FMCG Weekly

Promo-led recovery for brands in the UK and Unilever's Wonder Wash premiumisation case

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 into India and Brazil demonstrates a disciplined model for premiumisation across markets. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

The growth that price can't buy

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 after inflation, and three questions every RGM leader should take into their next leadership meeting. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

8 Revenue Growth Management Trends Revealed in Q2 Earnings Calls

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 behind them, and what they mean in practical terms for RGM teams. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

FMCG Q2 Results: Five Patterns That Matter

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 a squeezed America and buoyant emerging markets, volume quality, not quantity, is the industry's new scoreboard. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

Who Really Won the World Cup at the Checkout?

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 automatically incremental or profitable. Sales may come from category expansion, competitive switching, retail or channel switching, cannibalisation, subsidised baseline, value upgrading or stockpiling. Businesses should therefore evaluate where growth came from, not simply how much they sold, before declaring an activation successful. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

How Rafa Oliveira Turned Around JDE Peet’s

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 architecture. The headline profit improvement looked modest, but the source of business P&L shows a spectacular clean-up of subsidisation, stockpiling and cannibalisation. The lesson for FMCG leaders is clear: value comes from defending profitable baseline demand and investing only in truly incremental growth, not merely protecting reported sales volumes during inflationary pressure and channel volatility. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

How to win the World Cup?

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 that ride the same occasion uncontested. Capture demand before it perishes, load the pantry before kick-off, know whether the event is yours to win, and spend where it grows the brand, not merely defends it. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

The Rise of Personalised Pricing in Grocery

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's verdict, then contrast approaches at Albert Heijn, REWE and Carrefour, and the supplier response from Nestlé, Coca-Cola and a new cross-industry measurement alliance. We close with tightening regulation on both continents, the centrality of consumer trust, and the coming world of double-sided algorithmic commerce between retailer and shopper agents. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

What We Learned Reading Every Major FMCG Q1 2026 Report

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 prices for the first time in years. Mondelēz exposed the ceiling on chocolate pricing. Emerging markets are now growing two-to-three times faster than developed. And with cost inflation returning in H2, a more disciplined pricing cycle is coming. Click to see the infographic with a summary of all Q1 earnings reports. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

AB Inbev, Amazon, McDonald’s and the Battle for the "Shaky Consumer"

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 "Big Four" on 65% of comparable grocery SKUs. Finally, McDonald’s and Burger King are leveraging value-based menu strategies to maintain volume amidst a tightening consumer economy. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

Coca-Cola’s Post-Inflation Growth Playbook

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 mainly on discounting. For FMCG leaders, the key question is whether growth is truly incremental or driven by cannibalization, subsidized loyalty, or stockpiling. The next RGM advantage will come from source-of-business clarity, disciplined pack roles, and precise execution. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

From Clubcard to Discounters: Who Owns Value Now?

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 experiences and chosen indulgences. Meanwhile, explicit value tiers are shrinking because retailers increasingly deliver value through ecosystems rather than just cheap ranges. For FMCG leaders, value is not disappearing. It is becoming more personalised, data-led, and strategically contested. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

Inside the McCormick-Unilever Mega-Merger

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 response to a 12-ton KitKat heist in Italy. By utilizing humor and viral engagement, Nestlé turned a supply chain crisis into a PR victory, providing key lessons for executives on brand voice, spontaneity, and the rising risks of cargo theft. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

Can a Focused Unilever Match P&G and L'Oréal?

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% operating margin, its 2.5% growth lags behind the 4.7% seen in Personal Care. We benchmark Unilever’s RGM capabilities against L’Oréal and P&G, highlighting the role of AI in driving "Desire at Scale" and the risks of stranded costs during this massive transition. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

From Punk to Pennies on the Dollar. BrewDog, Tilray, and the "Great Narrowing"

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 of lifestyle conglomerate is doing the opposite, buying distressed assets to build cross-category platforms. We explore why both strategies depend on the same thing: disciplined revenue growth management. Plus, how retailer pushback on pricing is changing the rules of supplier negotiations across the UK and Europe. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

Amazon bigger than Walmart, Carrefour's strategy and Nestle divestures

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, Amazon has officially surpassed Walmart in annual revenue ($716.9B vs $713.2B), marking a historic shift in retail dominance. Walmart is countering by targeting high-income shoppers and expanding its advertising business, while Amazon scales rural same-day delivery and grocery infrastructure. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

The End of Price-Led Growth

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) to drive volume. A key focus is the shift from gross promotional lift to "Source of Business" logic—decomposing volume into incrementality, cannibalization, and stockpiling—and the emergence of "failure rebates" in manufacturer-retailer negotiations to ensure mutual value creation. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

• Transcript

How to Survive Price Negotiations in 2026

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 studies involving Mars, Nestlé, and PepsiCo, the podcast illustrates the risks of protracted delistings and the power of brand equity. The text concludes with a strategic framework for C-suite leaders to navigate retailer relationships while securing essential margin adjustments in a post-inflationary market. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

Davos 2026 for FMCG: AI, Tariffs, and the New Consumer

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 a rigorous analysis of volume sources to avoid cannibalization. Third, we discuss the "Time over Price" shift, where convenience commands a premium over pure volume deals. Finally, we address the return of tariff volatility, highlighting the urgent need for agile, scenario-based pricing strategies to protect margins. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management

Lidl, Hershey and Lindt’s 19% Price Hike

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 revitalizing its flagship brand and reducing reliance on seasonal sales. Finally, we discuss Lidl France’s strategic exit from TV advertising due to restrictive government regulations, signaling a major shift of ad spend toward digital platforms. FMCG Weekly - News and trends curated by Accuris, the leading independent consultancy for revenue growth management