Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

In a past life I ran the Supply Chain for an FMCG company in the 6 Gulf Co-Operation Council (GCC) countries plus Yemen in the Middle East. The Distribution model was one different legal entity per territory even for the largest market of Saudi…

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

Dear Drinks Agony Aunt, I have reached the end of my patience. I’m drinking too much coffee, too much beer, I smoke like a chimney, I’m not eating properly and I just cannot sleep. I have not managed to watch or play any of my favourite sports and…

Probably sitting at number two in the most popular excuses offered when FMCG sales did not happen as planned is parallel or grey trade. Without doubt greys, “passing off” and counterfeits can have an impact on FMCG sales but I was surprised how they…

Do you need to improve the availability of your products in the Traditional Trade? Do you know the strengths and weaknesses of your distributor network? Do you know what really happens after your products leave the warehouse? Is your network managed…

FMCG producers are often far too ready to blame their Distributors when sales do not go to plan and targets are not met. However, it is rarely all their fault particularly if producers are not clear on what is expected. To help Producers understand…

Client: Santa Claus aka Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, St Nick Market: Most of the World Scope: Reindeer To Market (RTM) Distribution Deliverable: Evaluation of RTM against sector benchmarks Summary of Evaluation Click here to enlarge The project…

I previously blogged about the reality of FMCG Traditional Trade (TT) Route To Market (RTM) distribution and described the drivers and behaviours in each party as the monthly plans inevitably imploded. Let us now get out the crystal ball and stare…

Today we see a lot of writing about Supply Chain. Technology is advancing rapidly and we are seeing changes almost on a daily basis; progress is simply enormous. However, some things never change and this is what I discuss here – things that never…

Summer has finally reached Romania and this will be good news for all the beer, water and soft drinks producers. Nothing raises sales like a scorching yellow disc in a clear blue sky. One of the classic summer tracks is Here Comes Summer by a…

From personal experience I know how difficult it can be to enable sustainable change in the extended Supply Chain. Communicating change is hard enough but actually seeing it happen and being maintained is a tough task for most companies. Even though…

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…

That time of year is upon us once again. This 2 week period usually guarantees rain in UK when the only relief could be an impossibly wrinkle-free and young-looking Cliff Richard leading the communal singing during the delays. “Oohs” and “aahs” and…

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…