Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

I mentioned in a recent article that my educational background is in chemistry but I stumbled into supply chain in the undulating sands of the Saudi Arabian desert. Later, I remember talking to former R&D colleagues about my new vocation and was met…

The last few months have been remarkably busy on both the business and domestic fronts. COVID 19 and other challenges have ensured there was little time to rest over the Christmas season and 2021 has started off in the same vein. What does the rest…

Once upon a time I worked in a well-known detergent powder factory in the north of England which has now sadly closed. The factory manager at the time must remain nameless but he had a habit of dragging people from the R&D Laboratory to show off his…

The ink is dry on the deal, the celebratory corks have been popped and the sharp-suited lawyers have gone off to bank a small fortune. The projected negotiations to thrash out a deal to buy or merge with another company are finally over. Relief all…

There is your dilemma. You need to save cash towards an expensive year-end holiday but you really do not know the best place from where to take the money. Do you take it from your day to day current account which is already set up to pay the routine…

Let me get straight to the point on this one. Why do so many FMCG mergers or acquisitions frequently result in the apparent death-knell of once proud and promising brands? I am not going to name any names but if you think about it there have been…

Only a few months into the year and I am hearing the same old complaints about the economy and business being in general ill health. However, there is a new recurring theme which popped up at various parties and gatherings over Easter; “my company…

Another sign of getting old I guess. When was the last time you watched a football match when no tattoos were on show and the haircuts did not look like something out of the Time Warp musical? As I write England is still involved yet we are all…

Some time ago I wrote about the way spreadsheets were undermining expensively assembled ERP’s in FMCG, Brewing and Pharmaceutical companies. They still are, by the way. Not too long ago a paper on Public Debt and Austerity published by 2 eminent…

There is enough disruption and discontinuity in supply chains without the necessary evil or pleasure of new product development (NPD) and product change getting in the way. Just when everyone has become used to ordering, storing, picking, delivering…

Many will recall that famous Four Yorkshiremen sketch first seen the At Last the 1948 Show and later Monty Python. Four dour characters recall how tough it was when they were younger with each trying to out do the others in a downwards spiral of…

Have you ever “hunkered down”? I remember being asked to hunker down during a business game training course many years ago and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Eventually I had to ask as failing to follow the hunker downwards request…

What business would I like to run or even own? If you had a choice what would it be? A huge global FMCG player or a niche craft brewery in Bourton-on-the-Water? What about starting a pottery in your own home as per the ages old Barclays TV ad? If I…

Last month I spent a few weeks enjoying the UK weather disaster as 10mm of snow brought life to a halt. While there I moved the heiress into her new apartment - not a flat now as student days are over, very posh. Hopefully, that will be the last…

By the end of February over 19% of the year will be behind you. Think about that for a minute. If you follow a financial calendar year you probably put your Annual Plan to bed in October and now nearly 20% of the available selling time has already…