Industry overview
What is shaping food & beverage
Food and beverage brands compete on taste, price, health perceptions and shelf presence. Small changes in pack, recipe or price can shift share quickly.
- Health and natural claims influence choice
- Quick commerce and modern trade change shopping habits
- Taste remains the deciding factor at repeat
Client background
A packaged foods brand, working in Maharashtra & Karnataka. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A packaged foods brand
- Sector
- Food & beverage
- Team engaged
- Finance & Accounts
- Services
- Accounting & bookkeeping, GST services, MIS & financial reporting
Client challenge
Rapid growth across modern trade, distributors and e-commerce had left the packaged foods brand with mismatched stock records, unclaimed GST input credits and no clear view of margins by channel. Marketplace settlements arrived net of fees and returns, which made it hard to reconcile sales with bank receipts.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: getting inventory and GST right for a fast-growing food brand.
- Establish accurate, reconciled numbers management can rely on.
- Put a reporting and compliance rhythm in place that runs on time.
Target audience
Scope: Two warehouses, modern trade and e-commerce sales.
Audiences we typically reach in food & beverage
Shoppers and consumersHouseholdsRetailers and kirana ownersQuick-commerce usersFood-service buyers
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Maharashtra & Karnataka. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
A structured finance engagement: review the current process, set up controls, run the routine and report.
- 1Brief
- 2Inventory reconciliation
- 3Monthly compliance routine
- 4MIS
- 5Insight
We reconciled inventory across warehouses and marketplace fulfilment centres, cleaned up GST records and filings, and set up a monthly close with channel-level margin reporting for the founders. Settlement reports from each marketplace were reconciled monthly with orders, returns and fees.
Accounting & bookkeepingGST servicesMIS & financial reporting
Sampling strategy
- Every ledger, entity and transaction stream in scope was covered, with sample-based checks during review.
Data collection
- Source documents, bank statements and ledgers were collected through a secure shared workspace.
Data quality & validation
- Maker-checker review on all entries
- Bank and ledger reconciliations
- Client approval before every filing or report
- Supporting documents kept for every figure
Data analysis
- Variance analysis against budget and prior periods
- Ratio and trend analysis
- Cash-flow view for management
Key findings
- Stock records matched physical counts, eligible input credits were recovered and the founders identified which channels were most profitable, shifting promotional spending accordingly.
Clean monthly numbers turned growth decisions into informed ones.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: clean monthly numbers turned growth decisions into informed ones.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: stock records matched physical counts, eligible input credits were recovered and the founders identified which channels were most profitable, shifting promotional spending accordingly.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The brand also prepared for its first statutory audit with clean, reconciled records.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Monthly MIS pack and reconciled books
- Compliance calendar and filings
- Continue the routine and review results every period.
- A natural follow-on question: will consumers like the new recipe?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.