Albertsons 2008 Annual Report Download - page 4

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convenient and fun as we present product in a way that is both appealing and in-tune with emerging food and
lifestyle trends. In fiscal 2008 our accomplishments include:
• Piloting a meal solution program that is now rolling-out across our store network. This program offers a
high-quality, enhanced assortment of take-home, ready-to-eat or heat-and-eat foods responding to
consumers who want to eat at home.
• Executing first-to-market product launches exclusive to SUPERVALU.
• Utilizing customer shopping data to target high-impact product categories for maximum value offerings.
We believe these activities will drive traffic and establish brand loyalty across all of our markets.
Late in fiscal 2008 we began bringing together talent from across our company to create merchandising teams
that are focused on maximizing the opportunities presented by our national scale, while maintaining local
relevance. This merchandising transformation will be complete in late fiscal 2009 and will be housed in our new
Minneapolis Innovation Center.
Marketing teams in Minneapolis and our regional banners are developing cutting edge research and analytic tools
to provide increasingly specific consumer information that will enhance our go-to-market strategies. These teams
are identifying ways to best leverage our scale to bring relevant national and local programs to our customers.
Our Own Brands program received a major overhaul in fiscal 2008 and is now positioned for growth going
forward. As a result, we have increased our Own Brands penetration from approximately 15 percent to slightly
under 16 percent. Our Own Brands program drives loyalty, offers shoppers dependable high-quality products,
and raises the bar on product innovation. These benefits are especially important in today’s environment as
shoppers look for ways to stretch their food dollars.
In fiscal 2008, SUPERVALU also made progress on many technology initiatives that will benefit the company in
the years to come.
• Expertise in supply chain was leveraged as we made continued progress on “standardizing” the acquired
Albertsons distribution centers to SUPERVALU technology systems and service focused processes.
Standardizing establishes common inventory management, replenishment forecasting, and order
management practices as well as consistent metrics that will enhance our ability to mange the supply
chain while eliminating duplicative system.
• We selected new merchandising technology to replace the multiple dated applications in use today. The
first phase of development began late in fiscal 2008 after a successful conference room pilot. This will
support many functions including financial planning, item planning, category planning, and promotion
optimization measurement while delivering necessary infrastructure cost savings.
• We successfully converted all SUPERVALU pharmacies to our proprietary ARx system. ARx is a next
generation pharmacy management system that was designed and developed by SUPERVALU. ARx
allows physicians to electronically transmit prescriptions and enables shoppers to fill prescriptions
across our pharmacy network. In total, we have converted more than 900 stores from four legacy
pharmacy systems to this state-of-the-art solution, reducing IT administrative costs and increasing store
labor productivity.
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