«Outsourcing as the best choice», Our achievements & the way ahead, Rebranding and Adus Services

Friday, December 1, 2017

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Q: What is Adus? When did you start your company’s aspirations in the Greek market and who are your key people?

Adus was founded in June 2009 to strengthen Fast Moving Consumer Goods and its Partners’ retail operations, initially covering the gap of the need of FMCG Traders for the development and maintenance of a fully-staffed and well-organized internal sales department which is realized through our outsourcing services with 100% geographical coverage. Adus has experienced salesmen - merchandisers who have been active for many years in the supermarket area, covering daily tasks, supported via tablet usage by an award-winning, computerized system. Our customers are instantly informed about the image of their products and the condition of their shelves at all points from storage to shelf and proceed to the execution of the orders they receive from us. In this way, they have "eyes" and "ears" in the market, learning everything when it occurs and a sales force equivalent to the large companies in the field.

 

The first two pillars concern businesses already in the supermarket chains. We fully cover all of their needs within every supermarket store, such as merchandising, ordering, promotions and tasting, placing second outlets, informing about their competition, and providing detailed statistics on the movement of their products by geographic region, per point of sale and per specified time period. But there is also a plethora of companies that are not yet in the supermarkets’ shelves, while they want to enter, yet they do not know how to do it. The third pillar is specifically targeted at these companies. We apply a specific methodology to reach an agreement at such level of product placements on-the-shelf on behalf of our customers.

 

Q: You have recently rebranded. What was the goal and what has changed?

Our company has rapidly evolved. We started in 2009 with a staff of two people, covering some supermarket chains in Attica. Today we have many experienced teams, covering both Attica and all over mainland Greece and Crete. We visit about 2,000 points of national chains and 500 other local ones and we have been awarded by independent bodies for the excellence of our organization and the state-of-the-art technology we use. Rebranding was a natural consequence of our evolution. At a strategic level, we have designed the upgrading and expansion of our services as Adus being a top Fast Moving Consumer Services Provider and will communicate to all Greek companies the model of the extended outsourcing services offered by Adus, which ensure increased sales with simultaneous reducing costs, ensuring sustainability and growth in the difficult times we are experiencing.

 

Q: What exactly does Adus offer? Where would you say you are special?

Our company specializes in fast moving consumer goods, through a wide range of services, based on four pillars as follows:

• Sales, Ordering, Merchandising
• Product Promotion
• Product placement on the markets
• Extroversion Services

saving time and money for our customers dealing with retail chains. At Adus, based on our experience, we know exactly what we need to do for a successful outcome. The fourth pillar refers to the Extroversion of Greek companies and their expansion to foreign markets. As with chains, here things move along a established method.

 

Q: What makes the company stand out from the competition? What is its competitive edge?

There are several things that make us stand out from competition, but the key is the quality that governs our company in every aspect:

1. First of all, the quality of our staff, combining professionalism, high level of knowhow and efficiency.

2. High quality communication with our customers. For us in Adus, every customer is unique and the company makes him feel that way. We listen to his needs, grasp his issues and offer him exactly the solution he needs.

3. There is quality in our contact with the Retailers, because in every visit to their premises, we do not represent Adus, but every client and we need to promote his / her best image.

4. We use innovative technological infrastructure that enables our customers receive their orders directly and have full details at every store in the country, as if they were there by themselves. The combination of the foregoing leads to increased sales of our customers, even in the crisis.

5. From a financial point of view, our great competitive advantage is the way we charge our sales and merchandising services. For a company to be active in the market, at least one seller is needed. This is the cost of our services. All of the above is enthusiastically considered by our customers at the cost of just one employee per region. For example, if a customer wants to cover Attica’s 500-point traffic, he will be charged for an employee and will work for that at least sixteen people, fully meeting his needs in that area. Corresponding costs for other geographic areas.

 

Q: Can you tell us some of your collaborations?

Listed below are companies that work together

with us:

Christodoulou Family - Juices

Dr Oetker - Frozen Pizzas

Evrelko - Household products

Violanda – Biscuits, Cookies

Frutop - Soft Drinks

McCain – Semi Baked Potatoes,

Bake Hellas – Bakery Products

Kriton Artos – Traditional Cretan Bakery and Snacks

Linette - Baby Care Products

Macedoniki Gi – Foods ,

Papaellinas, KROPIA Hatzathanassiou – Foods,

Viap  Mentel - Pastilles, Pastry Products.

Our customer selection criteria is done very carefully, we never get companies possessing competitive products.

 

Q: The difficult economic situation, which has left its mark on the organized retail market, how does it affect the sector in which you operate? How do you deal with the challenges that exist?

The crisis has greatly influenced the Greek economy and, by extension, consumption, therefore, given the current situation in Greece, which is expected to continue for several years, Greek companies have two options: (1) extreme cost-cutting that cannot support the fall in turnover, which only benefits in the short term, because the costs can be cut to a certain degree because they then become inelastic, while the parallel reduction in sales (due to absence from the market) does not reverse, leading to a closure; or (2) partnering with Adus and its Outsourcing Business Model, providing our customers with all the necessary “weaponry”: (a) Experienced and numerous staff, (b) Excellent structure, (c) Cutting edge technology, (d)prompt analytics difficult to produce from their own IT systems (e) pan-European coverage, (f) detailed plan of daily team visits, (g) information on competition, (h) product promotion services, (i) opening up to new markets, and (j) market-based consulting services. We face the challenges by combining all the above under a framework of economies of scale, intelligent entrepreneurship, prudence, strict professionalism, innovative ideas, qualitative services and a dynamic market approach with the aim of developing our customers. For Greek companies, the outsourcing service model is a one-way course that Adus delivers consistently and efficiently.