ACS Consulting FAQs
Got questions? Here’s some answers you might find helpful.
Working with ACS
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Typically, we support businesses who have some established retail distribution; these range from SMEs right up to large enterprises. However, throughout the years ACS has supported businesses at very different stages of development. From emerging brands looking to secure their first major retail opportunities through to established operators reviewing local growth strategies, entering international markets, or evaluating significant commercial decisions; we aim to inform on how to best move forward based on the competitive landscape and the businesses’ own potential and objectives.
Our project experience spans food, beverage, wellness, household products, pet care, produce, and innovation led sectors demonstrating our breadth of experience.
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Yes. ACS has supported businesses operating in New Zealand, Australia, Asia, UK and the US, including brands entering new markets, expanding retailer distribution, and developing international growth strategies.
What works in one market does not automatically translate into another, and businesses often underestimate how different consumer and customer expectations, retail environments, and competitive dynamics can be.
ACS has supported businesses entering and growing within Australia, New Zealand, Asia, UK and the US. We have supported launches and growth across a variety of customers including Coles, Woolworths, Harris Farm, Aldi, Costco, Walmart, Foodstuffs, Chemist Warehouse, Liquorland and more.
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Every business arrives with a different challenge. Some are seeking growth, others are navigating entering a new market, and some are trying to improve profitability or strengthen retailer relationships. Because the starting point varies, ACS does not rely on a single consulting process that looks the same for every client.
Instead, the focus is on understanding what the businesses' needs are, and which decisions will have the greatest impact on future performance. Once that becomes clear, attention shifts to helping the business move from uncertainty to action with practical recommendations and tools that can realistically be implemented.
Some engagements are highly focused and short term, while others evolve into longer partnerships that provide ongoing strategic or commercial support. Regardless of scope, the emphasis remains on helping businesses make better decisions and achieve stronger commercial outcomes.
Growth Strategy & Brand Development
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ACS helps businesses step back and determine where growth is most likely to come from and what may be preventing it from happening today. The goal is to create clarity around the decisions that matter most and ensure growth ambitions are grounded in commercial reality rather than assumptions.
Across the project portfolio we have helped multiple FMCG categories like breakfast cereal, yoghurt, soft drinks, lifestyle beverages, biscuits, pet food and household products. This work has helped businesses evaluate opportunities in both established and emerging categories, allowing leadership teams to focus resources where they are most likely to generate meaningful returns.
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Brands can struggle with how their consumer strategy and, category strategy work to deliver value for their customers (retailers), while delivering on their own commercial goals. ACS can connect these to create a growth strategy that is the best for your business. In a wide range of projects this has included using consumer segmentation, targeting and positioning to articulate how their brands can win and to identify what additional opportunities may exist.
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Sometimes brands reach a point where growth slows, marketing becomes less effective, or their position in the market becomes unclear. ACS helps businesses take an objective view of their brand to understand what is working, what is not, and where the greatest opportunities for growth lie.
By assessing consumer perceptions, market dynamics, and the competitive landscape, we helped a health brand identify the factors that may be limiting performance and provided clear recommendations for strengthening the brand's positioning, optimizing their marketing creative and support long term growth.
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Strong positioning helps customers understand why they should choose your brand over competing alternatives. When positioning is unclear, it becomes harder to attract new consumers, build the loyalty needed, and create meaningful differentiation.
ACS helps businesses uncover what makes their brand distinctive and develop a positioning that is relevant to both consumers and customers. Instead of looking at a brand’s positioning from one lens we can view it from many relevant angles to get a better assessment of the market and opportunities. We supported a NZ wine company with their positioning in the US market. The result was a clearer market positioning that supported stronger growth and made commercial decisions much easier to make, confidently.
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Not every customer offers the same growth opportunity. Understanding which consumers are most valuable allows businesses to focus their time, investment, and resources where they are most likely to deliver results.
ACS helps businesses identify meaningful consumer segments by analysing customer behaviours, needs, and motivations. This creates a clearer picture of who the brand should be targeting and how future growth opportunities can be prioritised.
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Standing out in a crowded market requires more than a good product. Customers need a clear reason to notice, remember, and choose a brand over competing alternatives.
ACS helps businesses understand what makes their offer genuinely different and how that difference can be communicated in a way that is relevant and compelling. By combining customer understanding with market insights, ACS helps brands build greater visibility and a more distinctive presence in their category.
For example, we helped a Lifestyle Beverage Brand with identifying the strongest positioning they could credibly shift to in a rebrand to have the greatest success at attracting consumers and delivering category value for their retailers.
Category Strategy & Retailer Engagement
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Yes. ACS has worked with businesses that needed to strengthen their understanding of category performance and shopper behaviour to improve their approach with retailers. This has included helping emerging brands and incubator programme graduates use category, scan, and shopper data to support decision making and build stronger retailer propositions. It has also included providing full Category Review leadership and/or execution for large businesses when their existing Category teams had short term resource gaps.
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Absolutely. One of the biggest challenges for emerging brands is moving beyond a compelling brand story to explain why a retailer should range the product. ACS helps brands build a category story that demonstrates how they can contribute to category growth, meeting shopper needs and deliver added category value.
This approach has been used with incubator graduates and emerging FMCG businesses, helping translate consumer propositions into presentations supported by category and shopper insights that are ready for retailers to view.
By assessing consumer perceptions, market dynamics, and the competitive landscape, we helped a health brand identify the factors that may be limiting performance and provided clear recommendations for strengthening the brand's positioning, optimizing their marketing creative and support long term growth.
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We have assisted with and coached many retailer presentations across a range of FMCG categories, helping businesses communicate their value more effectively in high stakes commercial discussions. This has also involved modelling unit economics and unit level profitability, particularly ahead of range reviews and retailer negotiations
Many businesses approach retailer meetings with a strong belief in their product, but limited evidence of why the retailer should support it. Retailers are ultimately making commercial decisions, which means they need to see a clear case for category growth, customer value, and commercial viability.
ACS helps businesses strengthen that story. Rather than focusing exclusively on the brand itself, the conversation is reframed around why the opportunity matters to the retailer and how it contributes to broader category objectives.
Commercial Modelling & Business Performance
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Yes. ACS has worked with a number of FMCG businesses to model profitability at a unit level, providing greater visibility into what products, customers, or channels are contributing to financial performance.
This type of analysis is particularly valuable when preparing for retailer negotiations, evaluating growth opportunities, or understanding the impact of pricing and promotional decisions.
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Yes. ACS has completed commercial modelling work for businesses operating across coffee, beverage, and food service channels, helping them understand the commercial viability of different growth opportunities.
By assessing the financial implications of expansion opportunities, ACS helps businesses focus on the opportunities that are most likely to deliver sustainable returns.
Market Entry & International Growth
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Yes. Expanding into a new market requires more than identifying customer demand. Businesses also need to understand route to market options, commercial realities, retailer expectations, and the investment required to succeed.
ACS has supported brands to develop practical growth plans that align commercial objectives with market opportunities. This includes work with Australian brands entering New Zealand, New Zealand brands expanding into Australia, and projects supporting US market growth.
Route-to-Market & Operating Models
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Yes. Expanding into a new market requires more than identifying customer demand. Businesses also need to understand route to market options, commercial realities, retailer expectations, and the investment required to succeed.
ACS has supported brands to develop practical growth plans that align commercial objectives with market opportunities. This includes work with Australian brands entering New Zealand, New Zealand brands expanding into Australia, and projects supporting US market growth.
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Yes. ACS has worked with businesses considering whether warehousing and logistics should remain in house or be outsourced to a third party logistics provider. These decisions can have a significant impact on cost, efficiency, scalability, and service levels.
ACS helps businesses assess the commercial implications of different options so they can make informed decisions that support both current operations and future growth objectives.
Innovation & Commercialisation
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Yes, we can and have! ACS helps businesses move beyond the idea stage by focusing on the commercial realities required for success. This means understanding who the opportunity is for, how value will be created, and which route to market offers the strongest chance of building a sustainable business.
The documented project experience includes work with government biotechnology ventures, emerging industry opportunities and commercial categories.
ACS has supported brands to develop practical growth plans that align commercial objectives with market opportunities. This includes work with Australian brands entering New Zealand, New Zealand brands expanding into Australia, and projects supporting US market growth.
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Yes. ACS has supported a biotech project to understand where the greatest commercial potential lies for its innovative products and processes and how these could be successfully brought to market. A common challenge for innovation projects is translating scientific potential into a viable commercial opportunity. ACS helps identify potential pathways to market, evaluate commercial opportunities, and develop strategies that support long term growth beyond the initial product concept.
Read about the project here: Catalyst: Strategic – New Zealand – Singapore Biotech In Future Foods Research Programme 2025 | Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment -
Yes. Creating a new category or participating in an emerging one requires a clear understanding of how customers will perceive the opportunity and where the business can establish a meaningful and defendable position.
ACS has supported initiatives such as the development of an emerging truffle industry and other commercialisation projects in the early stages, helping businesses define how they can differentiate themselves and build a compelling proposition within a developing market.
Fractional Leadership
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Growing businesses often reach a point where they need more commercial leadership but are not yet ready for a full time executive appointment. In these situations, the challenge is finding experienced support that can drive progress without creating unnecessary overhead.
Fractional leadership provides access to senior expertise on a flexible basis. Rather than relying solely on external recommendations, businesses gain practical support from someone who can contribute to decision making, help prioritise commercial opportunities, and provide leadership during periods of growth or change.