Hallo Group provides key account management and market entry and marketing strategy for South African SME brands. We win the listing, run the account and keep the replenishment orders coming.
Every account, every order cycle
Most SME founders are making the product, delivering it and chasing payment. The commercial work that keeps a brand on shelf is a full-time job of its own.
Buyer meetings, trading terms, orders, claims and promotions all need someone on them every week. When that's the founder's side job, accounts drift.
The wrong channel first, too many stores at once or a price that doesn't survive retailer margins can sink a brand before shoppers find it.
Empty shelves, missed replenishment orders and slow sell-through are what get products delisted. Each one is avoidable with the right account management.
We look after your commercial function, so you can focus on making and building the business. Two services, usually delivered together.
We act as your key account team with retailers and wholesalers. We take your brand to buyers, negotiate listings and terms, then run each account day to day: orders, forecasts, replenishment, promotions and in-store standards, with sales reported to you by account.
We start with your overall business strategy, then assess the category, build an understanding of the consumer and identify the audience your brand should target. From there we position the brand to fit both the category and the consumer, and plan which channels and customers to enter first, at what price and with what range. We also build the marketing that brings shoppers to the shelf and an innovation funnel for what you launch next. All of it is paced to what you can produce and fund.
Retailers need some basics before they can place an order, such as GS1 barcodes, pack configurations, product data and a trade presenter. We sort these out as part of getting you listed, so they never hold up a deal.
Every engagement follows the same simple path, scaled to where your business is today.
We study your product, costs, capacity and market, and agree what success looks like.
We set the channels, customers, price, range and marketing, and the numbers behind them.
We take your brand to the buyers who fit it and negotiate terms that work for you.
We manage orders and replenishment, track sell-through by account and widen distribution as capacity allows.
Quoted on the scope you need
A business strategy, category and consumer assessment, brand positioning, entry plan or marketing strategy, delivered as a defined project with clear outputs.
A share of net sales
We represent your brand with retailers and wholesalers and run the accounts. We're paid as a percentage of net sales, so we only do well when you do.
A black women- and youth-owned agro-processor with a remarkable product and a big ambition. We built the market entry strategy, won national listings and now manage the accounts, from orders to replenishment.
We work across the routes to market that South African shoppers actually use, and into neighbouring countries.
More than 30 years of combined FMCG experience in marketing, sales and national key accounts. Both of us work on every engagement.
Founder and Director, Strategy
A commercial and marketing leader since 2009 across FMCG, pharmaceuticals and non-profits, in South Africa and five other African markets. Grew a national maize portfolio from R1.3bn to R3bn in four years.
Director, Customer and Trade
Seventeen years in FMCG sales, from trainee account manager at SABMiller and GSK to Head of Sales at PSI, trading with Pick n Pay, Spar, Dis-Chem and Clicks.
We mentor and support the businesses you invest in, with practical help on market access, commercialisation and funding readiness that protects your investment.
Discuss a programmeUniqKnow, part of Hallo Group, has guides, playbooks, case studies and business tools for small businesses getting ready for retail.
Visit UniqKnowShare what you make, where it sells today and where you want it to be. We'll tell you honestly what it will take.
