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FIELD MARKETING FROM PAGE 67 with their wholesalers to keep accounts. Independents had dropped from about 40 per cent of the market to a mere 10 per cent as the 1990s began to mark the demise of broking. When Woolworths and Coles consolidated their buying offices into Sydney and Melbourne, closing down state operations, it became clear that these state independent brokers would have to mirror this arrangement. Thus, to streamline operations and cut costs, a union of sorts was formed, where the businesses remained separate entities while putting together one front: what we know of as Strikeforce today. From Woolworths and Coles’ point of view, Strikeforce was a seamless national organisation, and it worked well for a few years. The 1990s also marked the age of the internet, leading to new technology within the workplace. For Coles, the 1990s were a time of rapid change, within which inventory tracking was modernised through new technologies. Strikeforce, too, developed technology, but this remained largely sales-focused, built for reporting, rather than being retailer-focused. However, as Woolworths and Coles began to ramp up their consolidations, technology and workforce, the evolving industry landscape required more from Strikeforce. 2007 to today: Strikeforce’s ascension When it was decided that the entity known as Strikeforce needed to be formalised, the directors came together to become shareholders. Additionally, AMC, which was a separate business, became Strikeforce’s biggest competitor. AMC was owned by five shareholders. When the topic of a merger was broached, both sides agreed on a coupling of equals, Stores in 1970. Store displays in the 1970s. united in their ambition to become bigger and better – to match the consolidations taking place within the industry. Together, the company became officially known as Strikeforce AMC. When the best in the business combine forces, there’s a high level of expectation, which Strikeforce AMC has fulfilled and gone beyond. This was repeated when Strikeforce acquired the Blueprint Group of businesses in 2019, with the two entities stronger together. This transaction continued the evolving breadth, depth and sophistication of Strikeforce’s value proposition as well as continuing to grow scale, which is critical to maintaining efficiencies at territory level. Strikeforce has emerged as a genuinely integrated business of services that tackles and joins up the full end-to-end consumer and shopper journey for its partners – from consumer and category insight to space and range planning, to demand planning/vendor replenishment, to increasing consumer and shopper brand engagement through digital/ creative/experiential, to best in class merchandising/selling. 2019 was also the year Merx, a field management software solution, was launched. Built in-house, with global expertise from IBM, Merx is a one-stop- shop in remote controlling any field team. Following this achievement, Strikeforce learnt from feedback that clients struggled with strategy and headcount issues. Data and category insights were hard to come by and as a result, Strikeforce powered a new division to accommodate for these needs. 2021 also marked a new beginning — the launch of Strikeforce’s brand new headquarters, right here in Melbourne. Today, Strikeforce is Australia’s largest integrated retail services and shopper marketing agency. It activates sales and marketing solutions for any retailer, brand owner or service provider wanting to connect its brand and products with the right consumers and shoppers, across all retail categories in ANZ. Strikeforce integrates consultative and activation services to ensure investment converts to meaningful and measurable ROI goals. Strikeforce also treats business as a force for good by employing thousands of people in engaging and dynamic roles together, while playing its part in charitable contributions. As you can see from its history, Strikeforce is Aussie made and 100 per cent Aussie owned, focusing on bettering the results and lives of our partners, consumers, shoppers and staff. 68 RETAIL WORLD APR, 2021