Schedule a Meeting Newsletter

Main Menu

Let's chat.

Have a Revenue Growth Analytics pain point, a question, or a content suggestion?

  • The Hurt Hub@Davidson
  • 210 Delburg St, Davidson, NC 28036, United States
  • +1 803-701-9243
Schedule a Meeting Newsletter

Pet Food, Durables & Consumables: Portfolio, Channel & Pricing Reset – Case Study

Industry: Consumer / Pet
Area: Pricing Strategy and Revenue Growth Management In collaboration with EBITDA Catalyst, Revology's strategic partner for driving value creation for mid-market Private Equity.

SITUATION

Client Background

  • The Client, a privately owned premium pet food & pet products multinational company, sells under a portfolio of leading Pet brands primarily to cat / dog, aquatics, reptile and durables such as pet furniture, toys, and feeding devices

  • Primary markets span the large economies of North America and
    Europe, with strong channels in Big Box Retail, Ecommerce & Club

Chaotic, Bazaar-like Pricing With No Strategy

  • The Client’s didn’t have a well defined MSRP list and various price lists for larger customers had no clear connection to each other or central strategy. MAP pricing was spotty and outdated.

  • All but the largest customers seemed to have price lists with separately negotiated discounts, often submitted by an individual sales rep

  • Head of Sales seemed alone in knowing the price lists location & contents.

Turnaround Situation

  • The US division / market, worth 9 digits in revenue, had been loss making for years under poor management.

  • A new GM had been brought in to reset and turn around the business, and damaged or neglected relationships with retailers.

  • Sales were declining. This appeared to limit potential for price increases, resulting in apparent “no win” situation.

    Sprawl in SKU Portfolio and Customer Base

  • Client’s product portfolio had a very long tail, with thousands of SKUs that didn’t generate enough sales to be profitable.

  • Client served countless smallish customers out of the same warehouses as its key accounts, generating operational challenges + high costs-to-serve

  • Client was considering moving to a distributor model and in talks with large pet products distributors

Pet food aisle with diverse brands and packaging on store shelves.
Showcasing a wide selection of pet food products in a retail store.
People climbing a wooden obstacle course outdoors during team-building activity.
Team building activity with people climbing a wooden structure outdoors, emphasizing teamwork and collaboration.

OBSTACLES

No Pricing Strategy -> Reactive & Defensive

  • Nearly all pricing resided with the head of Sales, much of it reactively managed in “old school” Excel sprawl. There was virtually no process, with limited bandwidth available for each pricing decision. Most “pricing” was merely saying “yes” to retailers. The fear of losing sales resulted in “forgetting” the true cost to serve and selling unprofitably.

  • SKU and Customer Sprawl Complexity

    The sheer count of (customer x SKU) combinations presented daunting deterrence from any data-driven approach, or initiative to establish MSRP and MAP price points. The bandwidth cost to “analyze” was wearing out the entire management team, while $ ops costs were a big drain on the bottom line.

  • Lack of Analytics & Pricing Tools

    The company had no central repository of pricing data or tools to generate a “one-source-of truth” analysis of pricing decisions, or how they performed. Excel sheets had no version control, no data audit trail, and were insight-deprived, often hardcoded numbers.

Challenges In Executive Alignment and Emotional Pricing Decisions

The trust from HQ was low after division had lost money for years. The CEO routinely got sucked into tactical, reactive pricing “debates” sometimes on just a few SKUs for one Customer. Everyone was “involved” in even routine pricing decisions.

ACTION

Revology and EBITDA Catalyst assisted Client in reset of Pricing strategy, deep SKU rationalization, and negotiating pricing as it shifted to a distribution 2-step sales model.

  • Quantitative and Stakeholder Deep Dive

    We conducted a comprehensive analysis of the client’s transactional data and detailed interviews with key stakeholders.

  • Analytical Tools & Financial Impact Model

    We built customized analytical tools in R, Tableau & Excel to educate all pricing, SKU and customer rationalization decisions, quickly adopted as one-source-of-truth based on auditable data from central HQ data team.

  • Effected SKU Rationalization of 1,000+ SKUs

    We created framework for quantitative economic and strategic analysis of the rationalization decisions, recommending a deep list of SKUs to discontinue

Price List Strategy Reset and Calibration

We worked with the management team to create a new list of MSRPs based on value and competitive analysis of SKUs driving 90% of revenue. We then recommended channel, customer and customer x category adjustment percentages to generate “waterfall” of price lists applicable to each customer.

Distribution Model Pricing

We advised Client on both strategy and execution / negotiations with a leading Pet distributor, with deep insights on SKU-level margin economics and sharing of the profit pool across Client Distributor-Retailer-End Customer value chain.

Rebates and Terms Leakage

We advised Client to scrap various unconditional or poorly configured Rebates and to use new, targeted rebates and Terms “give-gets” to win the gaps in pricing negotiations

Pricing strategy chart with key insights and price actions for pet food and consumables.
Visual overview of pricing strategies and channel insights for pet food, durables, and consumables.
Pet food sales and analytics dashboard showing revenue, growth, and pricing strategies.
Pet food sales and analytics dashboard with revenue, growth, and pricing insights.

RESULTS

Revenue & Margin Growth:

  • New MSRPs and Key Account price lists with analytical framework to win more margin $

  • Client won 3+% of margin in negotiations with distributor that will also expand Revenue by 50%+ on over 30% of total Revenue

  • Shaved 2-3% of revenue in unproductive rebates and poorly administered Terms concessions

Give-Gets Pricing Execution Training:

  • Trained Client’s entire team to grow a new negotiating backbone, with CEO using our slides to evangelize

  • Recommended establishing new pricing function, schedule of governance & approvals, and a pricing “Operating system” cadence of activities


Portfolio & Customer Rationalization:

  • Eliminated 1,000+ unproductive SKUs and migrated 90%+ of customers by count to distribution.

  • Dramatic reduction in cost to serve, complexity, and obstacles to manage pricing.

  • Enabled Client to redirect management time and energy to creating value for customers and new product innovation

Analytics Tools Evolution:

  • We built tools for repeatable, reliable, once-source-of-truth analysis and visualization in R, Tableau and Excel

  • Developed Excel tools that meet Client’s management team where they are at, but with rigor to serve in future pricing exercises to analyze what-if scenarios

Let's chat.

Have a Revenue Growth Analytics pain point, a question, or a content suggestion?

The Hurt Hub@Davidson
210 Delburg St, Davidson, NC 28036, United States
+1 803-701-9243

Get in Touch

We would love to hear from you.

Revology Analytics logo representing data-driven marketing solutions.

Centered on proven best practices, Revology Analytics® provides Revenue Growth Analytics advisory services and thought leadership, driving profitable revenue growth for middle-market companies.

Who We Are
Advisory Services
Insights
Tools
Data visualization chart showing overall score of 39% for Revology Analytics.

CHECK YOUR SCORE NOW

Over 225 companies took our scorecard to improve their Revenue Growth Analytics & Management capabilities.

GET YOUR SCORE NOW
Revology Analytics logo for data analytics and business insights.
Revology Analytics logo for footer section on website.
Revology Analytics logo for data analytics and business insights.
L'Oréal logo representing beauty and cosmetics brand for Revology Analytics.

Copyright@2026 Revology Analytics LLC