Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

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…

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…

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…

We have invested in a new waste bin for the kitchen. Even with our strict regime of recycling as much waste as possible that small flip-up bin inside a cupboard just was not big enough. Yes, the lid dutifully popped up when the cupboard door was…

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 where we had to write…

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…

I have recently returned from three days in London attending the Integrated Business Planning (IBP) Summit – more on that event in another blog. Now, I am not a frequent traveller in London or the UK in general for that matter so getting around is…

If you are male and own a car then you will have spoken these words at least once! If you do not have a dedicated place to hang your keys then they will be surely be misplaced at some stage. You might miss an important event, football match or at…

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…

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…