Everything you need to know
before the board does

Effective FMCG board preparation goes beyond updating last quarter's slides. The board wants to understand where value is being created and where it's at risk — not just what happened, but what it means. The strongest preparation includes an independent commercial analysis covering revenue quality, brand and pricing power, distribution health, trade spend efficiency, and margin architecture.

Most CEOs rely on internal data prepared by the team that built the strategy. That team will not objectively diagnose its own weaknesses. The Board Narrative fills this gap with an evidence-backed briefing in 3 business days.

A strong FMCG board pack includes an executive summary with top value drivers and issues, a commercial performance narrative backed by data across pricing, distribution, trade spend, and portfolio performance, a value and risk matrix mapping issues by impact and likelihood, and data confidence levels showing where findings are robust and where gaps exist.

Most board packs have the data but miss the narrative — the independent story that connects the dots. That's the substance The Board Narrative provides.

Non-executive directors want clarity, not complexity. Lead with the headline — a single-page summary of where the business stands. Present findings as a narrative, not a data dump: where we're strong, where we're exposed, what needs attention. Use severity ratings so the board can prioritise without decoding spreadsheets.

Every claim should be backed by evidence, and every finding should have a clear "so what." Boards respect transparency over false precision. Read more in From Reporting to Leading.

Most FMCG boards meet quarterly. Each meeting deserves a fresh, independent view. Markets move, private label advances, promotional calendars shift, and distribution dynamics change. A static annual review misses patterns that develop between meetings.

The Board Narrative is per-engagement — buy when you need it, no retainer. Many clients use it quarterly to maintain a continuous, honest view of commercial performance.

Commercial intelligence for FMCG is the independent, data-driven analysis of a consumer goods company's commercial performance across critical dimensions: revenue quality, brand and pricing power, distribution health, trade spend efficiency, portfolio vitality, market position, gross margin architecture, and commercial capability.

Unlike market research (which looks outward), commercial intelligence looks inward at your own data to surface patterns, risks, and opportunities that internal teams miss or will not surface.

Market research tells you what's happening in the category — market size, shares, consumer attitudes. It looks outward. Commercial intelligence analyses your own data to diagnose how the business performs beneath the headline numbers — revenue concentration, pricing power erosion, trade spend ROI, margin leakage by customer or channel.

Both are valuable. But market research alone won't tell you that your top 3 customers represent 61% of net revenue, or that trade spend returns €0.72 per €1 invested. That requires commercial intelligence.

We analyse data across 11 categories: P&L data (3 years, monthly), revenue breakdowns by customer/channel/SKU, product master data, pricing by customer and channel, trade spend with promo calendars, margin data by SKU/customer/channel, market data (share, distribution, rate of sale), distribution listing matrices, competitive data, organisational capability, and balance sheet data.

Key principle: we never delay for perfect data. We work with what's available and are transparent about gaps. Full requirements on the product page.

(1) Revenue Quality — concentration, dependency, organic vs. price-driven growth. (2) Brand & Pricing Power — price gap, elasticity, promotional dependency. (3) Distribution Health — weighted/numeric trends, listings. (4) Trade Spend Efficiency — promo ROI, baseline erosion. (5) Portfolio Vitality — zombie SKUs, innovation, cannibalisation. (6) Market Position — share trends, momentum. (7) Gross Margin Architecture — margin by channel/customer/SKU. (8) Commercial Capability — KPIs, org, data maturity. (9) Earnings Quality — cash conversion, add-backs. (10) Working Capital — inventory, receivables, cash cycle. (11) Operational Resilience — supplier dependency, key person risk.

An independent, AI-powered commercial intelligence briefing for FMCG executives. Designed for CEOs, MDs, CFOs, and Commercial Directors of consumer goods companies (€5M–€500M revenue) who need an honest, external view of commercial reality before a board meeting or strategic decision.

10–15 page narrative briefing (PDF). Delivered in 3 business days. €3,500 fixed fee. Full details →

Strategy firms take 8–12 weeks and €150K–€400K. They handle once-in-a-decade questions. The Board Narrative serves the other 95% of board meetings: quarterly reviews, performance check-ins, growth plan validations that don't justify a six-figure engagement but still need independent substance.

3 days. €3,500. We're not replacing consulting — we're filling the gap between internal reports and a full engagement.

Board portals manage the process and format of meetings — agenda, documents, formatting. They don't analyse your commercial data or generate independent insight. The Board Narrative is complementary: it gives you substance worth putting into that portal. Process without substance is a well-organised meeting about nothing.

The AI engine analyses data across 11 dimensions with speed and consistency no human team can match. It processes connections between pricing, volume, distribution, trade spend, portfolio, and margins simultaneously. Then every finding is calibrated by a 25-year FMCG operator who has managed P&Ls at P&G, Danone, Energizer, and PE-backed companies. The AI finds patterns. The operator knows which ones matter.

NDA signed before any data transfer. Data processed in a secure environment, never shared with third parties, deleted 30 days after delivery unless requested otherwise. We treat your commercial data with the same confidentiality a PE firm expects during due diligence — because that's the standard we come from.

If The Board Narrative doesn't change how you walk into your next board meeting, we'll get on a call, understand why, and cancel the invoice. No questions beyond that. We're confident in what we deliver — and we think you should be too before you pay.

Measure trade spend ROI: incremental volume and revenue generated vs. spend invested. Healthy FMCG trade spend returns €1.50+ per €1 invested. Below €1.00, you're subsidising volume, not building it. Watch for baseline erosion — declining non-promoted volume that nobody tracks because total volume looks fine.

If more than 40% of volume is sold on deal, you don't have a brand — you have a deal. The Board Narrative analyses trade spend as one of its 11 core dimensions.

The critical threshold in most FMCG categories is around 20%. Above 25–30%, branded products can justify the premium through quality, innovation, and brand equity. Below 20%, the value equation tips and shopper switching accelerates — particularly in commoditised categories.

The trend matters more than the number. A brand at 25% that was 35% two years ago is in trouble. The direction of travel tells you whether pricing power is being maintained or eroded.

Decompose revenue growth into volume, price, and mix components. If more than 70% is price-driven with flat or declining volume, the growth is fragile. The next price increase may trigger share loss rather than revenue gain — especially if the private label gap is narrowing.

Real growth shows in volume gains, distribution expansion, and share increases. Price-driven growth without volume is borrowing from the future. Read more in The Growth Narrative.

Revenue quality assesses whether revenue is real, repeatable, and resilient. Key indicators: customer concentration (do top 3 customers exceed 50% of revenue?), channel dependency, SKU risk (does one product drive a disproportionate share?), and the split between organic growth and price-driven growth.

High-quality revenue is diversified, volume-driven, and based on sustainable demand. Low-quality revenue looks good on the P&L but can collapse when one customer delists or a price increase doesn't hold.

A credible growth narrative doesn't just say "we grew 8%." It decomposes the number and tells the board why, how sustainable it is, and what's required to continue. Separate organic volume from pricing. Show whether share gains are real or artefacts of a shrinking category. Map distribution expansion against rate-of-sale trends. Quantify trade spend required to maintain trajectory.

The board doesn't want optimism. They want credibility. Read the full guide: The Growth Narrative.

A 3–5 page counter-argument document that prepares you for board pushback. Share a specific topic and supporting data, and we build the challenge the board is likely to raise — with evidence — so you can prepare your response before you walk in. 2 business days. €3,500.

Before the board plays devil's advocate, we do.

The emergency product. You need an answer by morning. Send whatever data you have plus a focused question. We deliver a 2–3 page briefing within 24 hours. €4,000. Not a full Board Narrative — a sharp, fast, focused analysis of the specific question keeping you up at night.

For the CEO whose board meeting is tomorrow and who just realised their team's numbers don't add up.

Yes — through ARBOL, our PE-focused advisory practice. ARBOL provides independent commercial due diligence for private equity firms evaluating FMCG and consumer goods acquisitions. Same analytical engine, different application — assessing target companies rather than your own business. Learn more about ARBOL →

The Board Narrative is designed as per-engagement — buy when you need it, no retainer. This keeps the relationship independent and the analysis fresh. Many clients naturally develop a quarterly cadence, using the product before each board meeting. If you need deeper, ongoing advisory, we can discuss bespoke arrangements through ARBOL.