Retail & CPG

In the highly competitive retail sector, big battles are fought over shelf space. With thousands of products placed in dozens of retail outlets, category managers in the Consumer Product Goods (CPG) and retail sector need every advantage they can get to position their brands for growth. The amount of data at play is staggering: In addition to historical data needed, there are constant updates of products and stores that require more than simple Excel files to perform detailed business analysis. 

With a changing landscape and new restrictions, the razor thin profit margins of the restaurant and food industry have gotten even slimmer.  If ever there was a time to test creativity and change mindsets about the way we “dine out,” it is now.  The shift to drive-thru, quick service and delivery from fine and casual dining, coupled with home cooks becoming “master chefs” has challenged all restaurants to reinvent themselves. Careful understanding is required when rethinking your restaurant strategy and we can help.

Energy Market

With the Energy market, your forecasts and projections must be nearly perfect to ensure operational efficiency and environmental performance. Affected by transmission costs, market variables, commodity prices and weather, pricing is difficult to predict, causing a hazy effect when determining gross margin. Coupled with this challenge, is a marketplace of competitors that generate and load energy to meet day ahead demands. Needing to track different types of contracts, abide by local regulations, and follow grid energy loss ratios, all create a staggering amount of data. You need more than simple files to support and render your analysis of profitable gross margins. Operational costs and infrastructure maintenance also need constant attention and innovation to deliver optimum profit. All of these factors make it overwhelming to gain real perspective and control over financials with so many uncertainties. We can help you juggle these ever-changing variables and more.

Managing The S&OP Process

As a manufacturer, distributor, retailer or CPG, a lot of what keeps a healthy bottom line is managing our inventory correctly.  Products bought should equal products sold. This means supply = demand. Sounds easy, right? But when you grow beyond demand and supply planning, and have multiple products, distributors or retailers, and want to capitalize on trends, and customization by region, things get a lot more complicated. Add in multiple systems, formats, products, languages, countries, and taxes, and things become overwhelming really fast. Supply chain drivers can become unbalanced, take over your strategy and you can easily end up in the red because you lose control of your inventory and S&OP (sales and operating planning).