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Certain
Basics in Uncertain Times |
December 2008 |
A general response to the global
financial crisis has been confusion at most levels. This will be followed by
fear in the New Year, as it becomes evident that the knee-jerk reactive moves by
the system have failed to produce adequate results… |
|
Fair-Share Negotiation in Troubled Times |
November 2008 |
How to make profitable deals
with more powerful trade partners in an economic downturn. |
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Denial-based optimism?
Or
real opportunities ahead in troubled times... |
October 2008 |
While other suppliers are awaiting a
return to some semblance of ‘normal’, we believe that there are real trade
opportunities available for some suppliers in the short-term. |
|
Deductions, an Opportunity for All? |
September 2008 |
Given
that deductions can represent 7-10% of a supplier’s sales, and as net margins
continue to fall, then any improvement will not only have a significant impact
upon cashflow and profitability, but will also have a major impact upon the
equivalent incremental sales-profit relationship. |
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When a Buyer Wants ‘Too Much’…
|
August 2008 |
With financial pressures causing
some retailers to attempt to compensate for falling sales and profits at the
expense of suppliers, it is important that both sides agree to establish and
preserve the ‘status quo’ in a trade partnership. |
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More Than a Smart Bull-Market NAM? |
July 2008 |
It can seem that anyone can
succeed in a bull-market, although in practice it often appeared to be the other
guy, over the past few years… The downturn has already produced casualties, and
it is unrealistic to believe that the next three years will show any significant
improvement. |
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Deducing the Alliance Boots options from available
clues... |
June 2008 |
Given the fact that Alliance Boots has
passed into private equity ownership, resulting in less performance data being
released into the open domain, suppliers nevertheless need to build a reliable
trading strategy and establish practical working parameters for managing what is
in many cases, one of their largest customers. |
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Hindsight Account Management... |
May 2008 |
Given recent moves by the
OFT in seeking evidence of possible collusion by suppliers and retailers in
fixing shelf-prices, there is a real danger that the NAM/KAM role could evolve
into bureaucratic, over-cautious attempts to avoid failure, at the expense of
proactive business development. |
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Power-play in Supplier-Retailer Relationships…? |
April 2008 |
Faced with customers that exploit
market share to impose unfair terms and conditions, suppliers soon find that
relatively little help is available from Government agencies.... |
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Alliance Boots Terms – A Pivotal Opportunity For
All? |
March 2008 |
The recent move to impose new trade
terms by Alliance Boots obviously represents a major precedent in
supplier-retailer relationships... |
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If You Don’t Count, You Won’t Count... |
Feb 2008 |
Profitable
customer management has become more demanding in terms of results driven. In the
light of such complexity, it is worth bearing in mind that the only constant is
money.... |
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Cost & Value Optimisation in Trade Partnership
|
Jan 2008 |
Given the increasing difficulty in
securing trade price increases to cover cost price inflation in the face of
retailer resistance, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to
calculate and demonstrate the real value of a supplier’s brand to a retail
customers’ financial performance. |
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Making the Numbers Count at the
Interface…
|
Dec 2007 |
Given the build-up in the global
credit-squeeze and the pre-Christmas slowdown in UK retail, 2008 will have to be
played very close to the financial edge… |
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Mutual Independence – optimising the
supplier-retailer working relationship |
Nov 2007 |
Given
the choice of brands and products available to retailers, coupled with media
fragmentation making it difficult to build brand equity, it seems idealistic to
expect to achieve a state of mutual interdependence in a supplier-retailer
relationship. |
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A Market Bellwether, When Tesco ‘Slows Down’? |
Oct 2007 |
Whilst Tesco’s competitors would be
unwise to take any comfort from a ‘hiccup’ in UK growth, it is perhaps useful to
explore the extent to which Tesco can be used as an overall indicator or
bellwether for the UK retail market. |
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The Private Equity Consumer? |
Sept 2007 |
Bearing in mind that the private
equity retailer’s ‘long term’ objective is to re-sell the company to the stock
market within a 3-5 year timeframe at a minimum premium of 50% above the
purchase price, complete with ‘Tesco-class’ ratio performance, then any longer
term initiatives have to be subordinated to that need. |
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Four Shopper ‘Mind-Sets’ |
August 2007 |
Nielsen study identifies four
shopper ‘mind-sets’ that determine what consumers buy in the supermarket. |
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Managing Sainsbury’s while you wait...
|
Aug 2007 |
With
the UK’s No.3 retailer in limbo, facing two possible outcomes, Sainsbury’s
suppliers cannot afford to freewheel in the meantime. |
Private Equity Independency?
|
July 2007 |
Despite the fact that City opinion
indicates that the private equity boom is ‘somewhere near its top’, it is likely
that the effect of such takeovers of retailers will continue to impact
supplier-customer relationships over the next five years. |
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Private Equity Investment – A New
‘Deriver’ in Retail?
|
June 2007 |
How suppliers
can factor the private equity effect into their dealings with major customers
and optimise the resulting supplier-retailer relationship, fast...
|
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UK Trade Pricing v. Continental Europe –
the good, the bad and the ugly
|
June 2007 |
Article
outlining the fundamental differences in the way that continental Europe and the
UK approach trade pricing. |
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Globalising A.S. Watson – the Alliance Boots catalyst?
|
May 2007 |
With
the acceptance of the KKR-Pessina bid for Alliance Boots, and the relative lack
of property sell-off options, it is probable that the takeover is stage one in
the formation of a global retail and wholesale giant customer for health &
beauty suppliers everywhere. |
|
UK's Top 100 Grocery Brands |
March 2007 |
Compiled by market research
company Nielsen and leading grocery trade magazine Checkout. |
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Going For Broke With Tesco?
|
March 2007 |
Given Tesco’s rate of growth and level
of expertise, and accounting for upwards of 30% of a supplier’s business, many
companies are faced with the dilemma of whether to go all the way in optimising
the potential of their Tesco business, or invest in lesser customers at Tesco’s
‘expense’. |
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Large Customers’ Impact Upon Suppliers, a Reality-check… |
February 2007 |
The effect of the Competition
Commission investigation into the UK Grocery Market. |
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