Sector: Electrical appliance and kitchen retail
Brands: Several brands including Belling, Bosch, Candy, Hoover, Hotpoint, Neff, Smeg, Stoves, Whirlpool
Facts & Figures
Founded: April 2001
Membership: 195 (2023)
Collective trade purchasing power: £120 million (2022)
Solutions Used
GfK Market Intelligence: Sales Tracking
About Sirius Buying Group
The Sirius Buying Group is a membership organization of 195+ independent retailers in the UK. The company works with an extensive range of global home appliance manufacturers, distributors, and kitchen furniture suppliers to ensure these local stores can meet their domestic and commercial customers’ requirements. The company supported its members during the pandemic and is working to help them survive and thrive in the current cost-of-living crisis. One of the ways it achieves this is through its strong working relationship with the consumer specialists and MDA and SDA market experts at GfK.
“To ensure our members remain truly independent and stay ahead of the competition, the Sirius Buying Group needs to understand what is happening in the market now and anticipate changes in the future. It is our role to share the approaches that we believe will help 195+ of the UK’s independent retailers increase their profit margin and realize cost-savings. By tracking the latest market developments, we help our members select the right product mix for their customers from the overwhelming choices available. We rely on GfK for the all-important market and consumer intelligence to deliver this goal.”
Joe Howes, Data and Digital Marketing, Sirius Buying Group
Tackling a challenging market
The Sirius business philosophy is to provide a big-picture market perspective and ensure that members can optimize and tailor their offering to individual markets. The company provided much-needed support during the lockdowns of the pandemic when demand was high. Almost immediately after, high inflation added a new obstacle, making it harder for retailers to drive sales, especially in the Major Domestic Appliances (MDA) and Small Domestic Appliances (SDA) categories. Sirius Buying Group approached GfK to help identify opportunities for growth.
“We invited the GfK team to present at our 2023 Conference. Our membership is already familiar with the intelligence from GfK as they receive snapshots of the extensive data that GfK provides each month. However, to hear directly from the team that compiles that insight proved invaluable. The presentation contained a fantastic overview of consumer confidence, market overviews of the Major and Small Domestic Appliances market, and key trends for our members to look out for, giving the audience valuable insights. The team from GfK was a great credit to the company, and we look forward to further partnership presentations in the future.”
Joe Howes, Data and Digital Marketing, Sirius Buying Group
Finding growth
The Sirius Buying Group organizes several annual events including an annual conference and Trade Show which has come to be regarded as a prerequisite for success in the electrical retail industry. The insight and experiences shared at these events provide an exclusive resource to increase business growth and establish a return-on-relationship mentality with a focus on loyalty and recommendations. The annual conference continued online during the pandemic when the business updates from approved suppliers and the wider market helped support market resilience and propose retail opportunities for members despite market conditions. To continue to share insights with members, GfK was invited to present at the 2023 conference to discuss ways to maximize current and emerging opportunities.
Presenting market opportunities at the conference
GfK presented on the theme of ‘Finding Opportunities in a Challenging Retail Market’. GfK’s team created a session focusing on identifying and maximizing opportunities in the Major and Small Domestic Appliances market which received extremely positive feedback.
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Download the Sirius Buying Group Case Study
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