Nestlé’s Amazon distribution model
July 23, 2010 by Tielman Nieuwoudt
Filed under Consumer Goods, Featured Articles, Inclusive Business, Route-to-Market, Social Responsibility
Photo: Marcia Zoet Bloomberg Nestlé is planning to sail a supermarket barge down two Amazon River tributaries, namely Pará and Xingu rivers in Brazil. Nestlé wants to compete with Unilever in Brazil and aims to reach customers isolated from branded goods. Consumer goods companies are increasingly focusing on the one billion people in emerging markets [...]
Public-private partnerships- Where can companies contribute?
April 5, 2010 by Tielman Nieuwoudt
Filed under Featured Articles, Not-for-Profit, Social Responsibility
Like the private sector, many not-for-profit organizations are involved in supply chain logistics, aiming to get needed products to their clients as efficiently as possible. In emerging markets such as Tanzania, streamlining in-country supply chain can be a complicated undertaking. Many not-for profit organizations are acknowledging that their supply chain capability and capacity, while a [...]
Thoughts on ethics and the Supply Chain
March 21, 2010 by Admin
Filed under Featured Articles, Social Responsibility
Writing on the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807, G.M. Trevelyan, the historian, called it “one of the turning circumstances in the history of the world”. As we look to Logistics to make a more transformative impact on global business practice, we could turn to the campaign waged by William Wilberforce and the [...]
Slums – Beyond the perception
March 15, 2010 by Tielman Nieuwoudt
Filed under Africa, Asia, Distributors, Featured Articles, Inclusive Business, Social Responsibility
Personally, I am not very fond of the term, slums. I think it is loosely defined term for a type of informal market. However, with all their problems and challenges there is a lot to learn from slums from a business perspective. Entrepreneurism – slum areas are highly entrepreneurial, with a high degree of business [...]
Aquatabs – the Hybrid Social Distribution Model
November 13, 2009 by Tielman Nieuwoudt
Filed under Africa, Asia, Featured Articles, Interviews, Not-for-Profit, Social Responsibility
Aquatabs – the Hybrid Social Distribution Model Last month I spoke to Michael Gately, Marketing Director of Medentech. The company is well known for its Aquatabs brand of rapidly dissolving tablets. It is one of the best known and most respected names in point-of-use water purification globally and is used to disinfect billions of litres [...]
Gambia is Good
September 1, 2009 by Tielman Nieuwoudt
Filed under Africa, Featured Articles, Not-for-Profit, Social Responsibility
On a recent trip to West Africa I had a chance to make a short stop in Gambia. As part of our company’s increased interest and research in the supply chain in social products, I made contact with Amy Hause, General Manager of Gambia is Good (GiG). TN: Who is GiG? GiG is a horticultural [...]
Ethiopia’s inclusive distribution model
May 19, 2009 by Tielman Nieuwoudt
Filed under Africa, Consumer Goods, Distributors, Featured Articles, Not-for-Profit, Social Responsibility
Arriving in Ethiopia in 1998 the local Coca-Cola operation was hardly an operation to search for best practices. Today, the picture looks very different. Harvard University (download PDF) recently conducted research on the Coca-Cola Ethiopian manual distribution center (MDC) and published a report on the model. The Ethiopian MDC project, launched in 1999, is today viewed as [...]
The power of distribution in Africa
April 6, 2009 by Tielman Nieuwoudt
Filed under Featured Articles, Social Responsibility
An interesting video from the Business Call to Action (UK). Coca-Cola former CEO Neville Isdell talks about the Manual Distribution Centre (MDC) and the impact it has on the community at large. The company currently has 1,800 of these independently run businesses, directly employ 7,500 people and generate revenue of US$0.5 billion. A number of [...]
