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Consumer Goods & Retail Consulting Services

Organizations producing, distributing, and making products available at retail points can be consumer goods companies or consumer packaged goods companies (CPG). Such companies could develop a constraint in areas like Internal Operations and Distribution, External Distribution, Sales Bandwidth, Retail Operations and New Product Development.

Internal Operations and Distribution

Our Offer

Near
100%

availability of
internal warehouses

Upto
50%

Reduction in
lead time

Upto
25%

Increase in
plants by around

Upto
40%

Reduction in
overall inventories

Improve success rate of new introductions

Eliminate or reduce need for Inventory liquidation sales

Many consumer goods companies are faced with seemingly contradictory issues in the supply chain. Companies tend to have significant stockouts despite presence of high overall inventory, price pressure from the supply chain intermediaries even though price to the end consumer is unaffected, struggle with new product introductions/product freshness at retail points even as old products clog the pipeline. These problems can be attributed to a single source – incorrect timing of creation and movement of inventory. To resolve this issue, consumer goods manufacturers have tried to improve their forecasting methods and tools. Yet they never get it right. However, the solution to this problem lies in a different direction- in questioning the very need of forecasting.

We offer consulting services to consumer goods and retail companies to help them achieve 100% availability at less than half the inventory in the end-to-end supply chain.

For more information on how consumer goods and retail companies can prevent sales loss by ensuring availability

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External Distribution

Our Offer

Exponentially increase number of retailers covered by direct distribution

More than
100%

Increase in
product available

Sales growth higher than industry average

Near
~100%

availability of relevant range at all billing/retail points

Distributor ROI of close to 60-80% compared to industry benchmarks of only 25-30%

Most consumer goods companies are unable to directly reach all retailers, especially small mom and pop stores and stores that are geographically spread out. To improve reach, such companies usually rely on distributers. However, most distributors tend to cherry-pick retailers in their areas basing their choice on cost of servicing the retailers. They leave out many retailers, unwittingly creating large reach-gaps in many of the companies’ territories. To plug the gap, consumer goods companies then turn to wholesalers. However, wholesalers exacerbate the problem rather than provide real reach. At a loss for ways to strengthen presence in hard-to-reach territories, consumer goods companies often accept the longstanding woe of inadequate reach as ‘unsolvable’.

Vector Consulting helps consumer goods companies to identify highly cost-effective ways of servicing every retail point. Deploying this strategy, companies can strengthen reach with a single-tier distribution network.

Know more about Vector Consulting company’s Go-To-Market strategy that has helped several consumer goods companies to reach out to all potential retailers.

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Sales Bandwidth

Our Offer

More than
50%

Increase in sales capacity

Maximize retail penetration

Implementation of TOC systems in internal and external distribution of consumer goods companies, creates a situation where movement of inventory is on auto-pilot. In this new scenario, the sole option by which sales team can increase sales is by focusing on retail points. However, then the load on sales team goes up many folds. The only way to deal with this emergent constraint is to release capacity of sales team and use new methods, structure and processes to effectively identify resolve issues impacting demand at retail points.

To know more about Vector Consulting’s solution for exploiting sales team capacity and to find out how consumer goods companies can profitably reach out to all potential retailers, visit :

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Retail Operations

Our Offer

Around
20%

Growth in same store sales

More than
100%

improvement in inventory turns

Increase gross contribution per unit of retail shelf space

Improve display and freshness of stocks on retail shelf space

Consumer goods companies having their own retail business are typically constrained by shelf-space (or working capital). The speed of inventory rotation on shelf space limits the ability of a retail business to make more money. Shelf space of retail stores is, in many cases, occupied by significant quantity of slow-moving stock. At same time, there is stock out of popular products. Together, the impact is sales loss and poor inventory turns for retail outlets.

We offer consulting services to help our clients in the retail business to significantly increase the rate of sales and, simultaneously, release capital for store expansion.

Companies in the retail business have used Vector Consulting’s end-to-end processes of rapid pull replenishment and rapid replacement to solve the problem of stock outs and slow-moving stocks (without hurting their bottom-line).

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New Product Development

Our Offer

Upto
50%

Reduced project lead time

Upto
50%

Increased output from existing resource base

Reduce rework & improved quality of output

Rapid production stabilization

Improved rate of success of launches

Reduced stress on people and other resources

After a consumer goods company acquires a lean and agile distribution and supply chain that is capable of delivering high ROI for trade partners, it can experience the next level of constraint in its ability to launch new products. Companies that make new products are often cluttered with far too many projects; their environments suffer a host of issues such as frequent priority conflicts, rework, delays in production stabilization, and, eventually, delays in launch.

Vector Consulting uses flow principles of TOC to help consumer goods companies increase speed of projects, and, simultaneously, release substantial capacity.

Know more about Vector’s consulting services which enable NPD organizations to permanently cure problems such as chronic delays and low output.

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Antithesis

View these videos to challenge some of the entrenched best practices in the consumer goods industry, to understand the chronic problems these practices have created, and to find a radically new perspective.

Does setting targets have a negative impact on sales of a company?

At Vector Consulting, we believe that the customary practice of setting sales targets holds back companies from realizing the full sales potential of their markets. Find out why.

Do "Trade Schemes" jeopardize the sales of your company?

In our consulting practice, we have repeatedly seen that volume-based schemes (in the distribution channel) can limit a consumer goods company’s reach and range availability in the market while simultaneously throttling cash flow. Find out how this happens.

Does indirect distribution actually lead to desired reach?

There is a deeply entrenched belief in the consumer goods industry that direct distribution to the large population of small retailers is unviable. Therefore, companies try to service these retailers through indirect distributors such as wholesalers. In our consulting assignments, we have repeatedly challenged this belief. Find out why!

Is your sales and operations planning ineffective? 

Often, materials supplied by the operations teams of consumer goods companies do not match those that the production teams need to fulfil orders. Teams spend copious amounts of time and energy on sourcing (expediting) the ‘missing material’. Vector Consulting has identified the cause of this chronic industry problem. Watch this short video to learn more.

Case Studies

Vector Consulting Group has transformed numerous supply chains using “pull” systems of Theory of Constraints. Companies like VIP, Bajaj Electricals and others have benefited from Vector’s consulting services which have helped these companies acquire a competitive advantage in their markets.

Aligning its operations to the principles of TOC – VIP Industries Ltd.

VIP Industries Ltd is India’s largest and world’s leading manufacturer of luggage carriers. With the help of Vector Consulting, the company grew its top-line and bottom-line by aligning its operations to the principles of TOC.

  • Indicators
  • Remark
  • Stock availability (branches)
  • More than 90% consistently (from earlier 60-65%)
  • Weekly fill-rates y
  • 85% (from 60% earlier)
  • Same store growth rate (co-owned stores)
  • 20% (much higher than the earlier growth rate)
  • Secondary sales (pilot in distribution channel)
  • More than 50% increase (compared to previous sales level)

Clients

We have partnered some of the major names in the consumer goods and retail industry to create and implement radical solutions which have redefined industry benchmarks. These include:

kelloggs
vip-industries-ltd
bajaj-electricals-ltd-logo
lenskart
jindal-stainless-steelway
kirloskar
godrej-interio
centuryply
vaibhav-global-limited-logo
westside
morphy-richards
tata-international
liberty
hershey's
sintex
agl
aplapollo
shakti
logo-landmark
super-drive
godrej-indonesia
liberty-1
skipper-logo
parag
pidilite

Client Speaks

adesh-gupta-ceo
Adesh Gupta
Chief Executive Officer, Liberty Shoes Ltd.

With Vector’s help, we changed the operations to ensure over 95% availability at the central warehouse for more than 5,000 SKUs.

Q. Liberty’s growth story is amazing. You have transformed the franchisee model. How did you accomplish this?

A. The earlier paradigm dictated that we manufacture products in big batches. To move stock, we had to procure big orders, open sprawling stores or pursue large franchisees. The fallout of this focus on primary sales through large orders was undesirable. Franchisees were burdened with at least six months’ inventory. Consequently, the ROI for franchisees dropped. It became difficult to attract good franchisees; this hampered our growth.

Working with Vector Consulting Group, we understood that small and frequent supplies ensured low inventories (of about two months) at the franchisee. This also brought in significantly higher ROI.

Q. Liberty moved from manufacturing stocks as per forecasts (for an entire season) to manufacturing small quantities (and replenishing stocks every week). How did you make this shift?

A.Yes! We realised quickly that it was not possible to replenish the shops weekly directly from the production line. Then we learned that it was possible to do so from a Central Warehouse. So, we built one. With Vector Consulting's help, we overhauled operations to align with the goal of improving availability at the warehouse. Availability went up to 95 percent for more than 5,000 SKUs stocked at the warehouse. Production lead-times dropped from 60 to 16 days, consequently total inventory reduced by 50 percent! The next challenge was to accept the increase in logistics costs (which went up along with the frequency of deliveries to the warehouse). We reconciled with this cost as it was marginal compared to the substantial increase in sales.

Adesh-Gupta_img-1
Q. Have you thought of leveraging your success further?

A. We have added 150 new stores in the last 18 months. Our capability to make small and frequent supplies is key to enlarging our network of small franchisees and to operating company-owned stores in two and three tier cities.

95% availability at the central warehouse for more than 5,000 SKUs