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Case Study: Unilever Food Solutions

Precise geographic data is required for Unilever’s fleet of deliverymen to better service the Chinese restaurant market. How can they gauge their level of market penetration in two constantly changing cities?
Case-Study-Unilever-Food-Solutions
Unilever Food Solutions traces its lineage back to the early 1800's and has been supplying ingredients, food services and cost saving recipes to restaurants ever since. Originating in Germany, the company has since grown to operate on six continents. UFS has been servicing restaurants in China since 2001.

Challenge
UFS currently services thousands of restaurants in Guangzhou and Shanghai and is looking for expansion opportunities in this rapidly changing market; however, they are unaware as to the extent of their current market penetration. UFS needs an accurate count of every restaurant within these two cities in order to determine the market depth as well as identify locations for potential expansion such to maximize distribution efficiency. To gauge the economic position of new potential customers, UFS has requested that cuisine and financial data be collected from every surveyed restaurant.

With a combined population of over 25 million people and a total municipal area of over 15,000 km2, there is little doubt as to the monumental scale of their challenge.

Summary: Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) provides spices and chicken broth by delivery to restaurants throughout Shanghai and Guangzhou. Due to immense market size and constrained methods of distribution, UFS is unable to accurately gauge market penetration.

Getting Down to Work
getchee managers met with UFS to discuss as to how to gauge their current market position and identify target customers. With UFS’ specifications in mind, getchee sent a team of over 400 surveyors to methodically walk the streets of Guangzhou & Shanghai. Through weekly transmissions, the surveyor-collected data was sent to getchee analysts who would then classify, sort,

UFS needs an accurate count of every restaurant within these two cities in order to determine the market depth

and analyze the immense data inflows. Simultaneously a team of getchee management and analysts kept strict quality control over the surveyors with daily meetings and discussions. Additionally, getchee analysts trained the survey team for three weeks and also periodically accompanied them on surveys as to ensure strict guideline adherence.

With the powerful getchee online software platform, analysts were able to easily eliminate double-counted restaurants and identify areas missed by the surveying team. The getchee program then visualized maps that both outlined the extent of UFS coverage and the market gaps yet to be filled.

Result
getchee located an astounding 25,000 restaurants that fit UFS specifications. However, getchee did not simply stop there. getchee then analyzed the data to find what type of cuisine and restaurant size UFS deliverymen were missing. The analysis showed that UFS was strongest in their coverage of Guangdong cuisine in both Shanghai and Guangzhou. But more importantly, getchee discovered large distribution gaps within the Huaiyang, Chuan, Beifang, and hotpot style cuisine restaurants in both cities. Additionally, getchee discovered low distribution efficiency for restaurants of 100 or fewer seats.

getchee discovered large distribution gaps within the Huaiyang, Chuan, Beifang, and hotpot style cuisine restaurants

With a massive database of over 20,000 new potential clients including maps to locate each, UFS is now able to more aggressively and strategically expand in both Guangzhou & Shanghai.

Summary: getchee will perform an on-the-ground universal field survey of the entire Guangzhou and Shanghai restaurant markets to find gaps in existing UFS coverage. With an awareness of their currently serviced locations, getchee will be able to identify expansion opportunities based upon the dimensions of location, cuisine style, and restaurant size.


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