Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

The London Olympic Games 2012 are getting very close. The Olympic flame is on a tour of the UK before it finally (and hopefully on time) reaches the Olympic stadium to light the cauldron to mark the start of the games. As the flame has to pass…

Inevitable, I guess. Large parts of the UK have implemented a hose pipe ban due to lack of water in reservoirs. Almost from the minute the ban was activated the rain has not stopped and now many places are under water with houses and businesses…

Ok, I know I should not have gone there. It was a Sunday and well before the live football on the TV. The weather was cold and the air was full of drizzle and as I turned off the roundabout the scale of the folly dawned on me; the IKEA car park was…

Same small table, same two blokes, same close up camera shot. In the last RTM talking Heads episode we ended with Jeff hurriedly departing for the corner shop to see if the M&Ms Route To Market was intact or in trouble! Mal: Why the long face? Jeff:…

Small table, two blokes, close up camera shot. Mal: RTM. Jeff: What’s that then, Malaysian TV station? Mal: No. Jeff: Oh, it’s the IATA code for The Hague airport where they send all the war criminals. Mal: Er, no. It’s the business. Jeff: What…

Just a short blog today for a little bit of fun but with a serious message. If you have not studied your Route To Market (RTM) deployment recently then now would be a good time. What was appropriate even a few short years ago can be wholly out of…

I published this some time ago and have just realised I did not follow up with the answers! Here they are, inserted in red text. People working in modern FMCG, Pharma Supply Chain use a whole host of initials and acronyms to get through the day.…

We are now into the final quarter of the year. Very few companies will be cruising along nicely and looking forward to the year-end results. If you did not review your Route To Market Distribution network and tasted sustainable success then some…

Well, I would think long and hard about such a decision! Would you want the hassle and the lack of recognition and reward? An FMCG distributor’s lot is not always a happy one. Frequently and unfairly blamed for not reaching targets, yet the fault…

Do you remember the rash of take-overs, buy-outs and mergers just before last two rounds of EU accession? Locally owned CEE Companies that could not or would not meet the various requirement of EU accession were sold off to competitors and private…

Summer is just around the corner and drinks producers across the globe will be battling for an increased share of throat. Whatever refreshment you offer the challenge to ensure your product is taken off the shelf or out of the cooler remains very…

Impossible, over my dead body, not in a million years - the usual knee-jerk objections to any suggestion of getting too close to a competitive operation. Such comments are usually spouted by Marketing colleagues who are frankly living on agency…

Whether your business is summer seasonal, e.g. beer, ice cream or you enjoy a relatively flat demand profile one of your key challenges will be to reach your Traditional Trade (TT) consumers. Where TT remains sizable and therefore important, your…

Once upon a time there was an FMCG company that I will refer to as “Foresight”. “Foresight” had spent many years and many dollars creating an acknowledged slick inbound Supply Chain. Top class global buying Flexible factory network State of the art…

As the snow ploughs, sledges and gloves are packed away for another year in the northern hemisphere we enter a key period in the FMCG industry. Beverage consumers are about to get thirsty or at least large numbers of drinks companies hope this is…