Consumer Products

Adapt to the brand new order

The traditional consumer products business model is being disrupted by a changing world. There is huge potential to create value, but companies need to be prepared to disrupt old ways of thinking.

We interviewed 285 C-suite executives from leading consumer goods companies to identify what matters in this brand new order and what companies need to do differently in order to win.

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• Building profitable retail relationships
• Cash on the table: consumer products working capital management
• This time it's personal: from consumer to co-creator

Leverage opportunities in rapid growth markets

Rapid growth markets are key to the future growth of consumer products companies. Of the one billion people projected to enter the middle class by 2020, two-thirds will come from fast growing economies such as the BRIC grouping (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and other fast-expanding territories including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Turkey, Vietnam and Africa.

With 70% of global GDP expected to be generated by fast growth markets in the next ten years, consumer products companies need to seize the opportunities and manage the complexities.

Related content:

• Rapid Growth Summer Forecast
• Growing beyond: innovating for the next three billion
• Growing pains: Companies in rapid-growth markets face talent challenges as they expand
• Transacting in Emerging Markets
• Getting Real about Russia
• Growing in Africa: opportunities for consumer product businesses
• 2012 attractiveness survey: Brazil

Visit our Emerging Markets Center for more resources

Understand what’s driving consumer products transactions

Against a backdrop of ongoing economic uncertainty, merger and acquisition activity in the global consumer products sector slowed in early 2012. Despite hitting its lowest level in three years, we are optimistic that the pace of deal activity will recover through the year.

Companies are cash-rich, carrying out due diligence and keen to improve earnings and shareholder value through smaller deals, joint ventures, alliances and contracts rather than traditional M&A. Buyers have the firepower and the pipeline appears strong.

Are you interested in transactions? In the past twelve months we have acted for 95% of the top consumer product companies in the Top 500 of S&P Global 1200, so we are well placed to comment on the global transactions landscape.

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• Consumer products deals quarterly Q2 12
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• Cash on the table 2012
• Working capital management: all tied up
• Capital Confidence Barometer
  

Keep up with sub-sector trends

Limited growth in established markets; challenges around realizing value in emerging economies; increasingly complex routes to market; rising and volatile costs; and constant pressure to be good corporate citizens are just some of the issues consumer products companies face in today’s multi-faceted global marketplace.

We work with companies in the food, beverage, tobacco and household and personal care subsectors to manage issues like these. Our dedicated subsector teams, supported by our 13,000 strong global consumer products network, offer insight and services that help companies to reframe strategic choices, realign the value chain and ruthlessly execute in order to drive sustainable value creation.

The consumer products industry is broad and complex. We help keep our teams and key contacts focused through our Talking series of publications, which provide a timely, succinct and unbiased update of key strategic developments in the brewing, food, personal care and tobacco sectors. Talking Brewing, Talking Food, Talking Personal Care and Talking Tobacco are each published every three to four weeks.

Related content:

• Beverage
  • Thirst for growth – helping companies to compete in the rapidly changing beverage sector.
  • The contribution made by beer to the European economy

• Food
  • Appetite for growth – assessing the critical success factors in the rapidly changing food sector
  • Capturing recall costs: measuring and recovering the losses

• Tobacco
  • Working with the tobacco companies in the new normal