Pollen Consulting Group, a modern management consulting firm for the FMCG sector, has been named one of Australia’s top entrepreneurial companies.

“We work with retailers, suppliers, and producers to deliver engagements across the value chain by putting values, not process, first,” explained Paul Eastwood, founder of Pollen Consulting Group.

Since establishing the business in 2016 Pollen has gone from strength to strength, and has nestled itself as a leading player in Australia’s A$7 billion consulting industry. The consultancy has a mission to help raise the bar in the FMCG sector and work with clients on value chain transformations and bottom-line performance improvements.

“We work exclusively with a number of select customers that we enjoy working with – our advice and support comes with a deep and intrinsic understanding of their business and the industry they work in,” explained Eastwood.

“Harnessing the power of collaboration, underpinned by data insights, is central to our ambition and value chain collaboration needs to be a core value of each business involved in a wider ecosystem,” Eastwood said.

Collaborative approach

According to Eastwood, the collaborative approach applied at the FMCG giant is reflective of the firm’s vision on consulting.

“We aim to offer the best possible solution for our client’s biggest challenges, and believe this works best collaboratively, rather than using a one-size-fits-all methodology.”

Key offerings the firm offers include manufacturing excellence, supply chain management, strategy, operations, asset management and technology adoption. In a two year history Pollen have grown the team by 300 per cent and delivered 40+ projects with an ROI of 4.6 to 1 in the FMCG sector. The flat-structure organisation employs innovative entrepreneurs that are empowered to take on their own projects.

The firm’s work for clients has won the firm several accolades in recent months. After being listed as an ‘Top 100 Fast Starter’ by AFR and a ‘consulting firm to watch’ by a consulting industry magazine, the management consultancy at the start of this year landed a spot in Business News Australia’s first ever ‘Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs’ list.

Branching out

In addition to consulting in Supply Chain Efficiency and Manufacturing Excellence Pollen have added Pollen Technology, Pollen Asset Advisory and Pollen Academy to their portfolio. ‘We saw a gap in the market for these speciality areas and used our industry experience and FMCG know-how to create further capabilities to help our clients’ explains Eastwood.

Pollen Tech: A team of ‘digital architects’ constantly scan the market for the latest tech and insights to improve businesses. Most recently developing simulation software known as a ‘digital twin’ that can test real life scenarios in a virtual model.

Pollen Asset Advisory: Balancing engineering insight and business acumen with a wide FMCG knowledge-base to offer advice which considers the complete asset life cycle and the long-term benefits. Pollen Asset Advisory looks at the bigger picture with a fresh insight and identifies risks and opportunities for capital projects.

Pollen Academy: Industry specific Lean training that puts learning into action on the shop-floor and guarantees ROI. Expertise is used to deliver a training package that drives bottom-line performance whilst upskilling the team.

What’s Next?

Pollen strive to continue their growth in Australia, maximising efficiency and transforming supply chains through the power of collaboration whilst maintaining humble and honest roots.
With a diverse team across 10 different cultures the future plan is to utilise global experience and expand into working with Europe and the US. If the last two years growth rate is anything to measure, then it should certainly continue to be an exciting ride.

First published in Inside FMCG:

https://insidefmcg.com.au/2019/05/08/pollen-named-one-of-australias-most-entrepreneurial-businesses/