Growth Starts with the Core

In the third part of our Annual Business Planning (ABP) series, we shift focus to something often overlooked in planning cycles: driving growth through your core.

In our first article (Unlocking Value Early On), we introduced the ABP cycle and the importance of starting early. In the second (Brace for Impact), we looked at the macro trends reshaping the playing field. Now, we zoom in on the portfolio itself — and specifically, on the brands and SKUs that make up the foundation of your business.

The core is your foundation

Every portfolio has a core: the two or three brands or SKUs that generate the majority of your volume and profit. They are your most distributed, most recognised, most frequently purchased products. They are also, almost always, the most underinvested.

The logic seems counterintuitive. Why invest in what's already working? The answer: because your core is the engine that funds everything else. Neglect it, and the entire portfolio weakens.

Growth plans that focus exclusively on innovation, NPD, and premiumisation while ignoring core performance are building on sand. A 5% decline in your number one SKU will typically wipe out the contribution of two or three successful launches.

Before you plan for growth, audit for leakage. Most companies are losing value in their core without realising it.

Diagnosing core health

A robust core health check covers four dimensions:

Distribution: Is your core SKU on shelf in every channel and format where it belongs? Distribution gaps are often the first sign of core erosion — and the easiest wins to recover.

Shelf presence: Are you getting the right facings, the right shelf positioning, the right visibility? Planogram compliance drives 10–15% of baseline sales in most FMCG categories.

Pricing architecture: Has your core been drawn into the promo trap? If more than 30–40% of volume is sold on deal, you've trained the consumer to wait for the discount. That's a structural problem, not a short-term blip.

Consumer recruitment vs. retention: Is your core recruiting new buyers, or is it simply retaining loyalists while the base slowly ages? Categories that rely entirely on retention without recruitment are in slow decline — even if the volume looks stable today.

Three levers for core growth

Once you've diagnosed the health of your core, there are three main levers to drive growth:

Lever 1 — Distribution recovery and expansion: Map every customer where you should have distribution but don't. Prioritise by volume potential. Build targeted activation plans per channel. Even a 5% distribution gain on your number one SKU can deliver significant incremental revenue.

Lever 2 — Baseline strengthening: Reduce promotional intensity on your core and reinvest in base-building activities — shelf quality, consumer communication, loyalty mechanics. The goal is to raise the floor, not just spike the ceiling.

Lever 3 — Fair share capture: The over-under fair share matrix is a powerful tool here. For each customer, compare your brand's share of the category to its share of your total portfolio business. Where you're under-indexing, you have a structural opportunity to grow — often without needing new listings or investment.

When to look beyond the core

Core growth is the foundation, but it's not the ceiling. Once your core is healthy and growing, innovation and premiumisation become powerful accelerators.

The mistake most teams make is sequencing this wrong. They launch NPD to mask core decline, rather than launching from a position of core strength. Innovation launched on a weak core tends to underperform — it gets insufficient retailer support, limited shelf space, and has to earn its way without the halo of a strong master brand.

Build the core first. Then build on top of it.