Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

Recondite complexity? I recently discussed how complexity negatively affects cost and service including how a floppy SKU tail inhibits growth. Do you understand the impact unnecessary SKUs have on FMCG success? CEOs should be seeking leaner and…

Double Bio, then the weekend! Finally, Friday afternoon and looking forward to running out of school with a whole weekend of football ahead. Just a double Biology lesson to get through and then 2 days of freedom from books, blackboards and…

Do you want fries with that? People who work in fast food outlets – I really cannot bring myself to label them as restaurants – must have specific training in dealing with non-standard orders. Can you imagine the temptation to audibly groan when in…

Through product rationalization, regain control of your product portfolio and become more profitable & competitive. Do you really need SKU rationalisation now? Do you think that substantial portion of your products do not contribute enough to your…

After the viral trials and tribulations of 2020, is the market going to get any better any time soon? Many big-name companies predicted/reported indifferent Q4 results and all offer caution about the continuing "difficult market conditions”. Ok, so…

Is it just me or does FMCG life seems to be increasingly full of initials? New examples seem to pop up on a weekly basis with COVID-19 being top of mind currently. In line with many business functions Supply Chain and other functions use multiple…

One of my Top 10 Supply Chain Improvement Resolutions for 2021 referred to SKU complexity and I recently discussed how that complexity negatively affects cost and service. With the discontinuity caused by COVID-19 many CEOs should be looking at…

Finally, Friday afternoon and looking forward to running out of school with a whole weekend of football ahead (other sports are available). Just a double Biology lesson to get through and then 2 days of freedom from books, blackboards and bugs.…

Many SKUs sneak onto FMCG price lists when nobody is looking and this is far from facilitating constructive market development. Sales & Marketing colleagues prefer new launches to provide lengthy lists of SKUs; different fragrances, different sizes,…

Assessing your distribution options is one of the most important elements of any Route to Market strategy. Choosing the wrong distribution strategy, although often not evident in the short term, can cripple a company’s long-term growth, and ability…

The global spread of COVID-19 is an incredibly challenging and worrying time for all of us. The loss of life is already significant, and its spread continues. Many countries around the world are in some form of restricted movement or lockdown. From…

Before we even begin to look at how to develop Route to Market (RtM) strategies and execution plans for Fast Moving Consumer Goods Companies (FMCG) in emerging markets like Africa, we need to understand and remind ourselves of a few basic principles…

There are many things I have seen in over 20 years in the unbelievably exciting Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Business (FMCG). There are many things I can talk about and stories I can tell. But since I was first handed the keys to a van in 1998 to…

The FMCG business is like a team sport. There are sales people sent into the field, to sell more products and beat their targets. There are players put on the sports field, charged with scoring points and winning the game. In both scenarios, if the…

Key Account Management (KAM) is how Route to Market (RtM) leaders effectively and efficiently manage the relationship with specific and strategic customers, or customer groupings, to deliver on RtM targets. Customers are classified as Key Accounts…