Six Strategic Signals Reshaping FMCG

A Hot FMCG Summer

Introduction

The 2025 summer earnings season has revealed more than quarterly outcomes: it has signalled a clear shift in how FMCG companies are navigating a tightening landscape. While headline results varied, a consistent pattern emerged beneath them: cost pressures are steady, volume performance is patchy, and pricing tactics are under sharper scrutiny from both consumers and investors. It’s a moment of recalibration, not just reaction.

Retailers are showing resistance to further price increases, forcing branded manufacturers to reconsider past strategies that leaned heavily on inflation-led growth. Consumers, particularly in mature markets, are responding to economic uncertainty by gravitating toward perceived value. Meanwhile, investors are signalling a preference for operational discipline and financial clarity over expansionist rhetoric or brand equity alone.

This dynamic is placing FMCG firms under pressure from multiple fronts, balancing cost control with the need to protect market share, managing investor expectations while repositioning portfolios, and leading change amid internal structural shifts. What’s emerging is not simply a tactical shift but a deeper strategic reset across the sector.

Six themes stand out:

1. the return of volume-led growth;

2. a move towards portfolio focus;

3. financial discipline overriding topline ambition;

4. a renewed emphasis on operational resilience;

5. rising leadership scrutiny;

6. and a growing dependence on emerging markets.