Consumer durables · Physical product
A stalled dealer network became 96% on-time dispatch and profitable sell-through
Sixty appointed dealers, almost no reorders. Cutting to eighteen accountable dealers with a written service SLA and a reorder trigger turned sell-in into measured sell-through.
Sundvik Appliances - Nordic consumer appliance brand, €320M revenue
- Entry mode
- Regional distributor + 18 dealers
- Price metric
- Landed dealer price + service attach
- Stage at start
- 1→2 failing on repeatability
- Stage at exit
- 2→x scaling, month 12
96%
on-time dispatch at month 12
Before
Before: sell-in without sell-through
The brand counted dealer appointments as progress. Stock sat in dealer godowns, service calls went unanswered, and reorders never came — so every quarter needed new dealers to show growth.
- 60 appointed dealers, 14% ever placed a second order
- On-time dispatch 52%; no dispatch SLA in any dealer contract
- Service complaints routed to an email nobody owned
- Channel inventory unmeasured — sell-in reported as revenue
Intervention
What we changed
We shrank the network to dealers who could be held accountable, then instrumented the two numbers that decide reorders: dispatch reliability and service closure.
1→2
Network cut from 60 to 18 dealers with volume, display and service obligations in writing.
1→2
Dispatch SLA of 72 hours with a weekly on-time report visible to dealers.
1→2
Service closure owned by a named regional lead with a 48-hour first-visit target.
2→x
Reorder trigger tied to measured sell-through, replacing quarterly stock-push targets.
After
After: reorders instead of appointments
Fewer dealers, more revenue per dealer, and a reorder rate that made the channel self-sustaining without quarterly stock pushes.
- Reorder rate 14% → 78% of active dealers
- On-time dispatch 52% → 96%
- Revenue per active dealer up 4.1×
- Channel inventory days down from 96 to 43
The numbers
Before and after, measured on the same definitions
Every line below was measured the same way before and after the engagement. Where a number did not exist before, we say so rather than back-filling an estimate.
- On-time dispatch
52 % before96 % after
Higher is better.
- Dealer reorder rate
14 % before78 % after
Higher is better.
- Revenue per active dealer
3.2 ₹L before13.1 ₹L after
Higher is better.
- Channel inventory days
96 days before43 days after
Lower is better.
- Service closure within 7 days
31 % before89 % after
Higher is better.
Measured sell-through by month
Units sold through to end customers per month. Sell-in was flat; sell-through is the number that decides reorders.
Where volume sits in the channel
Share of monthly units by channel, before the reset and at month 12.
Before
At month 12
- Accountable dealers
- 22% → 61%
- Modern retail
- 18% → 24%
- Marketplace
- 9% → 13%
- Unmeasured / godown stock
- 51% → 2%
Value ledger
What the engagement was worth
- Incremental sell-through revenue, year 1
- ₹5.10 Cr
- Working capital released from dead stock
- ₹1.14 Cr
- Programme fees
- ₹96 L
- Value-per-fee multiple
- 6.5×
“We had confused appointing dealers with selling appliances. Cutting the network to eighteen was the decision that finally produced reorders.”
Rakesh Bhandari
Head of International, India & SEA, Sundvik Appliances
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