PRACTICE · TRADE
Category & merchandising: grow the basket, and make every metre earn.
Categories drift and space stops matching demand. We rebuild both halves of the same discipline — the commercial strategy that decides what deserves space, and the physical execution that puts it there.
The issue.
In most grocery businesses the category plan is last year’s plan plus inflation. Range reviews happen when a supplier asks. Space is allocated by history and negotiation, not rate-of-sale. Ranges grow by addition and shrink by crisis, planograms drift out of step with demand, and every store quietly improves the layout locally until head office loses sight of what the shopper actually faces. The result is invisible in any single week and enormous over a year: the wrong SKUs on the best shelves, working capital stranded in the tail, and shoppers editing you out of missions you should own.
What we do.
CATEGORY STRATEGY & ROLES
Destination, routine, convenience and seasonal roles defined across the estate — so every category has a job, a target and an owner, rather than being managed by whoever shouted last.
RANGE REVIEWS & SKU RATIONALISATION
Reviews built on rate-of-sale, margin and incrementality, with transfer-of-demand analysis and a kill-list discipline that survives supplier pushback — cut the tail without cutting sales.
SPACE-TO-SALES & PLANOGRAMS
Macro-space reallocation across the store, planogram development and digitalisation built around real demand, with compliance measured rather than assumed.
STORE CLUSTERING
Demand-led groupings that make tailoring affordable — the middle ground between one-size-fits-few and store-by-store anarchy.
PRICING & PROMOTION ARCHITECTURE BY ROLE
The price and promotional logic each category role should follow, so trade money shapes growth rather than just the shelf.
SUPPLIER JOINT BUSINESS PLANNING
Turning trade relationships into category growth, not just better terms — plus the organisation design that completes the buyer-to-category-manager transition.
How we work.
- Diagnose — EPOS, margin and space data, plus aisle walks. Where is the space-to-sales gap?
- Decide — category roles, range architecture, clusters and the review calendar.
- Deliver — planograms built, stores reset, supplier plans renegotiated alongside your team.
- Embed — review cadence, category scorecards and compliance reporting your team runs without us.
What changes.
Sales per metre rise. Range count typically falls 10–20% with no sales loss, and availability improves because stores can execute a simpler plan. Working capital comes out of the tail. Planogram compliance becomes a measured KPI rather than an aspiration. And supplier conversations shift from defending terms to funding growth — because there is finally a plan worth investing in.
PROVEN IN PRACTICE
At a 400+ store grocer our principal led planogram digitalisation and data-led assortment clustering across supermarkets, express stores and dark stores; designed the single reduced-to-clear markdown method now executed estate-wide; and rebuilt space and perpetual-inventory disciplines that lifted on-shelf availability across the estate.
Common questions.
Do you work for retailers or FMCG brands?
Both, never on the same category at the same time. For brands we build category captaincy capability and retailer-ready category stories.
What data do we need?
EPOS by SKU, store and week, margin, and space files if they exist. Imperfect data is normal — part of the work is building the dataset you should have had.
How is this different from a space-planning agency?
Agencies draw planograms. We set the commercial strategy that decides what deserves space at all — then make the planograms, pricing and supplier plans serve it. Strategy and execution in one practice, because splitting them is why most category work fails.
Related: Private Label Development · Margin & Commercial Excellence · Operational Excellence & Store Standards
Make every metre earn.
Thirty minutes on your categories, your space and where the basket is leaking. Candid and free.
30 minutes · no obligation · response within one working day