Four practice areas, chosen because they move the P&L
Pricing, promotions, portfolio and trade terms sit behind most of the margin in an FMCG business. We work on those four, in depth, and nothing else. Here's what each one looks like in practice.
Strategic Pricing & Price Pack Architecture
Pricing is the fastest lever in the business and the easiest to get wrong. We help you set list prices, price ladders and pack architecture that recover cost, respect what shoppers will actually pay, and hold together across channels and retailers.
Questions we help answer
- How much of this cost increase can we recover, and in what sequence across customers?
- Where should each pack sit on the shelf price ladder — and are we cannibalising ourselves?
- What will a price move do to volume? What has it done before?
- Is there a pack-price play (size change, new entry price point, premium tier) that beats a straight increase?
Promotion & Investment Optimisation
In most NZ grocery categories, a large share of volume moves on deal — which makes promotional spend one of your biggest investments and, too often, one of the least examined. We measure what your promotions really return and rebuild the plan around the ones that earn their keep.
Questions we help answer
- Which promotional events genuinely grow the business, and which just move next month's volume forward at a discount?
- Are we on the right depth and frequency — or have we trained shoppers to wait for the deal?
- What's the true ROI of each event once funding, margin give and baseline erosion are counted?
- How should next year's promo calendar and co-op investment change as a result?
Portfolio & Mix Management
Ranges drift. SKUs accumulate, tail lines quietly absorb cost, and mix shifts in ways nobody chose. We bring discipline back: a clear role for every product, an honest view of what each line earns, and a portfolio shaped to grow margin rather than just revenue.
Questions we help answer
- Which SKUs are genuinely profitable once trade spend and cost-to-serve are loaded in?
- What role does each line play — traffic, margin, defence — and does the range hold up without the passengers?
- Where is mix quietly eroding (or building) our margin, and what's driving it?
- How do we walk into the next range review with a proposal instead of a defence?
Trade Architecture & Terms
Terms structures tend to be inherited, negotiated under pressure, and rarely revisited. We help you redesign customer investment so it rewards the behaviour you actually want — growth, compliance, efficiency — and gives you a defensible position when the negotiation gets hard.
Questions we help answer
- What are we really paying each customer for, and would we agree to it again today?
- How much of our investment is unconditional versus tied to performance — and what should that split be?
- Are terms consistent enough across customers to survive scrutiny, and flexible enough to reward genuine partners?
- What's our walk-in position, our fallback and our red lines for the next terms negotiation?
Analytics and execution come standard
We don't sell analytics or implementation as separate line items, because they're not optional. Every engagement is grounded in your scan data, promotional history and customer economics, and every recommendation comes with the tools and selling story needed to land it in-market. That's just what doing the job properly looks like.
Start with whichever question is costing you the most sleep
Engagements usually begin with one sharp problem, not a grand program. Tell us what's in front of you and we'll tell you honestly whether we can help.
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