From understanding where the business truly makes money and protecting cash to deciding what to transform, fund and stop.
Where retail and consumer-goods decisions meet their full economic consequences.
Retailers, FMCG companies and consumer-goods brands create profit and cash through connected choices about pricing and promotions, categories and brands, stores and eCommerce, inventory and supplier terms, fulfilment and returns, labour and energy costs, technology and supply networks.
The Profit, Cash & Value Forum brings Finance leaders together with commercial, category, Supply Chain, eCommerce, store, technology and operations leaders to examine the full economic consequences of those choices. Across two stages and six blocks, it asks where profit is genuinely made, where cash is tied up, which transformations deserve investment and deliver value, how plans should change when risks emerge, and where scarce capital and management capacity should ultimately go.
DAY 1 | FROM TRUE PROFITABILITY TO FUNDABLE TRANSFORMATION
Profitability, Cash & Transformation
Understand where profit is genuinely created across categories, brands, stores and eCommerce. Protect the cash tied up in inventory, supplier and customer terms, fulfilment and returns. Invest only in transformations the business can implement and turn into measurable value.
PROFITABILITY → CASH → TRANSFORMATION
3. Transformation Investment & Value Realisation
Which transformations deserve capital, and which should scale, change or stop?
Retailers and consumer-goods companies are investing in commerce platforms, store systems, warehouse automation, customer data, AI and new operating models. Not every programme is ready, and its value may emerge later or differently than expected.
This block examines how leaders can compare transformation investments, assess whether the business is ready to implement them, track adoption and realised value, and decide what to fund, sequence, scale, redesign, delay or stop.
Outcome:
A clearer basis for improving profitability across categories, channels and business models while protecting cash tied up in inventory and commercial terms. Leaders can then direct investment towards transformations the organisation can implement and turn into measurable value.
DAY 2 | FROM THE FORWARD PLAN TO RISK-ADJUSTED INVESTMENT DECISIONS
Financial Planning, Risk & Investment Decisions
Create one trusted forward view across sales, promotions, demand, inventory, production, stores and channels. Use scenarios to decide how the business should respond when consumer demand, supply, energy costs, regulation, cyber risks or financing conditions change. Direct scarce capital and management capacity towards investments that strengthen the business, and stop those that no longer do.
PLANNING → RISK → CAPITAL ALLOCATION
2. Risk, Scenarios & Decision Readiness
What must be decided before certainty arrives?Retailers and consumer-goods companies face connected risks across consumer demand, supply availability, commodity and energy costs, currencies, regulation, cyber exposure and platform dependency. These pressures can develop at the same time and affect sales, inventory, service, cash and investment before the full financial impact is clear.
This block examines how leaders can use scenarios, early signals, risk appetite and decision thresholds to determine what must change, who should act and when. It also compares the consequences of acting with the costs of waiting or adding controls that make the business slower and less flexible.
Outcome:
A stronger basis for connecting sales, demand, inventory and financial plans, and for acting before risks damage performance. Leaders can then direct capital towards the stores, channels, supply networks, capabilities and transformations the organisation can execute and sustain.
Day 1 establishes where retailers and consumer-goods companies genuinely create profit, where cash is generated or tied up, and which transformations are delivering enough value to continue.
Day 2 turns that evidence into one forward view, tests it against changes in demand, supply, costs and risk, and helps leaders decide where capital and management capacity should go next.
Together, the two stages connect decisions about categories, brands, stores, eCommerce, inventory, supply networks, technology and customer investment with their full consequences for profit, cash, risk and future value.
Day 1: Profitability, Cash & Transformation
PROFITABILITY → CASH → TRANSFORMATION
What retailers and consumer-goods companies genuinely earn, where cash is tied up, and which transformations are delivering enough value to continue.
Day 2: Financial Planning, Risk & Investment Decisions
PLANNING → RISK → CAPITAL ALLOCATION
What the business expects, what changes in demand, supply, costs and risk could alter that view, and where capital and management capacity should go next.
