Although Sainsbury’s has the typical frontline press team of a major supermarket, the real responsibility for the business’ reputation lies with Judith Batchelar – director of Sainsbury’s brand for 10 years, and described by chief executive Mike Coupe as “the legend that is”.
She is responsible for all aspects of the product offer from ethical policies, sourcing, NPD, product safety and packaging, but far from staying within the bounds of her job description, she also sits on the board for several industry bodies, including her role as industry co-chair of the Agri-Tech Leadership Council, the advisory body to the government on implementing the Agri-Tech Strategy.
Her talk at the Sainsbury’s Farming Conference is confident, relaxed and focused on the neutral topic of big data collection – and our one-to-one interview is no less well-polished. After around 30 years in the food and drink industry, and with a stellar CV that includes 12 years at M&S, Batchelar is a retail stalwart and clearly well-versed in smoothing over difficult questions.
Mirroring the areas of growth in the wider grocery market, in September Sainsbury’s announced it will invest in the commodity and premium ends of its product offering, as part of a major restructure to its pricing mechanisms. Whereas trade media headlines focused on price cuts to many everyday products as a sign that Sainsbury’s was joining the supermarket price wars, Batchelar stresses that this was very much a price investment into two separate tiers of the Sainsbury’s offer.Hence, she explains, the business is cutting prices of commodity products such as nappies or apples, at the same time as investing in quality lines such as strawberries, at the other end of the spectrum.
“The key thing is we’ll invest in price where it matters to customers, and we’ll invest in quality where it matters to customers. But in order to do both those things, you need really efficient value chains. If you’re going to invest in price you need to be efficient, and if you want to create quality you’ve got to invest. While I think everybody thinks we’ve been doing that for years, in lots of areas it is a new way of working. And like all new ways, they take time and they require trust.”
And more importantly for suppliers, the price cuts, Batchelar stresses, are being achieved through Sainsbury’s investing its own money – a process that she says is ongoing.
Price must surely be a key area of focus for Batchelar, but where she really shines is, unsurprisingly, also a safe and media-positive topic – technology and the use of ‘big data’.“I think any kind of scanning and sensor technology that can gather lots of information quickly, and make that information readily accessible, is the future,” she says. “The key thing is you can almost boil the ocean in data – you need to be very specific about why you are collecting that data and how you are going to use it.”
For a supplier, the news that one of the top decision-makers in the Sainsbury’s business is actively engaging with, and sees the value in, the latest data technology might just be a fact worth knowing.Batchelar, who explains how vegetable supplier Barfoots of Botley is using satellite information to track containers of asparagus, says it certainly adds value if a supplier can provide micro-levels of information.
“It’s only because Barfoots is exploring that technology, and sharing that information with us, that we can then optimise that,” she says. “The sensors on that container are looking at the modified atmosphere and temperature humidity, and all that information is coming in the whole time the container is on the ship. So when it arrives at Felixstowe they have a really good idea of what condition it’s going to be in.”
With such a broad role, Batchelar clearly has a deep understanding of how the needs of the customer directly link to the profitability of the supplier, and of course the profitability of the retailer – a vitally important concept that produce suppliers need to grasp in order to add value, stand-out from others, and grow their businesses in the future.
“The shorter the shelf-life the more vital that real-time information is, because you have so little time to play with,” she says. “Customers measure quality by how long something lasts once they’ve bought it. So if we can maximise that, then that quality perception shoots up.
'Having that real-time data really helps. And then if you took that technology and linked it to data-embedded barcodes on products, you could flex the shelf-life of the product depending on its condition and age when you received it.So say your asparagus arrives three days earlier than you expected, and it’s in great condition, you could easily put an extra three days life on it.”
Batchelar was by the side of fomer CEO Justin King during his campaign to ‘Make Sainsbury’s Great Again’, and she is now part of the core team of newly-appointed chief executive Mike Coupe. So how is life under the new CEO? Batchelar, who trained as a biochemist herself, seems to appreciate working alongside a fellow scientist. Coupe has a degree in physics, and according to Batchelar, he is logical, analytical and has an eye for a complex problem.
“All the things we’re working on from a sourcing perspective, which I would call the longer-term game, he absolutely understands the importance of. He’s a big supporter of science and technology,” she says. “He believes that knowing our customer better than anyone else, because we’ve got that data and knowledge, means that we can offer them the things that they want. And he also understands that for me, I’m looking down the other end of the lens, saying that I need to know my supply chains better than anyone else. I think in that respect, he is very logical and very analytical.”
With this emphasis on knowledge and data, it’s not surprising that in past interviews Batchelar has said she “hates being unprepared”, and also explains why it’s difficult to catch her off guard on any of the more controversial topics muddying retail waters at the moment. But there is one area she is happy to admit she didn’t foresee: “I don’t think people see things like that coming,” she says of the Tesco accounting scandal, before being conveniently ushered away to prepare for the next session.
Life as a Batchelar:
- Graduated in 1981 with a degree in medical biochemistry
Worked at M&S for 12 years as category manager for health and wellbeing, where she was credited with establishing the successful Count On Us slimmers’ ready meal range
- Joined Safeway as director of technical and product development
Appointed as directorof Sainsbury’s brand in 2004
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