The conventional view is that consumers are fickle and inconsistent, hard to understand and predict, and therefore unmanageable. In fact, they are perfectly consistent, perfectly understandable, and quite predictable.
Adopting a tactic widely used by 3G Capital, the Brazilian private investment group behind the recent merger of Heinz and Kraft Foods, a growing number of the world's largest food and packaged goods companies are asking their suppliers to give them as much as four months to pay their bills - even though they typically require payment from their own customers in 30 days.
Analyst Insight: Consumer products companies are making far greater use of alternative sales channels than ever before. They are proactively reaching out to customers, whether in B2B or B2C environments, to gain share of mind and increase sales. Consumer products companies have also become much more active using their own websites and utilizing marketplaces as a means to increase their product's visibility and availability to potential customers. – Bruce Tompkins, Executive Director, Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium
The Procter & Gamble Company plans to build a multi-category manufacturing facility in Berkeley County, West Virginia, in the Eastern Panhandle of the state near the town of Tabler Station. When the plant opens in 2017, it will be one of the most advanced and sustainable plants among P&G's global manufacturing and supply-chain operations.
Omnichannel represents the biggest growth opportunity for the consumer goods and retail industry, according to a report from EY and the Consumer Goods Forum.
Replenish Bottling LLC has launched a sustainable product line that has the potential to change how many water-based consumer products are designed, manufactured and sold. The packaging technology can be found in a new line of concentrate household cleaning and personal care items sold under the CleanPath brand.
SATO, which specializes in barcode printing, labeling and EPC/RFID solutions, has released the S84-ex and S86-ex print engines for case carton, pallet and individual product identification, and print and apply applications.
The Ebola crisis in West Africa has helped push cocoa prices up by 10 percent since August to more than £1,000 ($1,617) per tonne, and this despite rising production.
