RTM: Talking to white goods manufacturers it is clear that they tend to develop exclusive relationships with retailers. And some of them are quite ruthless about not working with retailers who they perceive as non-co-operative. Do you adopt that approach at all?

FM: No, this is a totally different business, where I guess breadth of distribution and product availability counts for a lot. So we tend to adopt an approach of "the more, the better!"

RTM: I know that, in the USA, pharmaceutical vendors have developed a lot of informational sites focused on particular medical conditions. You are giving a lot of information to the end-consumer.  Do retailers object to that?

FM: Not in my experience. If the retailers had to meet the information needs of all their consumers, life would quickly become unmanageable. They are happy for us to shoulder some of the responsibility.

RTM: I suppose all of this means using a wider variety of channels.  I gather, for instance, that you are putting your new mouth-freshener film through tobacconists and confectioners – people who would previously not have sold these products.

FM: Yes, you have to match consumer needs to channels all the time.  Customers want the convenience of buying these products alongside a newspaper.

RTM:  How much do you rely on data from retailers?  Are you finding that the new loyalty card schemes mean that retailers have much more detailed information of their own to share with you?

FM: To some extent, but that varies from country to country.  For instance, in the USA the whole area of loyalty cards is very new compared with its use by companies in the UK, like Boots and Tesco. People are just beginning to look at the data and ask how they can use it. There are also data protection issues in the USA and elsewhere.

RTM: So have these changes in how you handle retailers led to big changes in your own organisation?

FM: Not really. I guess you could say that we have evolved as the readiness level of the retailer has evolved and we match those new needs with competencies.

I think there has also been a move towards closer links with senior managers at head office with more frequent "Top-to-Top" meetings.

RTM: So it is all about creating value-add.

FM: Yes!  What I love in my job is having a meeting between the top managers from a retailer and our top people and having a really robust exchange of information, which can lead to our identifying potential opportunities and making an agreement on how to pursue them.