Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog
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We are passionate about Route to Market and supply chain management and we are delighted to share our thoughts with you. We would like to hear from you too, so please comment on our posts or contact us.
Latest Posts
Joint Action Plans: Unlocking Growth Through Collaboration
Michael Thompson Mon, May 26, 2025
In an earlier blog this year I covered the subject of Joint Business Planning. This particular blog came after a discussion with a fellow RtM professional and senior commercial manager. As a recap, this lady managed several markets in a region and…
Mastering Cost to Serve for your RtM–Top 10 Tips
Michael Thompson Wed, May 21, 2025
At Enchange we have been delivering a lot of Cost to Serve (CTS) work for clients in the last few years. In all cases our work has resulted in considerable savings for clients. I thought now would be a good time to write about this very important…
Driving Distributor Performance –The Essential First Step –Joint Business Planning
Michael Thompson Mon, May 19, 2025
I was talking to a fellow RtM professional at a recent event. The subject of Distributor performance came up. My colleague was clearly frustrated with the performance of her distributors – she managed several markets in a region. It transpired that…
Essential RtM Playbook-12 Key Modules for Successful Strategy Execution
Michael Thompson Wed, May 14, 2025
In a number of articles this year I have covered many of the aspects of distributor selection and management. The challenge for many organisations, particularly multinationals, is to ensure a consistent application and execution of best practice. In…
Mastering Online & Offline Distribution: Essential Strategies for FMCG Success
Michael Thompson Mon, May 12, 2025
In an earlier article and post, I covered the internal and external considerations related to distributor selection. I now want to focus on an increasingly important topic of the integration of online and offline distribution. This is a key issue in…
Distributor Assessment: Key Criteria for Effective Evaluation & Growth
Michael Thompson Wed, May 07, 2025
In an earlier article and post, I covered the internal and external considerations related to distributor selection. I now want to focus more on the distributor and how we make an assessment. We call this a Micro-Assessment. It involves spending…
Optimising Distributor Performance - Balancing KPIs for Long Term Success
Michael Thompson Thu, Sep 12, 2024
In my last article and post I covered the topic of distribution performance, specifically the topic of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or Metrics. In our journey, we have now selected our Distributor, by considering what an ideal Model Distributor…
Top Distributor KPIs - Financial, Customer, Process & Growth Metrics Explained
Michael Thompson Wed, Sep 11, 2024
In my last article and post I covered the topic of distribution performance and how we establish the right processes and behaviours. I now want to address the topic of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or Metrics. Before I do this, a quick recap. In…
Define Your Ideal Model Distributor: Key Steps for FMCG Success
Michael Thompson Thu, Jul 18, 2024
When we start the process of distributor selection, we need to be very clear about what we are looking for. A key question is this. What is our ideal Distributor Partner, or Model Distributor, we sometimes call them, and what do they look like?…
Driving Performance Post-Distributor Selection: JBP & JAP
Michael Thompson Fri, Jul 12, 2024
I am often asked what is the single most important thing that should be done after selecting a new distributor. Before I answer this question, let me recap the process of distributor selection. The three phases of Distributor Selection are: The…
FMCG Drinks: Top 10 Summer Season Smash Hits
Dave Jordan Thu, Jul 11, 2024
A little bit of fun this week after the dreary focus on the UK General Election and England performances. Here comes the world's greatest drink sales guy! Summer is here and drinks producers across the globe will be battling for an increased share…
Practical Questions FMCG Leaders Should Ask When Reviewing Route to Market Performance?
Ross Marie Thu, Mar 21, 2024
Recently I shared my methodology for the 20 Steps to Route to Market Excellence at the beginning of this blog series. You can read more about it here: The FMCG Leaders Guide to Route to Market Strategy & Execution in 20 Steps. The first step,…
Now is the Right Time to Restructure Your Distribution Network
Ratib Ratib Thu, Jun 30, 2022
Supply chain complexities are increasing. Shifting customer demands & habits, expanding business, and rising cost pressures are the key drivers for restructuring needs of your distribution networks. Customer demands are shifting rapidly. The share…
Harness the Best in FMCG Distributor Execution - Part 2 Joint Action Plans
Ross Marie Fri, Nov 19, 2021
Over the last few months, I have shared the proven and successful Enchange approach, to find and develop FMCG Distributor Partners (DPs). We call this the Distributor Partner (DP) Development Programme. It is broken into 8 Modules. In my last post,…
Harness the Best in FMCG Distributor Execution - Joint Business Plans
Ross Marie Wed, Oct 20, 2021
Over the last few months, I have shared the proven and successful Enchange approach, to find and develop FMCG Distributor Partners (DPs). We call this the Distributor Partner (DP) Development Programme. We use this Programme to source new DPs, to…