YPIE Blog Day Two Part One: Fishpools

Sean Duffin, a participant on this year’s Young Professional Industry Experience (YPIE), writes about the group’s visit to Fishpools.

Chief financial officer and commercial director Ed Duggan was exceptional in explaining Fishpools and how as a company they have had to adapt to the changes in the industry. Fishpools is experiencing a major shift towards digital retailing and are having to adapt their business strategy to sustain their market share. It was clear that when creating your business strategy that you must consider your shareholders, as this will define your business plan. Some companies may opt for strategy plan for productivity (Flow, JITS) or growth (margins, expansion).

Fishpools is clearly focused on their consumers and what they required, but also as a business it is important to consider the whole supply chain (even back to your suppliers).

Even though the digital market has had a dramatic impact, Fishpools believes that people buy from people and that this will continue to play a major part in their business going forward. To gain competitive advantage it is important to try and understand what makes your customer tick, how can you as the supplier build a relationship that will result in an easy life for the customer.

Mosaic Profile is a key marketing tool at Fishpools. They use this tool to understand their market and the buying behaviour of their customer geographically. Mosaic Profile splits the UK into 50+ social economic segments and provides the supplier with an understanding of the market, which can generate a successful business plan.

Fishpools believes that is more than just delivering a product, as a company you must consider the whole supply chain. For example, there is no point developing a fantastic product to be ruined by the delivering company.

Digital /Social Media is crucial to Fishpools. For example, a lot of customers listen to other opinions and this could result in no further business (Trip adviser could have bad reviews).