Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

The CEO/GM/”head honcho” or whatever “big boss” is to the local company plans a visit to your territory. These events are usually planned well in advance to get fixed in the diaries of the senior people and if such a visit is a rarity you must…

Let me get straight to the point on this one. Why do so many FMCG mrgers or acquisitions frequently result in the apparent death-knell of once proud and promising brands? I am not going to name any names but if you think about it there have been…

“There is always somebody worse off than you” is a commonly rolled out piece of wisdom when somebody thinks life is unfair or hard. In reality this wisdom applies to all but the most unhealthy, unfortunate or poorest people on the planet but in the…

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…

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…

In my D&E career I have lived and worked in many different countries on all continents except the Australia/New Zealand bits. Oh, and the North/South Poles of course – not a lot of demand for FMCG there, yet. There is one recurring theme that seems…

You may well have another corporate buzz term for the getting your products onto shelves, into restaurants and into coolers but the title above is simple and succinct. You may use Route to Market, Go to Market or Distribution but they all have the…

Not that long ago most of our shopping was done at smart rows of local shops. Every community had a row of mainly family owned shops where you bought everything from Persil soap powder - yes the real soap version – to baked beans to nuts and bolts.…

There is never a good time to go on a residential training course or put the car in for an overdue lengthy service or the annual visit to the in-laws or even English homework - why was the American cowboy series High Chaparral so much more…

I spent most of last weekend slightly below ground in a hot, dirty, smelly hole without light and where you could not stand up properly. No, it was not the driver’s room at your 3PLP but it was the hole in the ground that provides water to the…

If you don’t agree on what is expected between two parties before you start a relationship then anything but success is likely. You buy a new car and you get a contract that tells you what is covered by the guarantee and for how long in time or in…

Inevitable, I guess. Large parts of the UK have implemented a hose pipe ban due to lack of water in reservoirs. Almost from the minute the ban was activated the rain has not stopped and now many places are under water with houses and businesses…

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