FMCG Weekly

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 o...

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 los...

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...

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 ret...

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 fa...

The World Cup delivered FMCG sales uplifts across markets, but the underlying sources differed dramatically. UK beer and supermarket sales surged, France saw match-dependent spikes, US growth concentrated in host cities, Germany benefited from extreme heat, Norway recorded strong beer growth, while Dutch campaigns added little corrected market growth. The key RGM lesson is that uplift is not autom...

Heineken appointed a new CEO. It is Rafael Oliveira’s and this episode examines JDE Peet’s turnaround under his leadership as a case study in modern FMCG revenue management. Facing severe coffee inflation, Oliveira shifted the business away from promotional dependency, range proliferation and volume chasing, toward disciplined pricing, portfolio pruning, stronger brands and local price-pack archit...

This week on FMCG Weekly: how to win the World Cup. The tournament grows the battleground categories substantially, but the growth comes from base demand, not your promotion, and because everyone discounts at once, the deals largely cancel. You promote not to win, but to avoid the decremental loss of sitting out. The real opportunity is the open goal: adjacent categories like dips, mixers and ice...

This week examines the rise of personalised pricing across FMCG and grocery, and the regulatory and trust pressures now constraining it. We separate rules-based, dynamic and personalised pricing, and explain why retailers route personalisation covertly through loyalty schemes rather than visible shelf surges. We cover the United Kingdom's dual-pricing model and the competition authority'...

Q1 2026 marked a turning point for global FMCG. Across twenty-one of the largest players — from Nestlé and Unilever to AB InBev, PepsiCo and Reckitt — pricing has decelerated and volume is back as the principal growth engine. The new RGM frontier is mix: premium brands, pack architecture, energy and zero-sugar variants, and channel shifts to out-of-home. PepsiCo's Frito-Lay cut US snack price...

AB InBev has broken an 11-quarter volume slide by pivoting from brewery acquisitions to an "organic growth algorithm," concentrating 70% of its marketing on a few "megabrands." In Europe, retail sales have dipped 0.1% as energy shocks from the Iran conflict suppress consumer confidence. Meanwhile, Amazon has launched a massive price offensive in the UK, undercutting the "B...

Coca-Cola’s first-quarter results show a shift from price-led growth toward architecture-led growth. Organic revenue rose 10 percent, volume grew 3 percent, and EPS guidance improved, but the strategic signal is in pack design, affordability, cold availability, and occasion-based innovation. The 1.25-liter bottle and mini cans show how Coca-Cola is addressing pressured consumers without relying ma...

Tesco’s strong results, affluent shoppers moving into discounters, and the decline of traditional budget ranges. Tesco shows how modern retail advantage now comes from an integrated system of price, loyalty, media, digital fulfilment, AI, and premium own label. At the same time, higher-income consumers are becoming selectively frugal, saving on low-joy essentials while still spending on experience...

This week’s podcast examines the landmark $66 billion merger between Unilever’s food business and McCormick, a deal creating a $20 billion revenue "flavor powerhouse." Structured as a reverse Morris trust, the agreement sees Unilever pivoting toward beauty and personal care after a century in food, while McCormick significantly scales its global footprint. We also analyze Nestlé’s respon...

This episode analyzes Unilever’s potential divestiture of its food division, valued at over €30 billion, to McCormick & Company. This move would be a fundamental shift toward a pure-play beauty and personal care model, aimed at eliminating the "conglomerate discount" and matching the valuation multiples of peers like P&G. While the food division remains profitable with a 22.6% op...

BrewDog, once valued at $2.7 billion, sold out of administration for £33 million. This week, we examine what Tilray's acquisition of the brand tells us about a deeper structural shift in FMCG. The industry's biggest players, such as Unilever, Nestlé, and Keurig Dr Pepper, are shedding categories, demerging divisions, and concentrating on a handful of power brands. Meanwhile, a new type o...

This week’s episode analyzes a major structural realignment in the FMCG and retail sectors. Nestlé is divesting its ice-cream and water businesses to focus on coffee, petcare, and nutrition under CEO Philipp Navratil, amid an infant-formula recall crisis. Carrefour is implementing a 2030 strategy focused on France, Spain, and Brazil, exiting underperforming European markets. Most significantly, Am...

This episode of FMCG Weekly examines the structural shift from price-led growth to Real Internal Growth (RIG) in 2026. With global volume growth stalling at 0.9% and private label penetration hitting 40%, the "pricing ceiling" has been reached. We analyze how leaders like PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Coca-Cola are utilizing "right-sizing" and occasion-based Price Pack Architecture (PPA...

This episode of FMCG Weekly examines the evolution of price negotiations in 2026, focusing on the shift from cost-plus models to data-driven, category-focused strategies. Matilda, the A.I. host, provides a detailed analysis of best practices for senior executives, emphasizing the importance of quantifying shopper resilience and using switching models to project category growth. Through case studie...

This week’s episode analyzes four critical themes from the World Economic Forum in Davos (Jan 19–23, 2026) and their implications for Revenue Growth Management. First, we examine the "AI Profitability Gap," emphasizing the need to move from operational efficiency to predictive pricing models. Second, we explore the "Fractured Economy," where declining brand loyalty necessitates...

This week’s episode analyzes three distinct strategies in the FMCG sector amidst high cocoa prices and inflation. We examine Lindt & Sprüngli’s robust financial results, where a 19% price increase drove 12.4% organic growth despite a significant drop in volume, highlighting the risks of premium pricing power. We contrast this with Hershey’s aggressive 20% marketing budget increase aimed at rev...

Victoria’s Secret’s announced today a successful pivot to fewer discounts (+9% sales, improved margins). At the same time the grocery sector in the UK descended into a promotional price war to combat inflation. We analyze the "Post-Promotional Paradox" facing FMCG executives: as the post-COVID pricing power fades, the traditional reflex to buy volume with trade spend is losing steam. Cit...

The retail media landscape is facing a reality check, with optimism dropping due to difficulties in proving incremental sales. While retailers from Morrisons to Walmart rush to implement digital screens and AI-driven ad formats to boost commercial income, fatigue is setting in. In contrast, Costco succeeds by ignoring the hype, prioritizing membership value over monetization, and integrating media...

In this special episode of FMCG Weekly, we unpack a structured decision‑framework for Christmas and end‑of‑year promotions tailored to FMCG senior executives. We cover twelve critical questions—from category expandability and market position to visibility, discount depth and supply‑chain readiness—to guide promotional strategy away from mere volume toward margin‑generating growth. By aligning mech...

With CEO Doug McMillon stepping down, we analyze the sophisticated RGM machine he built at Walmart. The "people-led, tech-powered" model, funded by its ad business, uses an EDLP strategy to build trust and create demand stability. This structurally avoids the "hidden costs" of "Subsidised Base" and "Stockpiling" that plague "Hi-Lo" rivals. Walmart&...