The biggest mistake I see from Interntational brands is underestimating the capital and talent required to compete at US scale.
DTC proof of concept is powerful, but without operators who understand retail math, promo cadence, and velocity thresholds, the P&L can unravel quickly.
this is exactly right. I lived this from the other side working in Germany. European brands consistently underestimate US retail math because the channel economics are structured completely differently. Trade spend, slotting fees, broker commissions, chargeback structures that don't exist in most European markets. You can have a profitable UK business and a bleeding US P&L selling the exact same product at the exact same volume because the cost between the factory and the shelf is a different animal entirely
Exactly right. The mistake is assuming volume equals profitability. In the US, the path from factory to shelf is so much more complex and expensive that you can grow and still lose money if the economics are not built correctly.
The UK market dynamics that are pushing these brands to the US are worth paying attention to because the same structural forces are building here. Five retailers controlling the majority of grocery spend, private label at 80-90% of assortment in the discount chains, consumers trained to shop on price not discovery. That's where the US is heading, not where it is yet. These UK founders aren't just chasing a bigger market. They're escaping a market that already looks like what the US grocery landscape will look like in five years. The brands entering the US right now have the advantage of having already survived a private-label-dominant environment. The question is whether they're arriving early enough to build real positions before the same squeeze catches up with them here.
The biggest mistake I see from Interntational brands is underestimating the capital and talent required to compete at US scale.
DTC proof of concept is powerful, but without operators who understand retail math, promo cadence, and velocity thresholds, the P&L can unravel quickly.
this is exactly right. I lived this from the other side working in Germany. European brands consistently underestimate US retail math because the channel economics are structured completely differently. Trade spend, slotting fees, broker commissions, chargeback structures that don't exist in most European markets. You can have a profitable UK business and a bleeding US P&L selling the exact same product at the exact same volume because the cost between the factory and the shelf is a different animal entirely
Exactly right. The mistake is assuming volume equals profitability. In the US, the path from factory to shelf is so much more complex and expensive that you can grow and still lose money if the economics are not built correctly.
Thanks for the shoutout! Cya at Expo
The UK market dynamics that are pushing these brands to the US are worth paying attention to because the same structural forces are building here. Five retailers controlling the majority of grocery spend, private label at 80-90% of assortment in the discount chains, consumers trained to shop on price not discovery. That's where the US is heading, not where it is yet. These UK founders aren't just chasing a bigger market. They're escaping a market that already looks like what the US grocery landscape will look like in five years. The brands entering the US right now have the advantage of having already survived a private-label-dominant environment. The question is whether they're arriving early enough to build real positions before the same squeeze catches up with them here.