Food Union has two door-step-delivery companies in the Nordic region – Hjem Is, Denmark and Den Norske Isbilen, Norway – that have invested in door-step-delivery technology improvements and expansions in ecommerce. These investments have led to an increase in sales, job growth and have helped reach more consumers than ever during the pandemic’s shutdowns.
Food Union is currently the leading ice cream maker in the Baltics and Denmark, and holds strong market positions in Norway, Romania, Russia and Belarus. Food Union Group’s shareholders include its founder and global head Andrey Beskhmelnitskiy, the Hong Kong-based investment company Meridian Capital Limited, and one of Asia’s largest private capital firms PAG.
Said Normunds Staņēvičs, CEO of Food Union Europe: “We expanded and improved our door-step-delivery services to be closer to the customer and to create a more intuitive consumer experience. We expanded our door-step-delivery routes and optimised our stop accuracy and consumer interaction platforms to ensure we reached consumers when they wanted to purchase our products. We also reviewed our product offering and mix to bring consumers the highest quality product. In order for all innovations in technologies and product portfolio to come together, we invested a great amount of resources to educate and build up a strong sales team operating nation-wide that could connect with our consumers on a daily basis.”
During the first 9 months of 2020, Hjem Is showed a significant 42% increase in customers served in comparison to year 2019. Food Union improved their stop accuracy by 4.3%, and only increased their trips performed by 2%. In Norway Den Norske Isbilen showed a 30% increase in customers served, a 6.7% increase in stop accuracy, and a 5% increase in trips driven in comparison to 2019.
Added Staņēvičs: “Consumer behaviour trends show that Nordic markets reflect global trends where consumers continue to change their buying habits from offline to online. We believe more brands and companies will continue to follow this shift to ecommerce. Many of our consumers are utilising our online shops and delivery services for the first time, so we want to make sure consumers have a remarkable buying experience. We will continue to create faster and more flexible delivery solutions.”
With the world spending more time at home and with the risk of Covid-induced lockdowns, Food Union is actively investing in agile market environments with strong ecommerce potential. Food Union invested in a modern truck tracking system and planning software that evaluated and recalculated existing routes, analysed consumer behaviour and adapted routes in order to reach more customers.
Additionally, Food Union constructed a new freezer warehouse in Norway, updated their car fleets in Denmark and Norway, and continued improvements to online platforms which help more customers reach their ‘ice cream shops on wheels.’ Hjem Is launched a new web page and ecommerce platform to give customers faster and more flexible delivery options. They also established a mobile-first buying experience and created an enhanced modern look-and-feel to communicate with consumers that were not reached previously. For more visit foodunion.com
