Are you winning or losing compared to your main competitors? Do you know how the agri food industry is performing on average? Are you following the right strategy? And what can you learn from other companies?
In an agri benchmark, all these insights are extracted from an analysis with both qualitative and quantitative information. What does the data tell you about your position in the market? In what areas are you outperforming the competition? Where should you improve? The answers to these questions help you determine the right strategic ambitions, in perspective of the market. Read more on this page.
Companies that incorporate an agri benchmark in their strategy, will win in the agri food industry. By benchmarking your performance on relevant financial KPIs against the competition, you can see who's winning and losing in the industry and identify the strengths and weaknesses in your own business model. The outcome of an agri benchmark helps you to set the right strategic ambitions, in perspective of the market.
Why is this important? Benchmarking in the food industry shows things in perspective and supports your goal setting. This allows you to ask yourself: what do I need to be the most competitive in terms of profit, cost, return and capital.
For example, for your upcoming budget round, you want to improve on your previous budget. However, by solely looking at your own performance, you might be focusing on improving in an area where you are already outperforming the competition. At the same time, you might be lacking in other areas compared to the competition where you weren't aware of.
In this data-driven era, performing a food and agriculture benchmark is an essential tool for companies to make targeted improvements to maintain or gain a competitive advantage. Companies should act on the insights they draw not only from their own activities, but also from those of their peers in the agri food industry.
Conducting a food and agriculture benchmark allows you to get a clear understanding of what is happening in the industry, what changes are happening in the value chain, the level of intensity of competition within the links of the value chain, and what external factors may be having a significant impact.
By harnessing the full potential of available data, you can objectify discussions, make fact-based decisions and spot new opportunities. Track your performance by comparing your financial KPIs to those of the industry and win in the marketplace by integrating data as part of your strategy.
A food industry benchmark looks at ratios such as profit and turnover and thereby provides an objective framework to understand what drives agri food companies. It helps you answer questions such as:
How am I performing?
Who are the winners and losers in my market?
How is my value chain performing?
An agri benchmark provides you with facts that help you understand in which areas your business is performing well and where there is room for improvement. For companies looking to dip their toe in the water, benchmarking is the perfect place to start. It reveals a company's potential for improvement. For example, as a company in the food industry you found out that your factory personnel costs have doubled in the past five years, that may seem like a lot. But if the benchmark shows that those costs have tripled at competitors over the same period, it's not so bad.
With all the data publicly available, gaining a competitive advantage is within reach for any company that takes a step toward data-driven work. Discover how benchmarking can move your business forward in profound ways. Download our whitepaper Benchmarking where we will show you how to successfully apply benchmarking in your organization using a 6-step guide.