Supplier-side primary research that caught a channel shift the trade press hadn't reported.

1. 01 The decision

   The client's category sourcing team had received a routine price-increase letter from their primary supplier. Something in the wording suggested a bigger structural shift underneath. They needed an independent read on whether the supplier was about to consolidate its channel — and how much of their category spend was at risk.

2. 02 How we ran it

   A senior lead ran a targeted supplier-side primary program across seven suppliers in adjacent categories. Two domain analysts assembled channel-level shipment data from customs filings. We identified a consolidation move that had not yet been reported in the trade press — the primary supplier had quietly acquired a distribution network in the client's largest region.

3. 03 What we shipped

   A 26-page memo with the supplier map, the channel-shift narrative, a shortlist of three second-source suppliers we had validated as production-ready, and a suggested split of category spend across primary and secondary sources.

4. 04 What changed

   The client updated their sourcing strategy inside a quarter. They moved 18% of category spend to a second-source supplier and avoided a Q3 delivery gap that would otherwise have hit their production line. Category sourcing lead named the engagement in their internal EOY review.

Client identity is anonymised in this write-up. On-record versions are available on request where the client has given explicit consent — reach the desk for named references.