With millennials maturing and the Gen Z crowd becoming young adults, convenience retailers find customers’ shifting dispositions both a challenge and an opportunity. The question: How to stay relevant?

Retailers addressing change head on often find solutions coming from trusted business partners, many of whom have invested real time and resources to support these retailers.

“Our customers are consumers, and expectations of all consumers have changed in recent years” said Sean Luce, vice president of sales for convenience, travel and military for McLane, Temple, Texas. “When our customers win, we win and serving as a strategic partner enables us to make the most of our partnership.”

McLane has developed a series of programs designed to meet retailers where they are in their journey, whether they are feeling price pressures, wanting to stock new and innovative products in their store, or needing to expand their foodservice offering in order to combat the declining tobacco sales, Luce said.

Here is a rundown of these programs:

• Emerging Brands. A digital item discovery tool at McLaneMarketplace.com that allows retailers to test new up-and-coming brands and products.
• Private Label. An opportunity for retailers to increase margin and provide consumer value on a host of packaged goods through a private-label strategy.
• McLane Fresh. A three-part program involving labor-saving equipment and a variety of menu options from food to cold coffee.

Luce said that as a distributor it is vital to communicate—to become a strategic partner with retailers by having intimate, thoughtful conversations.

“Our customers tell us, ‘I want to grow past where I am now,’” Luce said. “We can help them do that.”

It’s a more comprehensive way to help customers find winners.” – Michelle Patterson, vice president, marketing and communications for McLane.

Retail Innovation

Retailers may find the notion of keeping up with changing consumer trends hard to grasp. A clearer vision of the issue may be where an interesting product just seen on an episode of TV’s “Shark Tank” suddenly appears on a c-store shelf.

Describing McLane’s new Emerging Brands platform, Michelle Patterson, vice president, marketing and communications for McLane, said retailers wanting new products—for instance, items from a new-to-market brand—can have samples shipped to stores or category managers without hassle.

McLane’s marketplace allows retailers to shop for local, trending and purpose-driven products gaining momentum in the grocery channel, on social media or in emerging categories completely new to c-stores. As an example, Patterson mentioned freeze-dried candy. Retailers saw these items on social media and we were able to quickly onboard two new brands. “You can see the perfect TikTok video today, then authorize and order it in the McLane system,” she said. “Along those lines, we have five brands from ‘Shark Tank.’”

The program further encourages retail experimentation and innovation with low-minimum orders reducing financial investment and inventory commitments to sample and stock new or niche products. Retailerscan order one case or a pallet, depending on the scale of their test. “It’s a great way to [test products and] differentiate their store,” Patterson said.

At the same time, retailers are spared the complexity of signing on and building relationships with dozens of up-and-coming vendors. “From a retailer’s perspective, it’s a lot of work to deal with vendors, select product and if something is not working, find a way to adjust quickly at shelf.”

Having just launched last fall, McLane’s Emerging Brands program currently offers approximately 1,000 products from more than 140 brands and counting. Popular c-store categories like snacks and candy are well represented, but the assortment also features health, beauty, and wellness items and pet products. The platform is also distinguished by the capability to search and filter according to criteria important to retailers and consumers, such as location, diet, and brand values.

This program is unique to the industry, Patterson said. “It’s a more comprehensive way to help customers discover new products and find winners that resonate with end consumers.”

Foodservice Finesse

Another pillar of support comes with foodservice. The McLane Fresh program offers what it calls an “end-to-end solution,” involving everything from equipment and in-store merchandising to quality assurance and food safety.

In terms of menu offerings, McLane has three core programs. First is its Central Eats program, a grab-and-go brand that includes a range of packaged, freshly prepared options, including snacks, parfaits, cut fruit, hot and cold sandwiches, wraps and salads.

Then beverages come into play with its CupZa! offer of coffee and cold beverages like teas and lemonades. The brand includes nitro and cold brew coffee options, a technology enabled bean-to-cup coffee component and a customizable, flavored-syrup shot program.

Finally, McLane developed its Prendisimo pizza brand, a freezer-to-oven program tailored for the convenience-retail environment.

“With fluctuation in other categories, retailers are looking to foodservice to drive sales,” Luce said. “It’s something that we’ve more than doubled down on this year, with our food innovation kitchen, chefs and national coffee and pizza programs.”

Equipment and technology also play a role, said Terry Levee, senior director of food safety and quality assurance for McLane. “Our goal is to provide fresh and wholesome products in the safest way possible,” he said. “For some, that means providing equipment within a package. The easy-to-use equipment saves time and effort, allowing retailers to redirect their resources to customers themselves.”

Our customers tell us, ‘I want to grow past where I am now.’ We can help them do that.” – Sean Luce, vice president of sales for convenience, travel and military, McLane.

Private Label

While foodservice can bolster relevancy and a sense of uniqueness for a c-store, another strategy in McLane’s arsenal has been a growing track record for boosting profits.

Through yet another pillar of support, the distributor offers a private label portfolio with over 240 high-quality SKUs from McLane’s Consumer Value Products (CVP) program, enabling retailers to offer attractive prices without sacrificing gross margins, according to Teresa Voelter, director of private label for McLane.

“Over the past several years, private label sales have been increasing while national brands have seen declines, in both dollars and units,” Voelter said. “[Private label] within convenience is up as well.”

In choosing what products to bring into its program, CVP uses industry data and information from its own category management teams to bring new innovation to the shelf. CVP offers a wide range of products across many categories, and gross margins ranging from 8% to over 70% on items within the portfolio.

An important aspect of any private label offering is quality, Voelter said. “Quality is a must,” she said. “Consumers coming into stores have an expectation of quality and value. They want the same experience in private label as with national brands.”

CVP recently redesigned their Yumbees candy brand to better meet consumer expectations. Proprietary c-store consumer research indicates that Yumbees new package design outperforms national brands, scoring above average on key measures for value, fun packaging, quality, and kid-friendliness.

Other brands in the portfolio have added even more on-trend, relevant products for consumers, such as the Beau Dacious pet line, which is launching upcycled dog treats made from reused ingredients that otherwise would have been discarded, which contributes to a more sustainable food system.

Hometown Market snacks such as nuts and trail mix, everyday home essentials, and RoadTech automotive supplies are other popular private label lines.

Table Stakes

In the end, strategizing for the future is critical, but equally important for McLane is providing the basics, Luce said. These fundamentals include on-time delivery “in full,” meaning no product orders being short or substituted.

“We always talk about removing friction from the system,” Luce said. “We want to be easy to work with.”

“It’s all about making sure we’re aligned with our customers,” he said, “whether it’s at the corporate level or with a driver interaction at the store, we want to make sure we are adding value.”