From managing channel opportunities and supply chain challenges to addressing the tight labor market, consumer products businesses face a variety of issues this year. Retailers, restaurants, apparel companies, and food and beverage businesses continue to navigate a volatile economic environment. Key ... READ MORE >
Consumer products
Retailers capitalize on opportunities while restaurants look for consistency: Spring 2022 outlook
Even with the increases in digital and e-commerce, many retailers will leverage physical stores as a sales channel as well. A tightened labor market is constraining the restaurant industry’s ability to provide the exceptional experiences customers expect. Read about other sectors Coming off a ... READ MORE >
Price increases are necessary but could prove costly for food and beverage companies: Spring 2022 outlook
Robotics, artificial intelligence and other solutions will help alleviate the constraints on labor. Growing food and beverage businesses will maintain or improve market share while passing along costs to consumers. Read about other sectors If 2021 was the year for middle market food and beverage ... READ MORE >
Can apparel sales growth continue? – Spring 2022 outlook
Apparel companies, especially those in the middle market, will need to pay close attention to inventory levels to ensure balance sheets are not burdened with excess product. Beauty and personal care brands should experience strong performance as customer mobility increases and COVID-19 cases ... READ MORE >
Consumer products M&A insights from the fourth quarter
Each quarter RSM’s senior industry analysts and mergers and acquisitions professionals provide a glimpse into the middle market consumer products deal environment. Here's the latest for the fourth quarter. While closed consumer products mergers and acquisitions transactions declined each quarter last ... READ MORE >
Consumer confidence improves despite concern over omicron variant and inflation
Consumer confidence advanced in December for the third month in a row, driven by a strong labor market and recovery in spending since September, despite risks from the omicron variant and inflation. The headline consumer confidence index rose by 3.9 points to 115.8 on the month, the largest ... READ MORE >
Biden’s infrastructure package: Impact on consumer products businesses
On Nov. 15, President Biden signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package—The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—that provides historic funding levels to improve public works, including roads, bridges, highways, internet access and the power grid, as well as to mitigate the effects of climate change. ... READ MORE >
Consumer products holiday season countdown: Lessons to learn as retailers look to 2022
Successful execution on an omnichannel strategy is no longer enough for middle market retailers. Yes, it’s important to meet and sell to clients where they are whether it’s in a store or online, but it’s also essential for retailers that these channel efforts be profitable, especially amid this year’s ... READ MORE >
Consumers signal strong start to holiday spending; how will it end?
The increase in October retail sales at 1.7% month over month beat estimates of 1.4%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For further perspective and to reduce the noise and focus on holiday season sales, we saw a 12.9% increase year over year for retail sales, excluding food services, gas, building ... READ MORE >
Consumer products holiday season countdown: Where will they shop?
As we move closer to Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the traditional peak holiday shopping season, where consumers plan to complete their holiday shopping has been a topic of discussion from retailers to analysts. As noted by the National Retail Federation, holiday sales this year are anticipated to ... READ MORE >