Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

There is no excuse in visiting IKEA on a Sunday before watching 22 millionaires with daft hair styles kick a football around on live telly. The weather was cold and the air was full of autumn drizzle and as I turned into the car park the scale of…

Extra SKUs sneak onto price lists when nobody is looking. Sales & Marketing colleagues prefer new launches with lengthy SKU lists different flavours, different sizes, different colours, new packaging etc. How many shelf facings do they want? How do…

Dear Santa, I have been a very good FMCG CEO this year, I promise. If you want, you can check with my shareholders. They know how good I have been this year. Apart from the out of stocks of course, oh and the little mistake when we had to write…

As we one again celebrate St George's Day and the 400th birthday of William Shakespeare (also the date he died, coincidentally) what would the great bard think about Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP) in FMCG businesses? Let us take a look...... Is…

Once upon a time there was an FMCG company that I will refer to as “Foresight”. “Foresight” had spent many years and many Euros creating an acknowledged slick Supply Chain. Top class regional and global buying Flexible and cost effective factory…

The sun is shining high in the sky and you are driving your Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet 2.0 TDi with the top down on a six lane highway. There is a long drive ahead for you and your three friends but with this car on this road things should turn out…

I speak to many FMCG companies who tell me they do not need Sales & Operational Planning in their businesses. As a formal process they may not be operating to S&OP norms but if they are getting their products onto shelves then some form of S&OP must…

During my recent travels I met with two Sales (or Business Development Directors if you’re posh) from well known FMCG companies to discuss an assessment review of their Route To Market (RTM) networks. Surprisingly, neither was interested and gave a…

The Rugby World Cup is upon us once more and this time it is in the northern hemisphere and in UK. Therefore rain can be expected throughout the tournament. Rugby is a strange sport in some ways. The forwards are the incredibly big blokes (yes, and…

Your Supply Chain has been revised, optimised, transformed or even blue sky’d – yes, honestly have been present when this was used but managed to stifle a guffaw into a cup of hot chocolate. What a smooth running well oiled machine it has become.…

Yes I know, the recent blog posts have been a little Blog Gold meets Classic Blog with a touch of All Our Yesterdays and the History Channel but here is a fresh new offering. The last few months have been very busy both on the business and domestic…

No, honestly this is a blog about FMCG Supply Chains! Those seeking advice on leather whips and chains should return to Google and search again now. Within any FMCG business are there any people lacking more in structure, discipline and planning as…

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…

If you still rely on Traditional Trade (TT) distribution for a significant part of your business then read on! Over-stocking Distributors happens by stealth and the consequences creep up on you until suddenly and without warning you hit a brick wall…

The worlds of Supply Chain and popular music may be strange bed fellows but if you look closely you will see many a smash hit have a supply chain theme. Let us take a tongue-in-cheek look at the latest Supply Chain charts. I Want My ERP – Sting is…