February is here but blink and you will miss it as it is not a leap year. You cannot change January performance and February should be quite firm by now, so you need to be looking further ahead in your S&OP. Much further ahead.
What is coming soon in the wonderful world of FMCG and others?
Valentine’s Day 14th February. Yes, I know it is cheesy, but it is a prime time for chocolates and greetings cards and if your stock is not in place already, don’t bother. I can still see discounted Christmas chocolate on the shelves and I am sure the same will be true after the big red heart day.
Spring. An important period particularly in eastern Europe where a thorough house cleaning is the order of the day. Surfaces and fabrics are thoroughly cleaned and presents an opportunity for homecare producers to get an early boost in sales.
Easter April 1st. A huge confectionery event and fairy early in the year so you get to nibble nice, crisp chocolate rather than warmish stuff – ugh! Take care though because as mentioned above, you will probably be discounting your stock for several weeks after the event. Perfect for chocolate lovers but not great for retailers, your profit or core SKU brand planning.
Orthodox Easter 8th April. Usually a more religious and less chocolatey event but increasingly becoming like the earlier Easter. The dates are very close to each other this year, so this should not cause any significant planning and distribution challenges for global and regional producers. If you are slick enough you could transfer any obvious excess from the April 1st event into Orthodox markets, labelling permitted of course.
Eid al-Fitr. Mid-June. The holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. A huge, huge surge in the demand for food and drink across several work-free days. If food and drink producers in Middle East and North Africa get their planning wrong during Ramadan and the following Eid, then the annual results are immediately in danger.
Summer. While some events are fixed and in the diary years in advance, the appearance of the sun in the northern hemisphere remains unpredictable. This is an annual nightmare for drinks and ice cream producers as despite all the algorithms and predictive tools demand is difficult to guage, in Europe at least. In the hotter months the key aim must be for your key SKUs to be available 100% of the time. This may lead to future write-offs but if the sun pops out and your products don’t……..
Eid al-Adha late August. Another Islamic celebration which is perhaps not as grand as Ramadan Eid but as it is in August this year you can be sure chilled liquids will be in high demand. Unike in Europe, the sun is not shy in shining brightly in the ME and NA regions.
Back to school September. Paper, pens, pencils and Peppa Pig lunch boxes will fly off the shelves in preparation for the new school year. Look at the major retailers and you will see a very wide choice and surely not everything is sold. In fact, I remember seeing a huge stock of Bob the Builder merchandise on sale in rural markets in Uganda one Christmas. You have to get rid of it somewhere!
Thanksgiving 22nd November. A mainly North American food fest but with similar celebrations in Netherlands, surprisingly. Large family feasts and open-house entertaining ensure a peak for foods and drink manufacturers.
Christmas. Not much to say here except sales of everything in FMCG-land and many others reach a crescendo of demand as December progresses.
There are many other important peak seasons which may be global, continent-wide, regional or very local but all of them must be considered in your forward planning. If you don’t get it right someone else will push their products in front of consumer's faces.
If you want to be successful, then all these events and more should already be in your 2019 planning process. No typo there, yes 2019! Rather like driving a car on a long motorway, the further you are able to look ahead the easier it is to deal with unexpected hazards.
Image courtesy of Supertrooper at freedigitalphotos.net
