Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

Post Christmas I have been taking a look at International Key Account retailers and seeing how they are coping in the current economic squeeze. One question came to me after seeing well over 20 outlets of various retailers. What do they all do with…

Why not make sure your festivities don’t fizzle out as soon as January sales numbers arrive. Get into the spirit of Route To Market (RTM) Distribution right now with our take on Jingle Bells! Why are sales so low? I don’t know what to say We expect…

Once more I delve into the TV of my youth and bring you the Goodies singing “Make a Daft Noise for Christmas” containing the classic line “Christmas comes but once a year, and when it does, it’s absolutely shocking.” Will this be the case for your…

I had a terrible row last weekend. Everything seemed to be going well; no stress, nothing to worry about just getting along nicely then boom! There was screaming, pain and I have to admit I was close to shedding tears as the incident unfolded.…

There is your dilemna. 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…

What made me think of that? Do you remember that playground game called Statues? One person is the “museum” Curator and stands at the end of a field or yard. Everyone else stands an agreed distance away from the Curator. The aim of the game is for a…

Well I find it strange anyway. Whenever I go to see my doctor she always greets me with a cheery “good morning, how are you?” I always feel like replying “well I‘m in your clinic so there is a fair chance I need some medical advice or assistance”.…

That is an astonishing amount of food waste. Tesco in the UK has held its hands up and admitted it has generated 30,000 tonnes of food waste in the first 6 months of 2013. If that waste rate continues unabated it will reach an enormous 60.000 tonnes…

When I was a Saturday morning TV addict in UK the must-watch show was ITV’s TISWAS which featured the thigh booted Sally James and I think there were some other presenters. The alternative offering was the much posher and less anarchic Swap Shop on…

You will have to bear with me on this one. Do you know that on average 85% of expectant women suffer food cravings during pregnancy? Apparently, the top 5 are: Pickles 5% - yuk, that surprised me too. Cheese 11% - get those calories in. Crisps/chips…

Flying stopped being fun a long time ago. To travel even the shortest distance you have to check hours before the flight and then you seem to queue endlessly until you arrive at your destination. Security checks demand your coat, shoes, belt, false…

A number of years ago I was a science techie in a white laboratory coat trying to make detergent powder through non-standard methods - well somebody had to! After much trial and error an innovative solution was developed which resulted in…

Those of a certain age and a fondness for seriously daft comedy may recognise these lines from a Monty Python song. The full version is available here but this short section provides the general gist of the lyrical content quality: He likes traffic…

A couple of weeks ago senior management and I had to stay up late to collect the heiress and a very brave boyfriend from the airport around midnight. Unfortunately the low cost airline they were using did not live up to its speedy name and the…

One of the commonest responses I receive when discussing Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP) with prospective clients having growth problems is “….but we have S&OP in place so we do not need any assistance”. “Ok, then why do you have negative…