Piggly Wiggly Joins Spire’s Network of Retailers

Piggly Wiggly Carolina Company (PWCC) has joined the Spire, LLC growing network of grocery retailers. With approximately 100 stores in South Carolina and coastal Georgia, Piggly Wiggly brings the size of the Spire network to a total of 1,800 stores, 30 million loyalty card households and $30 billion in retail sales.

“The Piggly Wiggly leadership team was very impressed with Spire’s capabilities and track record in helping grocers better understand the shopper,” said Julian Tisdale, director of business intelligence for PWCC. “Spire will help us scrutinize our uniquely diverse customer base and leverage customer-centric insights that provide the core of our strategy for sales growth.”

Monroe, Ct.-based Spire provides quantitative shopper intelligence and advanced analytics, loyalty card data access and targeted marketing program development and execution to retailers and manufacturers. The Spire Grocery Shopper Panel has one of the largest multi-retailer grocery panels in the United States. Spire utilizes this loyalty card purchase data, often combined with other data sources and cutting edge analytical processes, to deliver unique and meaningful shopper insights.

Spire and Piggly Wiggly will collaborate in numerous ways to analyze shopper behavior and position the shopper at the center of marketing and merchandising decisions. Piggly Wiggly will leverage Spire’s proprietary Engagement and Essence segmentation as well as its analytical and targeting capabilities for key initiatives at the grocer.

“Piggly Wiggly Carolina Company takes pride in fostering creative ideas that improve the shopping experience for our customers,” said John Padgett, VP of marketing for PWCC. “Emerging programs include a recently developed, perpetual inventory management system, breaking ground on construction of our second Newton Farms concept store, and expanding our exceptional Click’n Shop online ordering service that provides a much-needed convenience for busy customers. We are eager to collaborate with Spire to build on our tradition of innovation for customer benefit.”

Founded as a local supermarket in 1947, Piggly Wiggly Carolina Company has grown to be one of the largest retail companies in South Carolina, with nearly 100 stores and more than 3,000 employee-owners. The company was named the 2012 Independent Retailer of the Year by Progressive Grocer magazine.