can I factor in all the things that I'm going to encounter along the way of executing in terms of the cost of doing business? Some of those things are hidden and not visible in the beginning, and what we can do is help bring that to bear so that the correct cost and the correct cost also then comes with.
Speaker 3:Well, which tier of private brand am I going to play in? What role can my product do in that assortment? And with an in-depth assessment of the category as it is today in Walmart, through different means and different ways of getting to that information, we can say, okay, well, if this is your expertise, you've got this capacity, this is where you want to play, this is what you already do. Well, now let's help you actually bring it to be in that discovery phase and actually get the right cost of goods attached to it. I think the cost of goods today is even more important than it was three years ago and understanding all the detail and nuancing that should go into that cost of goods at the outset so that you don't encounter these during the time that it's actually being commercialized and it's too late.
Speaker 1:Especially as you execute very thin margins, because this is a very high value space to play in for the customer as well as the retailer.
Speaker 3:I also think that suppliers from my experience don't realize that Walmart has such a breadth of opportunity in private brand. It's not just the opening price point. Those days are pre-2010, as we mentioned earlier, james, I think and part of our role in high impact and in the private brand hub is to take their capacity and capability and help them say oh, but you can actually play here, this is an opportunity, you can go to this price point, you can go to this tier of private brand and you can actually innovate. The other way is also correct, though. Sometimes there's overengineering for the tier that it's at, and we want to help with that too. And that's that development part, that development part of taking the item or the thought process, the three-year plan, moving it into the execute phase and then actually, once that's been done, you still then add on another year of growth yeah and because it's the three-year plan, is an evolving thing?
Speaker 1:yeah, absolutely it's. Uh, it's one of those spaces, so it's, you know, fast development it's important, it's long range. You end up dealing with sort of high stakes the whole time and surprises are where there's major disruption. Yeah, I feel like the process and the private brand hub is here to help those that have experienced surprises, either on the execution side, where you thought you were prepared for it, or when it comes time for, like. I feel like this item is doing great and it's going to continue to thrive, and then it's delisted because it wasn't for some reason that you're unaware of. I feel like there's a type of private brand manufacturer that's out there. If you're experiencing those surprises at retail, the Private Brand Hub is here to help. There are several out there that maybe are making things in the US, haven't maybe been in private brand as much, haven't quite considered it as an option. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the private brand hub can help someone who's vertically integrated, well-positioned for it, but has not ever chosen to pursue a private brand.
Speaker 3:So one of the things I think the private brand hub I know the private brand hub will do is that group of suppliers who is a little bit unsure of. Are they ready to work with Walmart? Do they have the right capability and capacity to actually put a proposition in front of the merchant? Are they ready for that first meeting? What we can do is tease that all out and ask the right questions, give them a right view of what to expect. I have this phrase what to expect when you're expecting. That's sometimes hard and they haven't been to Walmart yet. So that group of suppliers coming into Walmart for a first time, even though they might have an item in another secondary channel or in a department store or somewhere else direct to consumer. What we can do is hold that mirror up and say this is what you can expect.
Speaker 1:I love that and that preparation will. It pays off greatly both in. If you say you're going to do something, being able to deliver. There's nothing. I appreciate more as a former merchant when someone said they were going to do something and they did exactly that thing. That helps a lot while trying to run a business. How about those that are currently at Walmart but find themselves getting surprises stubbing your toe, running into friction or issues? How does a private brand hub step into that?
Speaker 3:I think that's a slightly different approach, but using the same process. So that's about understanding strengths and weaknesses and opportunities and threats. It's about sitting down with that supplier team and saying what are your pain points, where are you finding roadblocks and what help are you getting right now, because we have a team of experts here in different elements whether it's replenishment, whether it's in data analytics, whether it's in a dashboard of performance metrics, in category analysis those things we can hold up and say, okay, let's dig deep into that, let's go through a set of questions with you, and then we'll actually move into solution mode. These are the things that you can go and do to make it better. It's not putting a bandaid on it, it's actually solving it so it stops.
Speaker 2:That's the thing. The way I've been thinking about it and kind of talking about it is most companies are good at some things and then inherently have some weaknesses in other things, and that's going to be different from company to company and that's just the nature of humans being humans. So we can step in and help plug some of those holes, maybe on a part-time basis, maybe it's more of a long-term partnership, but it is a total rebuild. It's let's let you maximize on what you're killing at and we'll help with this part over here. Particularly in a private brand organization, they tend to be lean organizations. They don't have maybe a lot of product people like a brand would by design, right by design, and to my knowledge this is a unique offering in the marketplace. I'm extremely excited to get it going.
Speaker 3:One of the things that impressed me about the high impact team when I first started working with all of you and now I'm a part of the team is that the ability to deploy a problem to a certain area of expertise in the team. I like that. So it's not a one-size-fits-all, and the process as we've set it up in the hub is that we can deploy elements of it for a shorter term if needed, and then, once that's solved, there's another discussion about well, what's the next thing, or is there a different relationship in mind for a longer-term relationship? So it can be deployed either way, and so suppliers who might be facing one sort of issues can also come to us and say this is my issue, how can you help? And we'll have a discussion. That in itself is a discovery discussion and we can do that, and then we can fit something to the solution to the problem at hand with the right solution.
Speaker 2:I love that, so it's kind of a modular-based approach.
Speaker 3:Do you use that word?
Speaker 1:Yeah, love a good modular-based approach. Love a good modular approach, beautiful, really excited to be able to share. There's obviously much more to come from the Private Brand Hub. As a sort of closing thought, as you're talking to friends old and perhaps there'll be some new as well on what it looks like to accept some help along the journey or to have someone come alongside you, what counsel might you share to folks that might be in this space struggling through, trying to figure out what their next step is?
Speaker 3:struggling through, trying to figure out what their next step is. So one of the things we spoke about in the first podcast that I did with you when I was not at High Impact yet, we spoke around the whole situation of collaboration, transparency, and so I don't believe that anyone should feel they're doing themselves an injustice by putting their hand up and saying I've got this issue. In fact, it's better to do that and to get to the solution quicker. That means it gets in front of the merchant quicker, it solves the merchant's problem quicker and then all of us feel much better at the end of the day More trust, absolutely. It builds trust and it builds loyalty for the private brand customer because the item is back on shelf or it's back in a way that they always experienced it. That's got to be the best thing to see.
Speaker 2:I love that. Well, I'm grateful and I'm honored that you joined our team. I've enjoyed getting to know you and I'm very excited about what we're going to build together.
Speaker 3:Well, I thank you both for the opportunity and I'm also very excited to be here.
Speaker 2:If you are interested in learning more about the Private Brands Hub, you can reach out to any one of us, charles, james or Simone at highimpactanalyticscom. Thank you.
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