Branded consumer product companies are typically product innovation and marketing-led organisations that often accept product/Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) range complexity as an inevitable and acceptable consequence of their top-line focus. This is particularly true for major global branded businesses but also the reality in many smaller private equity-owned businesses. However, few businesses realise the true cost of SKU portfolio proliferation and the broader impact it has on business complexity. More SKUs does not always equate to more sales, sometimes the opposite.

The impacts of SKU complexity include diversion of resources away from winning products, weakened demand/ supply management, increased out-of-stocks, increased product obsolescence, reduced manufacturing OEE and increased operational and administrative costs. The combined effect of all of this is to harm top-line growth and damage bottom-line results.

Learn why reducing complexity is so hard to tackle, and what your business can do about it.

Click here to read the report.

A&M: Leadership. Action. Results.
A&M has worked with some of the largest European consumer businesses to stabilise financial performance, transform operations, capture profitable growth and accelerate results through decisive action. When traditional improvement activities are not enough, A&M’s restructuring and turnaround heritage brings fact-based, action-oriented leadership to transformation and delivers rapid results.

Our professionals have both operational and advisory experience together with a proven track record in leading businesses through tough, complex situations.