Market Entry
International Market Entry — UK Launch for Asian Consumer Goods Manufacturers
Over the course of my career I have worked with a number of large Asian consumer goods manufacturers, helping them establish a meaningful presence in the UK market. These have typically been substantial businesses — revenues in the $100M to $1B range — with strong credentials in their home markets but little or no footprint in the UK. My role in each case was to change that, working as a sole consultant with full ownership of the commercial programme from start to finish.
I worked directly with the senior leadership teams of these businesses — CEOs, CFOs, and their commercial counterparts — which meant the conversations were always strategic, the decisions were made quickly, and the expectations were high. That suited me. I was there to build something real, not produce reports.
The work itself covered three core areas. First, getting the proposition right for the UK market. What works in Asia rarely translates directly, and a significant part of my early work on each engagement was understanding where the gaps were — in product positioning, in brand narrative, and in price — and bridging them in a way that would land with British consumers and trade buyers alike. Second, building the right pricing and margin architecture to make the channel commercially viable for everyone in it. And third, identifying and appointing the right distribution and channel partners to give the brand a credible route to market.
Winning over independent specialist retailers is never straightforward, particularly for brands without an established UK reputation. It takes persistence, a clear commercial story, and the ability to demonstrate that you understand their business as well as your own. Across these engagements I secured listings with more than 20 independent specialists in each case, giving clients a genuine and sustainable UK commercial base to build from.
These projects typically ran for between 12 and 24 months. By the end of each one, the business had moved from having no UK presence at all to operating with a structured channel, an established customer base, and a pricing framework designed to support long-term growth.
Portfolio Alignment for European Manufacturers
One of the more common challenges I have encountered working with European building materials manufacturers is the gap between what they make and what the UK specialist trade channel actually wants to buy. These are typically businesses with strong, well-developed product ranges built around consumer markets — broad in scope, well presented, and perfectly suited to retail. The problem is that specialist trade distributors operate very differently, and a range designed for one rarely works for the other without significant intervention.
The disconnect is rarely just one thing. It tends to be a combination — a range that is too wide and unfocused for trade buyers who need simplicity and confidence in what they are stocking, a pricing and margin structure that doesn't reflect trade channel economics, and a fundamental unfamiliarity with how UK trade buying decisions are actually made. My job was to address all of that.
Working directly with the product and marketing teams at the manufacturer, the core of the work involved building a tiered product architecture — essentially a good, better, best framework that gave trade buyers a clear and logical range to work with, rather than a catalogue of options that created confusion rather than confidence. Alongside that, I developed the commercial documentation and trade sell-in materials needed to present the range in a way that resonated with specialist distributors — materials that spoke their language and addressed their commercial priorities rather than simply repackaging consumer-facing content.
The internal challenge on these projects was always about balance. The manufacturer's product and marketing teams understandably had a global perspective — they were managing a range that needed to work across multiple markets — and creating a UK-specific proposition within that framework required careful negotiation. It was about finding the space to do what the UK market needed without undermining the broader range strategy.
Rather than pursuing volume from the outset, I took a deliberate approach to the trade sell-in, targeting a small number of carefully selected specialist distributors where the fit was strongest. Securing the right accounts first — businesses with genuine credibility in their sector — gave the range a platform to build from and established the commercial proof points needed to support broader growth over time.
Portfolio Alignment for European Manufacturers
One of the more common challenges I have encountered working with European building materials manufacturers is the gap between what they make and what the UK specialist trade channel actually wants to buy. These are typically businesses with strong, well-developed product ranges built around consumer markets, broad in scope, well presented, and perfectly suited to retail. The problem is that specialist trade distributors operate very differently, and a range designed for one rarely works for the other without significant intervention.
The disconnect is rarely just one thing. It tends to be a combination a range that is too wide and unfocused for trade buyers who need simplicity and confidence in what they are stocking, a pricing and margin structure that doesn't reflect trade channel economics, and a fundamental unfamiliarity with how UK trade buying decisions are actually made. My job was to address all of that.
Working directly with the product and marketing teams at the manufacturer, the core of the work involved building a tiered product architecture, essentially a good, better, best framework that gave trade buyers a clear and logical range to work with, rather than a catalogue of options that created confusion rather than confidence. Alongside that, I developed the commercial documentation and trade sell-in materials needed to present the range in a way that resonated with specialist distributors, materials that spoke their language and addressed their commercial priorities rather than simply repackaging consumer-facing content.
The internal challenge on these projects was always about balance. The manufacturer's product and marketing teams understandably had a global perspective; they were managing a range that needed to work across multiple markets, and creating a UK-specific proposition within that framework required careful negotiation. It was about finding the space to meet the UK market's needs without undermining the broader range strategy.
Rather than pursuing volume from the start, I focused on a few specialist distributors where the fit was strongest. Securing the right accounts first — businesses with genuine credibility in their sector gave the range a platform to build from and established the commercial proof points needed to support broader growth over time.