The business brand ‘Caddie’ has existed for some time, yet it represents one of many companies that most people have nev
Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 1:12 pm
The business brand ‘Caddie’ has existed for some time, yet it
represents one of many companies that most people have never heard
of, despite the fact that products sold under the ‘Caddie’ brand
are supplied to airport, healthcare, hospitality, logistics and
retail customers.
The Caddie brand is owned by the French firm ‘Les Ateliers
Réunis’ S.A.S. Founded in 1928, the company first used its wire
processing skills to supply the poultry industry.
Its core expertise is still based on steel wire, but this has
been extended to the manipulation of and combination with other
materials, such as plastics, to create for example carts, roll
cages and trolleys which can be used to move and store, amongst
other things, retail merchandise (not chickens!).
Though you might not recognize the name, the ‘Caddie’ brand is
registered in over 70 countries and the company uses a network of
130 agents to target potential customers around the world.
Caddie’s retail interests extended beyond trolleys into retail
shelving and displays, and into technology for moving merchandise
around.
Looking at trolleys themselves, they seem quite simple but they
are important in the retail experience; try carrying more than six
items in your arms and you see the need.
The facilitating role can be particularly acute at an airport;
after the car park, the trolley may be the first real contact that
a traveller has with the airport and it is certainly what brings
them from the outside world right into the heart of the airport
experience.
The facilitating role at its most functional is embodied in the
work-horses of retail stocking: the roll cage. The alternative to
transporting upwards of 500 kg of merchandise is many trips to and
from the stock room– not a recipe for retail efficiency.
Caddie’s range of products for storing and transporting items
serve different needs, according to sector. For example,
retail
* shopping trolleys with different sizes, shapes, capacities,
castors, child seating configurations and stacking space
requirements;
* garden and DIY trolleys, with different shapes, basket or tray
configurations and load capacities;
* shopping baskets with different materials, sizes, weights and
capacities;
* roll cages with different finishes, chassis bases, numbers of
sides and stacking space requirements;
airport
* airport luggage trolleys with different sizes, shapes, weights,
stacking space requirements and customer purposes;
hospitality
* hotel reception, housekeeping and room service trolleys with
different sizes, shapes and stacking or storage space as well as
the capacity to keep items cool or warm;
hospitals
* units to transport sterile materials/equipment, to evacuate
medical waste, to handle staff and patient linen.
When it comes to retail, a constant issue for Caddie is where to
take its merchandise handling technology next.
When you are selling to the big names in retail, where do you go
if you are interested in growing the business further –
particularly if the technology itself is well established?
Of course, it is always possible to look for additional markets
–for example, secure material handling for governmental
organizations, residential uses such as recycling, or extend
hospitality activities beyond land-based hotels to cruises.
It is also possible to do more for existing customers, for
example by offering a full ‘cradle-to-the-grave’ solution for all
trolley needs, that is, a full-service contract, selling use by the
hour or leasing by the day.
This is increasingly what Caddie’s major clients are expecting.
For example, airports are adopting a systems approach to purchasing
trolleys – just selling trolleys to them is not enough.
As a result, trolley companies need to ensure they have the
supply partners and alliances with the right systems technology
firms to create a total offering that satisfies their airport
customers’ requirements completely.
While this is a mature technology it is possible to find
additional innovations to the existing technology itself that will
meet the needs of business-to-business customers, delivering even
greater value from trolleys, as well as providing a functionality
that continues to meet the needs of end-users.
There are specific areas which have seen innovation in recent
years. For example, Caddie introduced a design which replaces the
normal trolley ‘cage’ with a rack from which shoppers can hang
their shopping bags. Combining this with self-scanning systems
removes the need to transfer items for instore trolleys to shopping
bags at the checkout.
Trolley security has been improved with the introduction of
‘smartwheels’ which block automatically once a trolley reaches the
perimeter of a specified area.
And when you think about the number of pairs of hands that get
hold of trolleys and storage equipment, then hygiene can be
important. The introduction of wrap-around handles made of
anti-bacterial plastic and the embedding of silver ions in the
handle material inhibits the spread of germs and bacteria for the
lifetime of the equipment.
In addition to such functional improvements, advertising also
presents innovation opportunities, particularly when combined with
airwave and display technology, the possibilities for income from
renting advertising space could be very attractive to
retailers.
Beyond its physical characteristics, developments to integrate
the checkout and trolley continue and maybe one day soon the
combined use of intelligent shelving and trolleys connected to a
shopper’s store account or bank card will eliminate the need for
checkouts and queuing completely. As you take the product from the
shelf into the trolley it self-scans and upon exit automatically
charges the goods to your card.
As far as roll cages are concerned, the design has changed
little in 30 years. Often companies will also buy exactly the same
trolley for all logistics needs. However, a grocery chain might
have a variety of store formats, each with slightly different needs
for the product. Recognizing the different segment needs and
meeting the more diverse needs more precisely also present
opportunities.
The potential for all these adaptations raises the question of
the limit to standardization and the extent to which it is sensible
to do different things for special customers. Establishing those
customers that warrant special attention could become the
cornerstone of product management for Caddie.
The payback for such investment may not necessarily be cash
right now. Rather, some customers may be sources of adaptations to
products that could ultimately lead to changes in the technology
that spawn a whole new generation of market-leading offerings.
1. What do you think the core benefits (value in use) of
shopping trolleys are for Caddie's B2B customers? (5 points)
2. What might the Service Dominant Logic be for Caddie? (5
points)
3. Based on the information regarding new technologies generate
two ideas for new product development or service
development for trolleys. (4 points)
represents one of many companies that most people have never heard
of, despite the fact that products sold under the ‘Caddie’ brand
are supplied to airport, healthcare, hospitality, logistics and
retail customers.
The Caddie brand is owned by the French firm ‘Les Ateliers
Réunis’ S.A.S. Founded in 1928, the company first used its wire
processing skills to supply the poultry industry.
Its core expertise is still based on steel wire, but this has
been extended to the manipulation of and combination with other
materials, such as plastics, to create for example carts, roll
cages and trolleys which can be used to move and store, amongst
other things, retail merchandise (not chickens!).
Though you might not recognize the name, the ‘Caddie’ brand is
registered in over 70 countries and the company uses a network of
130 agents to target potential customers around the world.
Caddie’s retail interests extended beyond trolleys into retail
shelving and displays, and into technology for moving merchandise
around.
Looking at trolleys themselves, they seem quite simple but they
are important in the retail experience; try carrying more than six
items in your arms and you see the need.
The facilitating role can be particularly acute at an airport;
after the car park, the trolley may be the first real contact that
a traveller has with the airport and it is certainly what brings
them from the outside world right into the heart of the airport
experience.
The facilitating role at its most functional is embodied in the
work-horses of retail stocking: the roll cage. The alternative to
transporting upwards of 500 kg of merchandise is many trips to and
from the stock room– not a recipe for retail efficiency.
Caddie’s range of products for storing and transporting items
serve different needs, according to sector. For example,
retail
* shopping trolleys with different sizes, shapes, capacities,
castors, child seating configurations and stacking space
requirements;
* garden and DIY trolleys, with different shapes, basket or tray
configurations and load capacities;
* shopping baskets with different materials, sizes, weights and
capacities;
* roll cages with different finishes, chassis bases, numbers of
sides and stacking space requirements;
airport
* airport luggage trolleys with different sizes, shapes, weights,
stacking space requirements and customer purposes;
hospitality
* hotel reception, housekeeping and room service trolleys with
different sizes, shapes and stacking or storage space as well as
the capacity to keep items cool or warm;
hospitals
* units to transport sterile materials/equipment, to evacuate
medical waste, to handle staff and patient linen.
When it comes to retail, a constant issue for Caddie is where to
take its merchandise handling technology next.
When you are selling to the big names in retail, where do you go
if you are interested in growing the business further –
particularly if the technology itself is well established?
Of course, it is always possible to look for additional markets
–for example, secure material handling for governmental
organizations, residential uses such as recycling, or extend
hospitality activities beyond land-based hotels to cruises.
It is also possible to do more for existing customers, for
example by offering a full ‘cradle-to-the-grave’ solution for all
trolley needs, that is, a full-service contract, selling use by the
hour or leasing by the day.
This is increasingly what Caddie’s major clients are expecting.
For example, airports are adopting a systems approach to purchasing
trolleys – just selling trolleys to them is not enough.
As a result, trolley companies need to ensure they have the
supply partners and alliances with the right systems technology
firms to create a total offering that satisfies their airport
customers’ requirements completely.
While this is a mature technology it is possible to find
additional innovations to the existing technology itself that will
meet the needs of business-to-business customers, delivering even
greater value from trolleys, as well as providing a functionality
that continues to meet the needs of end-users.
There are specific areas which have seen innovation in recent
years. For example, Caddie introduced a design which replaces the
normal trolley ‘cage’ with a rack from which shoppers can hang
their shopping bags. Combining this with self-scanning systems
removes the need to transfer items for instore trolleys to shopping
bags at the checkout.
Trolley security has been improved with the introduction of
‘smartwheels’ which block automatically once a trolley reaches the
perimeter of a specified area.
And when you think about the number of pairs of hands that get
hold of trolleys and storage equipment, then hygiene can be
important. The introduction of wrap-around handles made of
anti-bacterial plastic and the embedding of silver ions in the
handle material inhibits the spread of germs and bacteria for the
lifetime of the equipment.
In addition to such functional improvements, advertising also
presents innovation opportunities, particularly when combined with
airwave and display technology, the possibilities for income from
renting advertising space could be very attractive to
retailers.
Beyond its physical characteristics, developments to integrate
the checkout and trolley continue and maybe one day soon the
combined use of intelligent shelving and trolleys connected to a
shopper’s store account or bank card will eliminate the need for
checkouts and queuing completely. As you take the product from the
shelf into the trolley it self-scans and upon exit automatically
charges the goods to your card.
As far as roll cages are concerned, the design has changed
little in 30 years. Often companies will also buy exactly the same
trolley for all logistics needs. However, a grocery chain might
have a variety of store formats, each with slightly different needs
for the product. Recognizing the different segment needs and
meeting the more diverse needs more precisely also present
opportunities.
The potential for all these adaptations raises the question of
the limit to standardization and the extent to which it is sensible
to do different things for special customers. Establishing those
customers that warrant special attention could become the
cornerstone of product management for Caddie.
The payback for such investment may not necessarily be cash
right now. Rather, some customers may be sources of adaptations to
products that could ultimately lead to changes in the technology
that spawn a whole new generation of market-leading offerings.
1. What do you think the core benefits (value in use) of
shopping trolleys are for Caddie's B2B customers? (5 points)
2. What might the Service Dominant Logic be for Caddie? (5
points)
3. Based on the information regarding new technologies generate
two ideas for new product development or service
development for trolleys. (4 points)