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~ Lorna Leaver ~

COLUMN

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRODUCTDNA

Tesco, Ocado, Unilever and Sainsbury’s explain why the UK grocery industry is backing productDNA.

s the productDNA data-sharing platform David Hix, supply chain director at Nestlé, commented: ‘Our
celebrates its first birthday, the non-organisation current catalogue is seamlessly connected to productDNA,
Ahas found that one in three products fails the using the Global Data Synchronisation Network, making the
independent physical check which validates the accuracy platform incredibly easy to use. By reducing the time spent
and consistency of product data. The productDNA manually inputting and amending product data, we now have
platform is a single catalogue of high-quality product data more time to highlight the unique qualities of our products
that can be shared with multiple grocery retailers, using – supporting future retail.’ Talking about the diffi culties of
an industry-agreed set of attributes and a common data managing product data from an SME perspective, Hugh
definition for each type of product. Duffi e, co-founder of Cold Brew Coff ee fi rm, Sandows, said:
‘For us, this solution was a way to unite all of that data in one
Part of the service includes a physical check of the weight, place and send it to retailers as and when we needed to, in a
dimensions and on-pack information of the products entered much more effi cient way.’
into the system, carried out by an independent third party,
XPO Logistics. It is at this point that brands have come Greater effi ciencies for retailers
unstuck, misidentifying the products they trade, potentially Solving issues around inconsistent and inaccurate product data
leading to issues when data has been acknowledged as an
is consumed by retailers’ industry-wide problem in need
systems. of an industry-wide solution.
“A THIRD OF NEW
Gavin Williams, managing Th at is why retailers and brands,
director, supply chain - UK including Sainsbury’s, Tesco,
PRODUCT DATA IS
and Ireland at XPO Logis- P&G, Unilever, L’Oreal, itsu
tics, says: ‘GS1 standards [grocery], Mondelez, Pepsico,
are critically important to Waitrose, Nestlé, and Ocado,
INACCURATE.”
grocery supply chains in came together to develop
establishing consumer trust. productDNA and continue to
While the compliance checks be involved in the platform’s
we perform are helping to ongoing success.
improve traceability, they
also show that the industry has room for improvement. We Andy Beale, head of product and programmes global at Tesco,
look forward to continuing to partner with GS1 UK to drive said: “We’ve put a huge amount of work into getting product
standardisation in product data recording.’ data right at Tesco, and productDNA is one of the outcomes.
By working with the industry as a whole, we have been able
Brands seeing the benefits to deliver high-quality product information to our customers
Brands both large and small have already begun to reap the more effi ciently. We are already reaching out to our suppliers
rewards of the productDNA platform. When used to its to recommend productDNA as Tesco’s preferred product data
fullest potential, the process ensures improved effi ciency and sharing platform, and we will continue to promote the solution
better confi dence in the quality of data being provided to to ensure our shoppers have the details they need to make
retailers. In the 12 months that Nestlé have been using the purchasing decisions easier.”
productDNA platform, they have reduced new line submis-
sion times down from 15 minutes to just fi ve minutes – an Gary Lynch, chief executive offi cer of GS1 UK, added: “Over
effi ciency saving of 67 per cent. the past year, the uptake of productDNA has shown us just
how important accurate and consistent product data is to

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