Most manufacturers appoint the wrong distributor, then spend three years finding out.
Most manufacturers appoint the wrong distributor, then spend three years finding out.
I’ve spent my career on both sides of this. Industrial distribution first — branch management running large B2B supply contracts, then state management of a $100m business with 200 people, then national and wider roles across Australia, New Zealand and Oceania. Large-format retail after that, running a trade division with a field force of 130.
I’ve spent my career on both sides of this. Industrial distribution first — branch management running large B2B supply contracts, then state management of a $100m business with 200 people, then national and wider roles across Australia, New Zealand and Oceania. Large-format retail after that, running a trade division with a field force of 130.
Then the manufacturer side: building a sales company from scratch after a twenty-year distributor agreement ended, running a country business across dealer and retail channels, and for the last nine years a portfolio that grew to sixty-five distributor markets — six owned subsidiaries, a €100m+ P&L, seventy countries.
It never stood still. I opened white spots in a dozen or so markets, replaced several partners, took on a whole region of others, and watched a few fail outright.
Some were excellent. Some had been the right choice a decade earlier and no longer were. Working out which was which was the job — and it’s the same question you’re sitting on now.