Winning Africa’s Drinks Aisle: Distributor Performance Playbook

If your beer is cold but your sales are luke-warm, the gap isn’t in the fridge, it’s in your route to market.

Across Africa, Brewing & Beverage distribution rewards those who match the right Distributor Partner to the right micro-market.

Here’s a practical RTM strategy you can use to lift Distributor Performance in months, not years.

ASSESSMENT (Where to Play)

Before you recruit (or replace) a distributor, decide precisely where and how you need to win.

1 Market & Channel Intelligence

Map demand pockets: e.g. city vs. peri-urban vs. rural; on-trade (HoReCa) vs. off-trade (modern, traditional); cold vs. ambient; returnable glass vs. PET vs. can; draught vs. packaged. Size the prize by category (lager, stout, RTDs, CSDs, water), seasonality (festivals, pay-days, climate), and route constraints (road conditions, duty, curfews).

2 Internal Readiness

Audit your own levers: pricing corridors, pack/format strategy, cold assets availability, merchandising standards, digital ordering, trade terms, and compliance posture (anti-corruption, marketing codes). Your distributor can’t fix a broken offer.

3 ‘Model Distributor’ definition

Write a profile (a single page will suffice) of the partner you need for each priority market:

Coverage: outlet universe reach, route density, and HoReCa relationships.
Cold chain: chillers, keg handling, returnable glass infrastructure, asset care.
Capabilities: Sales force, B2B ordering, SFA/CRM, tele-sales, demand planning, visibility execution.
Governance: financial strength, credit control, Health, Safety, Security, and Environment (HSSE), compliance track record.
Portfolio fit: conflict checks, category focus, salesforce incentives aligned to your mix.

4 Macro Assessments of Current / New Distributors

Use a scored diagnostic across a number of dimensions: e.g. service level, OTIF, stock cover, salesforce productivity (calls/day, strike rate), numeric & weighted distribution, Return on Sales (ROS), price adherence, shrinkage/returns, activation quality, data cadence, leadership quality.

Compare current vs. contender vs. greenfield options to spotlight gaps and investment needs.

BLUEPRINT (How to Play)

Select and engage partners with clarity, then lock in the required behaviours and operating rhythm.

1 Selection & Engagement

Where needed, run a structured RFI/RFP with site walks and market rides. Stress-test the economics (van cost-to-serve by route, keg turn, cooler purity) and simulate 12-month P&L under your price/discount model. Make sure you understand the Total Cost to Serve (TCTS) of each existing / new Distributor Partner and compare it to the Market Average TCTS.

2 Negotiations, Heads of Terms & Contracts

Keep terms simple and enforceable: territory, exclusivity rules, channel scope, compliance, data standards, asset ownership, and exit triggers. Build in a 90-day plan and a 12-month JBP as contract schedules.

3 Joint Business Plan (JBP) / Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Tie remuneration to outcomes, not activity. Example targets include:

Distribution: numeric/weighted distribution by SKU and channel.
Availability: OSA in cold for top SKUs; keg turn (>x days); cooler uptime.
Execution: planogram adherence, secondary placements, draught quality checks.
Service: OTIF >95%, order fill >97%, breakage/returns thresholds.
Commercial: price corridor compliance, promo ROI, DSO limits.
People & data: salesforce headcount, training hours, SFA usage, weekly EDI feeds.

Incentives should blend fixed margin + variable bonuses (e.g., distribution, cold availability, compliance) with financial penalties for price violations or asset misuse.

CATALYST (How to Win)

This phase turns agreements into shelf, tap, and cold-box results—from Week 1. For example:

Launch Sprint (weeks 1-4)

Kick-off & “why”: align leaders and reps on the growth story, rules of the game, and the scorecard.
Route books & geo-targets: confirm priority beats; run “market storms” to seed distribution fast.
Asset blitz: audit, repair, and (re)deploy chillers; tag every asset; set purity standards.
Data cadence: weekly dashboards (by route) on calls, strike rate, OSA cold, ROS, price checks.
People enablement: train draught hygiene, perfect store, cooler care; certify reps.
Cash & credit hygiene: tighten DSO from day one; agree escalation paths.

The Weekly Drumbeat (months 2–12)

Monday pipeline review; mid-week ride-alongs; Friday performance huddle.
Red/amber/green the JBP KPIs; trigger micro-actions (e.g., chiller repair within 48h).
Celebrate quick wins publicly; course-correct lagging routes with targeted trade deals.
Quarterly performance reviews: adjust assortment, pack price architecture, and activation.

Execution KPIs that move the needle

This is critical and usually include:

Numeric distribution; Weighted distribution; Price compliance; Cooler uptime & purity; OTIF; Order fill; Days Sales Outstanding (DSO); Keg turn; Returns %; Activation reach; ROI.

Bottom line

In Brewing & Beverage distribution across Africa, superior Distributor Performance comes from a sharp Assessment, a disciplined Blueprint, and a relentless Catalyst for execution.

Deliver those three, and your brand wins the drinks aisle, the bar tap, and the cold box.

Background to Distributor Selection & Management

I have written about this in earlier articles. We consider the three phases of Distributor Management & Selection as follows:

These phases follow the process that we call the A-B-C of Route to Market. This model simplifies the world of RtM into a series of three steps that any RtM practitioner can execute.

🤔 What’s the single biggest distributor challenge you’re facing right now - coverage, cold chain, or price discipline?

💬 Please do share your experiences or challenges in the comments.

📩 Let’s connect if you’d like to explore this for your organisation.