Consultants likely to survive cuts to Coles product range

The big management consulting firms are notorious for recommending sweeping job cuts to clients, but not so much when it comes to slashing shampoo and conditioner resources.

Australian grocery retail giant Coles has made headlines by signalling its intention to remove at least ten percent of the products currently stocked on its shelves, in what was termed as a move to reduce ‘duplication’.

Now, a report in the AFR has revealed the masterminds behind this product slash-and-burn to be none other than Bain & Company, with the firm’s consultants said to have been working behind the scenes with Coles in recent months.

Products in the firing line include those in Coles’ hair-care range, with chief commercial officer Anna Croft noting the supermarket stocked six different-sized packages from one of its leading brands in the category, ranging from 80mls to over one litre, the former which is useful for catching flights and the latter which is more than the average Australian male is likely to use in a year.

Among those unlikely to be affected by the proposed changes include Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young Australian chiefs Adam Powick, Andrew Yates, and David Larocca, along with former PwC boss Tom Seymour, even though the latter likely has more time now to spend on his morning routine. Notably though, incoming Bain A/NZ managing partner Mohit Wadan has a pretty full head of hair.

Salt, too, will be cut, not for any dietary concerns, but due to Coles carrying more than a dozen different varieties of the largely indistinguishable mineral which makes other food taste even more delicious; “We have 13 basic table salts,” Croft told investors. “We don’t need those. We might go to five, and then we might add three different types to give customers even more choice.”

Unlike the country’s small producers, Australia’s consulting foot soldiers are also unlikely to be impacted alongside their bosses by the Coles’ range reduction, with the ongoing opportunity to nab mini-hotel-shampoo samples and pour them into any size bottle they wish to back at home. A recent McKinsey report boasted that business travel has actually increased post-Covid, up by 6 percent.

While primary competitor Woolworths has a well-documented history of bringing in former MBB consultants for senior roles, including now exiled ex-CEO Brad Banducci, a one-time vice president at BCG, Coles has also been stacking its shelves with consulting discounts, both in the past and more recently, including current CEO Leah Weckert, who kick-started her career at McKinsey.

Meanwhile, Coles’ head of group strategy, Derek Yu, spent close to a decade at Bain & Company prior to joining the retailer in 2023, while Katie Littlefield, also listed on LinkedIn as head of group strategy, spent more than half a decade at McKinsey. As did Will Mulholland, Coles’ general manager for group strategy, transformation, and M&A. Non-executive director Andy Penn is also a senior advisor at McKinsey.