Oliver Wight supports confectionery group succeed with integrated business plan

After a series of acquisitions, a leading confectionery group set out to become number one in its market. It turned to Oliver Wight for an assessment to identify behavioural gaps, and areas where performance gains were possible, to make those ambitions a reality.

When a global confectioner set out to elevate its brand, its aspirations rapidly met with an inconvenient reality. The leadership team soon realised they were facing significant internal and external challenges: from a saturated market with limited growth opportunities; to fragmented operations following mergers; and even poor service levels, including low order fill rates and retailer penalties

At the same time, these worries were siloed. Finance leaders were concerned about missed targets and high working capital. Supply chain leaders felt stuck, juggling excess stock with low service levels. Sales and marketing leaders lacked confidence in plans and visibility. Everyone was firefighting, while inter-departmental trust was fraying.

It was clear, while the confectionery group had scale, it was without synergy. To grow, the firm needed integration – not just of systems, but of people, plans and purpose.
Having previously worked with Oliver Wight consultants across its acquisitions, the client turned to the consultancy to lead this required next phase of change. The consultancy’s engagement began with a comprehensive assessment using the Oliver Wight Enterprise Business Model framework.

The challenge

“We conducted qualitative and quantitative diagnostics across end-to-end functions, including demand planning, portfolio management, manufacturing, supply chain, marketing and finance,” explained one expert with the firm. “This assessment also included site visits and interviews across markets and business units to identify capability gaps, structural inefficiencies and performance shortfalls.”

The diagnostic uncovered a range of pressing issues undermining performance. Marketing, in particular, was not contributing to the long-range demand plan, creating disconnects between promotional planning and production capacity. The business lacked a unified, forward-looking view of its operational and commercial plans, which was essential for achieving competitive advantage.

Issues included: order fill rates averaged just 93%, triggering penalties from retailers due to poor on-shelf availability and freshness; significant levels of write-offs due to short shelf life, with product being redistributed at discount due to expiry risks; and the fact that planning horizons were too short to enable effective investment and capacity decisions. Elsewhere, there were disconnects between functional teams, resulting in promotional activity being planned against products that could not be fulfilled; the supply chain was carrying excess inventory, yet still experiencing capacity shortfalls during peak demand; and forecast bias and inaccuracies were concealed within a traditional budgeting process, contributing to poor decision-making.

Many of these issues were personal and emotional as well as operational. Marketing leaders felt disempowered. Supply chain leads felt blamed for problems beyond their control. Finance was under pressure to explain variances that they couldn’t predict.

From assessment to change

With clarity on the challenges, the next phase focused on implementation. The change journey was structured into a series of sprints, designed to build momentum while enabling sustainable change.

Oliver Wight categorised the work into three streams:

1. Quick wins
   Tactical improvements achievable within 90 days, such as adjustments to service processes and basic demand planning refinements
2. Process redesign sprints
   Multi-month improvement projects focusing on structural change
3. Long-term transformation
   A programme to establish Integrated Business Planning (IBP) as the new business rhythm

By sequencing the work, the firm’s experts gave leaders a sense of momentum. The early wins were not only performance improvements but acted as morale boosters as well. Teams began to believe change was possible. And crucially, they saw it was happening with them, not to them.

To drive structural and behavioural change, Oliver Wight then introduced a series of integrated planning solutions, each one solving a real, human problem identified in the assessment:

• Integrated Tactical Planning (ITP)
• We developed a tactical planning layer focused on short-term execution. This helped the business better manage promotional uplifts, align sales and portfolio with operations and increase agility.
• Demand Planning
• We developed and improved the demand planning process to ensure full integration of all sales, marketing and portfolio plans over the 36-month horizon.
• Integrated Business Planning (IBP)
• Once visibility and plan quality had improved, we introduced IBP to provide an end-to-end view from strategy to execution. This replaced the traditional budgeting process with a dynamic, rolling horizon planning process.
• Portfolio planning integration
• Marketing teams were engaged to contribute to longer-term planning horizons, enabling better-informed demand plans that reflected upcoming campaigns and new product development.
• Cross-functional planning capabilities
• We established standard processes, governance structures and accountability across functions to break down silos and support sustained change.

Specifically, when it came to addressing siloed leadership, planning became a shared responsibility, not a battleground. Oliver Wight offered workshops and coaching, building capability from the inside out. This included five education sessions to embed core concepts and methodologies across key teams. At the same time, Oliver Wight provided ongoing coaching to senior leaders and functional teams to reinforce adoption and ensure sustained performance improvements

Becoming number one

Soon after the programme began, the business had achieved its ambition of becoming the number one confectioner in its target channels. Key outcomes included: achieving the top position in multiple retail channels across Europe; a 10% improvement in operational efficiency; a reduction of slow moving or obsolete stock of over 90%; and an addressing of forecasting bias, bringing predictions within a margin of error of 2%, allowing for more accurate financial planning. At the same time, employee morale improved, leading to drops in turnover and increased collaboration.

“This wasn’t just about being better,” the experts concluded. “It was about being together. A business once marked by fragmentation was now united by shared goals, clearer plans and deeper trust.

This case study exemplifies how true change is personal as well as technical. Oliver Wight helped this business evolve from a fragmented group of legacy brands into a confident, agile and integrated market leader by connecting strategy with systems and systems with people.”