Adviser — Agricultural Customer and Product Profitability

Find the economics beneath the traded margin

The adviser will help leadership understand profitability across agricultural products, customers and delivery arrangements. The analysis must include the practical costs of quality variation, storage, transport, financing and claims. A quoted margin can be materially different from realised contribution, particularly when the organisation accepts terms whose consequences are not visible at the point of sale.

Reconcile transaction-level revenue and cost information to reported results. Identify how expenses are allocated and where estimates replace actual costs. Review the treatment of demurrage, handling, losses, rebates, credit costs and customer-specific service requirements. The adviser should avoid ranking customers on a level of precision the data cannot support.

From recurring patterns to commercial options

Analyse recurring patterns rather than isolated transactions alone. Determine whether low returns arise from pricing, product mix, execution problems or terms that transfer disproportionate risk to the supplier. Work with commercial and operational teams to develop options for pricing, service design or contract conditions.

Test recommendations against market behaviour and delivery constraints. An apparently simple improvement may reduce volume, change stock requirements or undermine a useful commercial relationship. The analysis should show the conditions under which an option creates value and the evidence management should monitor after adopting it.

A method the business can reproduce

Deliver an agreed profitability methodology, a prioritised set of commercial opportunities and a practical review process. Include examples that finance and commercial teams can reproduce independently. This role does not authorise changes to prices, contracts or customer relationships. Management retains those decisions. The adviser must distinguish historical facts from scenario assumptions and should identify where improved transaction data is necessary before a proposed policy is applied broadly across the business.