Last month UK shoppers spent over £250 million more on promotions than a year earlier, while total grocery sales grew just 1%. But how much of that is new business? Matilda explains the seven sources every promoted sale comes from, and why only a small share is genuinely new demand. She then looks at Lidl's £75 million Christmas loyalty push, PepsiCo's price cuts of up to 15%, the rise of Tesco Finest and Tesco's new influencer ads. And she ends with the question every commercial team should ...
UK grocery sales grew two percent in the four weeks to 6 September, with inflation at two point three percent. Branded goods outpaced own label for only the second time this year, but promotional spending rose seven percent, suggesting volume recovery is largely promotion-driven rather than a genuine pricing recovery. Research confirms a barbell polarisation in US FMCG, with mainstream brands losing ground to premium and value tiers simultaneously. Unilever's Wonder Wash expansion...
At this week's Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference in Boston, one theme kept coming up: the next wave of growth will not come from price alone. Matilda looks at how Reckitt refused to match 80 per cent off promotions in dishwashing, and how Danone returned Activia to growth by changing what it stands for. She also asks why Mondelez's Biscoff success still needs checking for where its volume really comes from. Along the way she covers Coca-Cola's pack architecture, price sensitivity af...
We reviewed the latest quarterly results, investor presentations and management commentary to see what they reveal about the direction of Revenue Growth Management. Now that all the main Q2 earnings calls have taken place, eight trends stand out. From more selective pricing and greater use of price investment, to the growing role of Price Pack Architecture, promotion ROI, portfolio design and retailer economics. In this episode of FMCG Weekly, we look at these trends, the companies behi...
Q2 results confirm that FMCG's growth engine has shifted from price to volume, with Unilever posting its best volume quarter since 2010 and Coca-Cola growing unit cases five percent. But the funding differs sharply. Most companies finance volume through productivity programmes, Coca-Cola and L'Oréal self-fund through brand strength, while Essity trades value for volume. PepsiCo's failed American price cuts prove that discounts alone do not create demand. With the consumer world split between ...