Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

In my previous blog on the subject (Integrated Supply Chain Planning – The Number 1 Opportunity), I outlined how producers (manufacturers) can achieve very significant improvements in the financial performance of their supply chains by a process of…

If you are male and own a car then you will have spoken these words at least once! If you do not have a dedicated place to hang your keys then they will be surely be misplaced at some stage. You might miss an important event, football match or at…

I don’t know why I looked this up now but I did. Do you remember the Icelandic volcano that erupted in 2010 and caused so much havoc to supply chains in and around Europe? Most people do as they were affected in some way either in professional or…

As a general rule house or office numbering usually starts with number 1 at the start of the road nearest the city or town centre. Odd numbers on the left and even numbers on the right increase sequentially until the end of the road. In many…

Let me get straight to the point on this one. Why do so many FMCG mrgers 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…

“There is always somebody worse off than you” is a commonly rolled out piece of wisdom when somebody thinks life is unfair or hard. In reality this wisdom applies to all but the most unhealthy, unfortunate or poorest people on the planet but in the…

In my local supermarket over the weekend I noticed something I had not seen or perhaps not noticed before. On the shelf I was expecting to relieve of my weekend beer was a propped up sign saying “We are sorry your choice is not available. We are…

When you are absorbed in a competitive fast moving consumer goods business there is never a good time to take holidays. Those long awaited training courses always appear on the agenda at a critical launch period or at a difficult month or quarter…

The sun is out and the sky is blue so what drink waits for you? Beer producers rely on the sun to drive sales and produce a distinct pull along the supply chain but how many will win the market place battle? Certainly, if they are not ready for the…

During the summer months I am partial to a pint of the foaming ale with a solid, woody name like Woods Quaff served from a hand-pulled pump. Add a bag of pork scratchings and a village green cricket match and there you have what would approach the…

In my D&E career I have lived and worked in many different countries on all continents except the Australia/New Zealand bits. Oh, and the North/South Poles of course – not a lot of demand for FMCG there, yet. There is one recurring theme that seems…

You may well have another corporate buzz term for the getting your products onto shelves, into restaurants and into coolers but the title above is simple and succinct. You may use Route to Market, Go to Market or Distribution but they all have the…

Hold on a minute, how did we get to this time in the year? I know time appears to hasten as you grow older but this year has flown by. One minute we were eagerly awaiting the Olympics and now we heading directly into a northern hemisphere winter and…

There is never a good time to go on a residential training course or put the car in for an overdue lengthy service or the annual visit to the in-laws or even English homework - why was the American cowboy series High Chaparral so much more…

I spent most of last weekend slightly below ground in a hot, dirty, smelly hole without light and where you could not stand up properly. No, it was not the driver’s room at your 3PLP but it was the hole in the ground that provides water to the…