« All is flux, nothing stays still »

Heraclitus, Philosopher

About GJH Consulting

GJH Consulting provides specialized advice to FMCG-businesses; branded and private Label.

Our mission is to provide company leader(s) with effective support in making and in implementing  decisions that contribute towards building the future of their companies.

Günter J. Hermann, founder, has more than 40 years of successfull international brand building and private label building experience with world leading FMCG companies and, since the pioneering years in the 90s, consultancy to private label companies. Most of them are today key European players in their respective product fields, having demonstrating impressive volumes and revenue performances over an extended  period of time.

Private Labels and Brands: same fight?

Today’s private labels operate, after almost 30 years of continuous development, in a mature and highly segmented market. Top makers of private label products challenge and even sometimes exceed the quality and the concepts of leading brands, anticipating, next to exclusively price driven products,  new retailer’s demands for premium and  super-premium products, as well as innovations bearing their house brands.

Also, leading brands are increasingly exposed to fierce competition from state of the art private label developers by means of esteblished connections  into  leading brand’s « natural territory » of top recipes and top-end-of-market  innovations, with products often not yet available in leading brand’s product portfolios.

The future is “change”: GJH Consulting provides spezialized advice to tackle the emerging challenges for Branded and for Private Label product ranges as they need to cohabitate on shelf, with the private label market becoming a mature, highly segmented market, after almost 30 years of constant development.

The unique blend of Brand Building and Private Label building experience GJH Consulting has acquired at top level in the industry, contributes to offer result-oriented services to industry leaders and to mid-sized companies looking out for further growth.

40

years of experience in brand building and private label development

Services

 BRANDED PRODUCTS

BRANDED PRODUCTS

Screening your brand performance

Know your brand’s value!

Brand awareness at end-consumer level indicates the through value of your brand(s).

A high brand value is a guarantee of high company value because it represents a negotiable asset when selling your company or brand(s).

GJH Consulting screens and estimates your brand’ (s) value.

Brand development

Make your brand(s) the hero(es)!

Developing brands requires careful screening of the current brand image, awareness, and the formulation of recommended steps and budgets to achieve company goals. It’s all about optimising the shareholder’s value.

GJH Consulting takes care of the entire brand building process and should monitor the results.

Co-manufacturing & sourcing

Producing everything yourself is not an option!

In today’s world there are quality solutions in co-manufacturing that should perfectly satisfy your needs. If your partner is capable, you should save investment money and speed up the time to market.

GJH Consulting identifies the best in class co-manufacturing partner(s) for your project and can take care of the entire outsourcing process.

New product development

Shake up your mind!

Do you want to speed up the ideation process? Is your team too busy with managing the current product portfolio? Are you «short» on new product ideas?

GJH Consulting will reveal innovative product ideas and will manage the process to fulfill your needs.

Restructuring & organization

Make your organization fit for the future!

You are aware some changes are necessary to achieve the company’s goals? Your financial results are declining or are not at the level you expect? Your team needs to be revamped?

GJH Consulting advises on the changes and actions to correct.

 PRIVATE LABEL PRODUCTS

PRIVATE LABEL PRODUCTS

Screening your product portfolio performance

Eliminate the obsolete, focus on the relevant!

Today, retailers across Europe have segmented their private label ranges in the same way branded products do: top-end-of-market-products, medium priced and price fighting products bear the label of house brands within each product category.

Are your products still in line with that demand? Are some product ranges becoming obsolete or need to be upgraded or downgraded? Are there range gaps in your current product portfolio?

GJH Consulting will screen your product portfolio performance and will recommend actions to correct.

New product development

Shake up your approach!

Do you want to speed up the ideation process? Is your team too busy with managing the current product portfolio? Are you «short» on new product ideas?

GJH Consulting will reveal innovative product ideas and will manage the process to fulfill your needs.

Marketing & Sales development

Your assets, powerfully communicated to the right people!

You have built up an excellent technical infrastructure, team, product-know-how as well as large production capacities.

You have competitive prices  and your client service level is impeccable.

Despite this, your sales performance is lower than anticipated and some competitors with lower performing  selling assets are more frequently «winning the battle for new markets«.

Why?..Is your marketing & sales team proficiently selling  your assets? Is the method of transmitting your company message through  to key decision makers in the market effective? Is there untapped client potential ?

GJH Consulting screens the marketing & sales performance together with your team and recommends actions to optimize.

Business Plan building

Consolidate your success over time!

The majority of companies producing private label have a family business background and persists with this structure. The reason for their successful business development is most often due to the charismatic leadership of the owner(s), with his/their vision and his /their positive drive to market. Supported by a financial plan, they ARE the company’s business plan and the driving force behind the implementation that the  key people in their organization  refer to on a day to day basis.

While the approach towards business, where the final decisions in operational issues and implementation are made by the owner, is perfectly adapted to  small- and mid-sized businesses, this can endanger larger and more complex businesses. Particulary if  there is too wide a spreat of control that the owner has to manage on a day to day basis. This can rapidely result in a loss of efficiency in the decision making process and become over time counter-productive to the organization and  physicaly impossible for the owner «to constantly run and control it all».

Setting up a business plan culture and the decision and control mechanism inherent to such a plan will allow controlled delegation of power from the owner to his key team-players without losing any  control over the business as a whole.

Large family businesses having experienced the advantages of the business plan culture recognize that this allows the owner to concentrate on the essentials of their business purpose : the future development of their company’s assets while maintaining the total control over them.

GJH Consulting sets up the business plan culture in your company, based on your specific company situation.

Co-operations B to B

You have the expertise needed by third parties!

Manufacturers of brands are facing the dilemma of internal investment as soon as the need for a new product, not yet produced by themselves, appears.

You might be their ideal partner to source those products and thus build a mutually beneficial working relationship over time.

GJH Consulting  identifies potential companies to enter such a co-operation and  then takes care of the total process to launch this working relationship.

Restructuring & organization

Make your organization fit for the future!

You are aware some changes are necessary to achieve the company’s goals? Your financial results are declining or are not at the level you expect? Your team needs to be revamped?

GJH Consulting advises on the changes and actions to correct.

Typical Method

Step 1

Signing of confidentiality agreement

Step 2

Discussion & agreement on the nature, content and terms of mandate. (This meeting is free of charge)

Step 3

Final proposal and decision to move forward

Step 4

Time schedule : start of the mandate & progress reviews.

Languages

GJH Consulting operates in German – French – English and Dutch.

Fees

We propose the following pattern / options:

 

  • fee per day of advice
  • fee per day of advice and % of effective sales
  • fee + stock options
  • stock options alone
  • other options: to be discussed

Get started with a free briefing

Services

 BRANDED PRODUCTS

BRANDED PRODUCTS

  • Brand development
  • Screening your brand performance
  • Co-manufacturing & sourcing
  • New product development
  • Restructuring & organization

 PRIVATE LABEL PRODUCTS

PRIVATE LABEL PRODUCTS

  • Screening your product range performance
  • Product portfolio development
  • Marketing & Sales development
  • Business Plan building
  • Co-operations B to B.
  • Restructuring & organization