BILLA has been deeply rooted in the Austrian regions for decades and has always relied on local suppliers and their products. In spring 2020, BILLA set another strong signal for more local products in the food trade: with 100% fresh meat from Austria, also available in BILLA Plus, BILLA is an industry pioneer. With this, the food retailer meets the taste of the Austrians exactly. In addition, the share of regional and local products at BILLA and BILLA PLUS has increased by 20% since the beginning of the year. Now it's time for the next big step: BILLA and BILLA PLUS make locality and regionality visible for customers directly on the shelf - simple and comprehensible.
Local (max. 30 kilometres around the store), regional (respective province), Austrian
More than 25,000 local articles from over 2,500 regional and local suppliers can already be found at BILLA and BILLA PLUS. To make it even easier for customers to find them, Austrian, regional and local products are marked with the clearly visible label "is' heimisch". And in addition, the labelling includes whether a product is Austrian, regional or local. "We are the first food retailer to make locality and regionality visible and, above all, comprehensible in our BILLA and BILLA PLUS stores. For our customers it will be very clear: If a food product is labelled "local", the supplier is no more than 30 kilometres away from our store, regional means that the product comes from the province, and products from Austria (i.e. outside the respective province, but produced within Austria) will also be labelled even more clearly," BILLA Chairman Marcel Haraszti emphasises the advantages for customers and suppliers.
Local partnerships: great opportunity for small and micro suppliers
In order to bring even more local products onto the shelves and to offer small Austrian producers in particular a stage, BILLA and BILLA PLUS rely on their own regional scouts in purchasing. These help small suppliers in particular to gain a foothold in food retailing. It is also possible to supply only one or two markets. In this way, even the smallest local suppliers, who only produce small quantities, get an additional sales opportunity for their products at BILLA and BILLA PLUS.
A new concept was also created for these small suppliers: local partnerships. "BILLA may be a large company, but we also meet our smallest partners at eye level. That is why we have created the 'local partnerships'. With this, we offer the small producers an additional distribution option to ex-farm sales, presentations and tastings at the POS, workshops on relevant topics such as logistics, packaging, brand positioning and pricing, and special contract conditions. This makes it easier for them to bring their products to our shelves," says Haraszti, adding that "our customers also benefit from this. We are proud of so much regionality and localism. In this way, we strengthen Austrian added value, offer domestic producers and their products an even bigger stage and, above all, offer our customers even more 'Austria' on our shelves."
