LDB REPORT: Speculative Listings
by Katharine Jowett

“Speculative Listings”: two words that may spell confusion in the wholesale customer’s mind. What are they, and why are they important to your business? Speculative listings are wholesale products that can offer an opportunity to realize improved margins per case, which is music to any retailer’s ears. The LDB will now be referring to these as “wholesale listings”.

In the past, these products may have been difficult to source through the ordering process, but the LDB is committed to helping private retailers access them better. The graphs below will help retailers realize the challenges around ordering wholesale listings.

There are currently 10,404 of these products on the LDB wholesale product list. Based on the total number of wholesale products available, beer is 5%, refreshment beverage is 3%, spirits are at 7%, and wine makes up the majority at 83% of the listings mix.

4,478 products are in the process of being added to the list or being removed from the list, which gives you an idea of the activity within the category of wholesale products. If you can’t get it, chances are it is no longer available or is in the process of being added and the agent may be pre-selling.

In contrast to the listing breakdown, revenue from the wholesale listing base is generated as follows: 62% beer, 8% refreshment beverage, 5% spirits, and 25% wine.

Of 10,404 wholesale listings, only 273 of those products generate 80% of all wholesale revenue. Many of the top 80% - 273 SKUs - are direct-delivered by companies other than the LDB (such as BDL, Container World, Okanagan Springs, VQA Wineries, etc.). The category mix on those SKUs is beer 63, refreshment beverage 44, spirits 43, and wine 123. On average, the SKUs that deliver 80% of the revenue generate more than $40,000 in retail revenue per year. 

Overall, wholesale products generate 4.9% of total provincial beverage alcohol revenue and wholesale wine SKUs generate 1.2% of total LDB revenue. Obviously there are a lot of products for retailers to choose from, but there are a very limited number of products that generate the bulk of the sales. 

What can the LDB do to make ordering wholesale products easier?

Commit to continuous review of the wholesale portfolio and maintain inventory of the LDB-delivered products that generate more than $40,000 in wholesale revenue annually in our warehouse. This will allow easy customer access to the most popular SKUs and will ensure that products with a demonstrated sales history are available without back-orders to the customer.

Publish the top volume products by category in the Straight Up newsletter to ensure customer awareness of the most popular products. Upon introduction of the “I-Store” web-ordering system (expected late 2007), all active wholesale SKUs will also be available in the listing catalogue.

Eliminate non-active SKUs from the wholesale listing database to avoid customer confusion around product availability.

These are first steps toward making the wholesale product ordering process an expedited and more rewarding experience for both retailers and suppliers. I know that we can look forward to the industry’s support of these initiatives in the interest of improving the level of customer service around delivery of wholesale products in the future.

Katharine Jowett is the Director of Wholesale Business at the LDB.