The Kraft Heinz Company is the fifth largest food and beverage company in the world, operating in over 40 countries, generating over $26bn in net sales in 2020. A globally trusted producer of delicious foods, KHC provides high quality, great taste and nutrition for all eating occasions whether at home, in restaurants, or on the go. The Company’s iconic brands include Kraft, Heinz, ABC, Capri Sun, Classico, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Lunchables, Maxwell House, Ore- Ida, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Planters, Plasmon, Quero, Smart Ones and Velveeta.
Business Challenge
The Indonesian retail environment is characterized by a mix of highly fragmented distribution networks and consolidated modern trade retail channels. Kraft Heinz Indonesia recognized this complexity and understood that by their current approach they were operating under significant process and system constraints, with fragmented micro solutions and excel-based workflows; approaches were highly manual and reduced visibility on Discounts and Allowances (D&A) and Advertising and Promotional (A&P) investments.
Kraft Heinz Indonesia needed a tool that would enable efficient promotion management, ROI-driven commercial plans, dispute-proof claim reconciliation, and insight analytic capabilities to optimize trade investments.
Solution Capabilities
UpClear’s BluePlanner Revenue Management solution offered Kraft Heinz Indonesia an end-to-end Trade Promotion Optimization capabilities, from demand planning and funds management through to the terms and promotion management with post-event analysis and analytical insight reporting.
BluePlanner’s versatility in addressing the specific needs of a traditional trade market contexts, through advanced capabilities allows Kraft Heinz to flexibly manage complex distribution-push, traditional trade routes-to-market as seamlessly as modern key account retail channels and driving trade incentives to achieve the highest ROI, entirely replace the claim settlement with a streamlined, paperless process through a distributor claim portal to completely remove the paper trail, and gain deep analytical insights to discover hidden sources that drive revenue growth.
“BluePlanner has enabled us to streamline the end-to-end trade promotion process, drive trade partner collaboration and remove the paper trail”
– Head of IT, Kraft Heinz Indonesia
Deployment Approach
Despite the rapid spread of the Covid virus and it’s ravaging impact globally by mid 2020, UpClear proposed an accelerated roll-out timeline, with the BluePlanner end-to-end solution fully live at Kraft Heinz Indonesia by year end. Led by UpClear’s Asia-Pacific team, the project was executed completely remotely in close collaboration with the client’s sales and finance teams.
Realized Business Value
Prior to the deployment of BluePlanner, Kraft Heinz struggled with a legacy ERP system that significantly constrained their ability to manage incentive programs for distributors and consumers. These programs are a critical part of the sales plans that map promotional activity across a value chain of 400,0000+ trade partners and retail outlets. Since rolling out BluePlanner to manage trade spend, the flexibility and ease of use has allowed local teams to implement these programs much more efficiently.
“At Kraft Heinz Indonesia, We are Consumer Obsessed. Deploying the UpClear BluePlanner solution has improved our trade promotion capabilities and enabled us to manage pricing, deductions, and allowances across all routes-to-market and channels, ensuring that Indonesia’s much-loved products are always within reach.”
– Head of IT, Kraft Heinz Indonesia
