Introducing the FMCG INDUSTRY GROUP
The FMCG Industry Group was established in July this year, with the group’s membership consisting of senior FMCG insights, marketing, sales professionals, board directors and SME owners.
The group’s charter has been defined, with the overall aim to accelerate growth of Australian FMCG businesses in Singapore by:
- Identifying and addressing key market access barriers
- Identifying business development opportunities that could be unlocked by leveraging the strength of the group’s supply chain and product range
- Developing a 2020 Industry Group Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) plan which promotes umbrella brand Australia and halos the individual businesses.
To enable the group to deliver against the charter objectives, the creation of three subgroups each focused on the delivery of individual objectives has been established.
- Subgroup 1: Working on how to unlock the key market access barriers such as digitalisation of import documentation.
- Subgroup 2: Working on how Australian FMCG organisations can work closer together to unlock business development opportunities across both the consumer and industry sectors.
- Subgroup 3: Working on an Integrated Marketing Campaign to promote brand Australia and halo individual businesses.
Meet the team
Ellen Rodgers
International Business Manager Southern Asia Meat and Livestock Australia
Chair of Industry Group
Ellen Rodgers is the International Business Manager for Southern Asia at MLA with a team reporting to her across the region.
Ellen is based in Singapore – a location she knows well, having spent several years here as previous Regional Marketing Manager for Treasury Wine Estates. She has over ten years’ experience in sales and marketing roles within the food and beverage industry. Her experience in delivering branded marketing campaigns and events through the Southern Asian region, and a strong knowledge of the retail and foodservice distribution network will be an excellent addition to the FMCG ASEAN working group.
Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) is an industry service provider which delivers research for the Australian red meat and livestock industry and promotes beef, lamb and goat meat in Australia and international markets. MLA collaborate with stakeholders to invest in research, development and marketing initiatives that contribute to producer profitability, sustainability and global competitiveness.
Through MLA’s subsidiary companies, they also accelerate innovation across the value chain and deliver the industry’s integrity
Lisa Askwith
Director Apex BRS
Chairperson The Corner Store
Regional Director See Global Media
Lisa is a highly experienced C suite leader who focusses on success through people and developing a sustainable culture, whilst championing effective and positive leadership and developing rewarding and engaging workplaces.
Having held senior roles for several global companies over the last 25 years, Lisa has had the opportunity to gain a very thorough insight into just what makes a company successful, and how to go about addressing issues that are holding it.
Lisa currently holds several Board and Advisory roles, specifically focusing on the greater ASEAN region.
Jonathan Durrant
National Key Account Manager
Treasury Wine Estate
Jon has over 20 years of experience in the FMCG & Pharmaceutical industries. Jon began his career with Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) when he moved to Singapore in 2017 as the National Account Manager. Jon manages some of TWE’s key partners in Singapore such as Dairy Farm, Redmart/Lazada and Amazon. Prior to his time at TWE, he held various senior leadership roles in the FMCG & Pharmaceutical industry having previously worked at Coca-Cola Amatil, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi-Aventis.
Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) is one of the world’s largest wine companies. From the establishment of Australia’s Penfolds in the mid 1840s to the 1876 founding of Beringer Vineyards, a winemaking legacy has been created. Today’s TWE’s vision is to become the world’s most celebrated wine company. The portfolio includes iconic brands such as Beringer, Chateau St. Jean, Lindeman’s, Wolf Blass, Penfolds, Rosemount, Wynns Coonawarra Estate, Stags’ Leap Winery, Matua Valley, Etude, Castello di Gabbiano, Seppelt, Coldstream Hills and Devil’s Lair.
With over 13,000 hectares of vineyards, sales totalling over 34.6 million cases of wine annually and revenues of about AU$1.8 billion, TWE employs over 4,000 winemakers, viticulturists, sales, distribution and support staff across 12 countries.
Emma Pike
Owner Farmer’s Market
Emma Pike is the owner of Farmer’s Market, Hong Kong’s number one online butcher now open in Singapore. Emma is a serial entrepreneur, starting her first business at the age of 16, and has run multiple companies from recruitment to swimwear to web design and now in the food industry. Emma’s main goal with Farmer’s Market is to be a responsible source for people to get their meat and seafood at a reasonable price. Most of her products are sourced from Australia and New Zealand and all are traceable, sustainable and restaurant quality.
Fiona Johnston
Senior Marketing FMCG Specialist
Fiona is a senior marketing leader with over 16 years experience in the FMCG industry, specifically focused on the food industry. Having gained experience in Australia, New Zealand, UK and SEA across both consumer and bfood service sales channels, her most recent role as Head of Marketing for International at Goodman Fielder saw her delivering growth of iconic Australian and New Zealand brands in growing SEA markets.
Anthony McConnel
Indigo Wines
Anthony initially gained his passion for wine during his University days. This became not only an obsession but eventually a true career path. Anthony has now amassed over 25 years’ experience within the wine industry while completing degrees in business and marketing as well as a range of wine qualifications.
Anthony has held a range of roles within the industry gaining exposure to both Australian and international markets.
After a successful stint as the Australian and New Zealand Business manager for Craggy Range Winery (voted best new world winery in 2015), Anthony embarked on creating Indigo Wine Co in Singapore in 2016 along with local business partners.
The premise for Indigo is to represent unique and highly credentialed boutique Australian wineries throughout South East Asia.
One of the key pieces of work that the group has delivered is the submission on Singapore- Australia digital economy.
Austcham Singapore FMCG Working Groups
Submission on Singapore-Australia digital economy
Austcham FMCG Working Groups would like to submit a proposal to the digital economy body of work being done by the Australian Government.
A range of potential value-adding and re-export business models are emerging in Singapore that present opportunity for the Australian red meat industry. Regulations and management of cumbersome trade certificates present barriers for some models, but significant value could be captured for Australian meat products by leveraging Singapore’s connectivity to Asia to increase speed to market, reduce transport costs and become more responsive to changing demand.
Singapore currently acts as a major artery for sea-freight Australian red meat exports into South East and North Asia. However, beyond ship-to-ship transfers and transhipping, there is further potential to more readily integrate into distribution, and even value-adding, centres within a Singapore free trade zone and re-export through the country’s substantial network of air and sea-freight routes.
Now, more than ever, competitive pressure is heating up in Asia and Australia must leverage its proximity to market and leading shelf life standards when tapping into high value Asian markets.
Singapore is positioning itself as a food hub, with public-private-partnerships and commercial partners looking to invest in logistics and value adding infrastructure to capture growth in high-value food trade in the region.
While requiring changes to health certificates – part of which would be their digitisation – and the establishment of protocols, there is potential value to be captured from sea-freighting red meat into Singapore, storing in a distribution centre and re-exporting as air-freight across the region. However, within current regulation, once a sea-freight container has been opened, the attached Australian export health certificate is no longer valid.
Further to this, when goods arrive in Singapore a review of items classification to ensure consistent processing from one country to the next would also significantly helpful for businesses. This would stop the high-level rejections of products that can occur due to language barriers or misunderstanding. Having acceptable digital pre clearance at the Australian start point would significantly reduce these issues.
A smarter, digital trade certificate process, married with technological solutions to track product integrity through a multi-country supply chain, could be one solution for Australian tapping into these growing opportunities. Sea-to-air freight via Singapore could significantly reduce the cost of existing Australian air-freight and open up channels to additional, more remote, markets for chilled beef and lamb. Product stored in a central regional distribution centre could also be more responsive to demand.
For instance, such a model could suit a regional hotel chain customer wishing to place weekly fresh produce orders, or it could integrate into the growing suite of e-commerce businesses delivering just-in-time fresh groceries across South East Asia. Extending it further, portioning or value adding could also be incorporated into the model. For instance, in markets where cold chains are poor and butcher skills limited, having a centralised portion cutting and retail ready packaging facility could be a way to improve product integrity and quality for a regional retail chain.
At its simplest, leveraging Singapore’s air and sea port networks could mean connecting inbound sea-freight to out-bound air-freight. At its more complex, it could incorporate significant value adding. Depending on the model and its complexity, varying amendments would be required to the management of health certificates. However, the digitisation of trade certificates is critical in enabling more flexible and complex supply chains.
Meat and Livestock Australia is currently engaged with Enterprise Singapore and PSA to explore these opportunities and is planning further consultation with the Australian industry prior to the end of the calendar year. This will help us establish the size of the prize on the table. The AustCham FMCG working group strongly encourages the Australian and Singapore government investigating the digitisation of trade certificates, particularly the health certificates attached to Australian red meat exports, and we are eager to remain involved in the consultation process. Currently, MLA is also exploring and investing in technology partners who may be able to offer integrity solutions (product traceability, quality, safety) through these more complex supply chains of the future.