Nestlé’s Amazon distribution model

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 [...]

Manual Distribution Centers – MDC

Created with flickr slideshow. The Manual Distribution Center (MDC) model in Africa and Asia See Flikr link Photos set from our project work in Africa and Asia. Also see the MDC video

The informal market

Robert Neuwirth writes about the informal economy in Lagos, Nigeria, and its importance to the local economy. Local governments mostly view these informal markets in a negative way, even though they contribute significantly to the economy. Some interesting points: The demand for economic activities takes over everything as bridges are transformed into informal markets. The [...]

Key distribution issues in emerging markets – Updated

Channel strategy – companies must map out a clear channel strategy and identify which channel the selected distributor will service. A poorly defined channel strategy can severely damage any distributor roll-out. It is critical that companies understand how channels function and operate. One size does not fit all. Selection criteria – companies need to understand [...]

Within arms’ reach of the retailer and consumer

In a competitive environment, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies are increasingly forced to get within arms’ reach of the retailer and consumer. CPG companies that have a Route-to-Market strategy that includes a direct focus on mom-and-pop stores are the most successful in reaching the “base of the pyramid”. The buy-in-bulk mentality is unlikely to have [...]

Two-tier distribution in emerging markets – telecom and electronics

What is a two-tier distributor? They buy from manufacturers and sell to resellers. What are their competitive advantages? Two-tier distributors can expand the retail footprint in emerging markets. They normally sell a diverse range of brands and control a large percentage of the local distribution in the telecom and the computer industry. Two-tier distributors understand [...]

Sri Lanka Distributor Issues

Sri Lanka is currently waking up from years of civil war. There is a sense of optimism in the air and the country is most certainly open for business. In September I spent two weeks in the country and also had a chance to review a FMCG company’s distributor network.  I jotted down a few [...]

Guinea distribution

Guinea Conakry has seen better days. Political instability and an uncertain economic outlook have not helped consumer confidence in this West African country. I have spent the last two weeks assessing a FMCG company’s distribution capability. The data tell an interesting story. Wholesalers – like most of markets in Africa, FMCG companies rely heavily on [...]

Ethiopia’s inclusive distribution model

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 [...]

Village Billboards and supply chain

Erik Hersman blogs about Zach Lutische, a man with an interesting concept envisioned for rural Kenya. “The concept involves putting up a network of rural billboards around Kenya, using them as a way to gather and create a nexus point for community information. Anyone in the village can put up a notice, news or advertisement [...]

Next Page »