Premiumisation is key for Portugal’s tissue producers. Distinctive products, marketing, pricing and delivery are all incentives for consumers. Emerging from the 2009 recession and the pandemic, key indicators show steady uplift: retail value sales up 3% with 4% projected, with bathroom tissue best performing at 4%. Income levels are expected to sustain increasing consumption, and room for growth is there even as a mature market. Per capita consumption tends to be lower than in countries to the north.
Internationally, 25% of tissue production is exported – three times higher than imports – enhancing Portugal’s reputation as a competitive producer across Europe.
The search for distinction is intense. TWM’s Country Reports and Operations Report outline the strategies.
West and East – two trade blocs each with its own rules and networks
The West, driven by the US and its allies, and the East, driven by China and its allies, who in both cases are defined by a changing set of affiliations, not just economic, but increasing by cultural and political affinity.
This new global trade reality in the aftermath of President Trump’s tariff regime is projected by leading geopolitical analyst Dr Antonia Colibășanu in MarketIssues.
Under the broad heading of ‘friend-shoring,’ countries will be less inclined to deal with others not sharing the same beliefs. The global economy is de-structuring rather than restructuring under frantic renegotiation of established deals. Self-interest is prioritised.
For its part, US deals are designed to “explicitly encourage US-bound investment … to ‘build where you sell.’”
China is deepening trade links with nations not aligned with the US, such as Russia and Belt and Road Initiative partners, ASEAN countries, Africa and Latin America. De-structuring could include trade wars, by some measures regarded as self-defeating. Dr Colibășanu uses the phrase only once, in relation to the US and Mexico. Globally, she maintains that in time the disruption will settle, presenting a “unique opportunity for all players … to become creative in placing their own interests first.”
At the time of writing, a US appeals court has ruled that Trump’s tariffs, imposed on most countries around the world as well as others slapped on China, Mexico and Canada, are beyond his mandate. The ruling will not take effect until 14 October.
Are key performance indicators a waste of time and money?
If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it. Statistics look impressive in reports, but if measurements are not fed into the system to improve performance they amount to a waste of precious resources. AFRY Management Consulting’s report in ExitIssues says too many companies are falling into this trap.
