Background

A leading FMCG organisation was traditionally operating on a commodity-driven wholesale model serviced through a distributor network. In recent years, the company acquired several retail-dominant consumer brands, which required a significant shift from wholesale-led operations to a retail execution and distribution depth model.

To support this transformation, the organisation needed a structured review of:

• Distributor infrastructure and capability
• Retail coverage and penetration
• DBMS (Distributor Business Management System) implementation and data accuracy
• Readiness for new product launches (NPD brands)

Engagement Overview

Impacca partnered with the client to conduct 1000+ Distributor Audits across PAN-India.

We designed and implemented a robust, transparent Distributor Audit Programme, featuring:

• Structured audit checklists
• Objective scoring methodology
• Standardised reporting
• Governance dashboards
• Corrective-action tracking

Key Findings

• Wholesalers operating as disguised distributors
• Mismatch between actual retail outlets and DMS-mapped outlets
• Mismatch between DMS secondary sales & actual outlet purchases
• Misclassification of outlets across wholesale, retail, and standalone categories

These misclassifications were being leveraged to maximise scheme benefits, leading to commercial leakages and inaccurate reporting.

Business Impact

• Strengthened distributor governance
• Improved accuracy of secondary sales reporting
• Better alignment of infrastructure with retail-driven business needs
• Reduced scheme misuse and commercial leakage
• Enhanced readiness for expansion of NPD brands
• Improved retail penetration and market control visibility

Result

The organisation now runs a structured, data-driven distributor monitoring framework, ensuring that every distributor is retail-ready, compliant, and aligned to brand growth objectives.

Impacca continues to support the client as a long-term assurance and transformation partner.

Background

A leading FMCG organisation detected repeated inventory mismatches at a key warehouse in the Western region — despite conducting monthly physical stock verification.

Like most large-format FMCG warehouses, freezing inventory movement even for a single day was extremely difficult due to high sales volumes, dispatch commitments, and delivery SLAs. Barcode scanning was also impractical because of high-pallet storage layouts and operational realities.

The organisation partnered with Impacca to design a practical, low-disruption inventory control solution.

Our Solution — Cycle Count–Based Audit Approach

Impacca introduced a structured Cycle Counting Programme in place of a single monthly stock-check.

Here’s how the programme worked:

• The Head Office team randomly selected 4–5 SKUs three times a month
• Our audit team conducted surprise cycle-count checks
• Inventory movement was frozen only for 2–3 hours during each check — minimising business disruption
• Selected SKUs were counted batch-wise
• Variances were analysed and corrected in real time

This shifted the control approach from “one big audit once a month” to “frequent micro-audits that reveal real operational truth.”

Key Insights & Variances Identified

The cycle-count audits highlighted several systemic gaps that were not visible through monthly physical verification alone:

1. Excess inventory billed but not dispatched
   Stock was lying at the warehouse even after invoicing — inflating primary sales visibility.
2. Pending GRNs beyond 24 hours
   Delayed posting caused stock mismatches between physical inventory and system records.
3. Unaccounted sales returns from MT / GT channels
   Returned stock was physically present but not entered into the system — creating shrinkage signals.
4. Non-adherence to FIFO (First-In-First-Out)
   Certain high-volume SKUs showed batch-wise variance due to incorrect picking sequences.

These insights helped the organisation move from assumption-based governance to evidence-based correction.

Result

The warehouse shifted from reactive variance correction to proactive inventory control — without affecting daily dispatches or business continuity.

Background

A leading Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chain with 1,000+ stores across India approached Impacca with a critical challenge — the organisation wanted to institutionalise an audit culture across stores to address recurring issues such as order cancellations, low staff productivity, higher-than-normal raw material consumption, and suspected revenue leakage.

The leadership team believed that fixing symptoms was not enough — they needed independent diagnostic insight into root causes.

Our Approach

Impacca initiated a pilot programme across 20 stores, combining data analytics with behavioural and process evaluation.

Multiple internal reports were analysed to identify patterns around order cancellations, customer complaints, wastage trends, and variance instances. These were mapped against:

• Date & time of occurrence
• Operating shifts
• Staff rosters
• Transaction modes

This helped create risk signals and anomaly clusters.

The flagged instances were then validated against CCTV footage and operational logs, enabling objective analysis instead of assumptions.

Key Insights Identified

The engagement revealed multiple human–process interaction gaps that were impacting revenue and control discipline, including:

• False wastage entries and avoidable order cancellations
• Raw material consumption beyond benchmarks
• Instances of product diversion outside store premises
• Staff-level practices influenced by external earning sources
• Informal monetary arrangements arising from low pay structures

In one case, an employee was found using store materials to support an external catering business.

In another recurring pattern, cash-based orders were being partially retained at team-lead level and redistributed among staff as retention incentives.

These insights highlighted the need to strengthen governance — but also employee motivation, supervision, and policy structures.

Rather than treating the situation as purely disciplinary, the organisation — with support from Impacca — used the findings to design stronger SOPs and control matrices.

At the same time, HR teams reviewed compensation, motivation drivers, and store-culture practices, ensuring that governance and people priorities moved together.

Result

The success of the pilot led to the rollout of a structured audit programme across the chain, positioning audit as a positive business enabler rather than a policing function.

Today, the QSR runs a strong governance-driven operating model, balancing controls, culture, and performance.

Background

A leading FMCG organisation was facing rising levels of damaged and expired stock being returned from retail outlets. Although audits were being conducted, the process was fragmented — first at the distributor point, then movement to the CFA after several days, and finally disposal after months.

This fragmented flow resulted in:

• Growing damage-expiry losses
• Delayed distributor credit notes
• High CFA carrying cost due to month-long holding of expired stock

The organisation needed a faster, controlled, end-to-end solution.

Our Solution — Integrated “One-Stop Damage & Expiry Management” Programme

Impacca designed and implemented a single-window process that connected audit, credit settlement, and physical disposal seamlessly.

Key design elements included:

• Data-based segmentation of distributors using three years of claims history
• High-expiry distributors selected for on-site distributor-level audits
• Scrap vendor aligned for same-day or T+1 pickup after audit completion
• Tamper-proof processes with sealed packs, audit stamps, and weight checks to prevent leakage

For the remaining ~40% smaller distributors, expired stock was routed to the CFA within a defined one-week window, where:

• Audits were conducted at CFA
• Eligible claim amounts were finalised
• Scrap vendors disposed material in presence of the audit team

This converted a multi-month, multi-location process into a single-workflow, controlled mechanism.

Governance & Communication Framework

To improve transparency and trust, the solution included:

• Advance intimation and acknowledgement of cartons received
• Clear communication of deductions for policy-noncompliant claims
• Agreement on final claim value before posting
• Quarter-wise NOC mechanism to eliminate future reconciliation disputes

Impact & Benefits

The programme delivered significant business impact:

• Faster credit issuance to distributors
• Sharp reduction in CFA inventory holding of expired stock
• Reduced leakage risk during movement & storage
• Stronger audit trail from retailer to final destruction
• Improved hygiene in damage & expiry management
• Measurable reduction in overall expiry losses

The success of this model led to replication across multiple FMCG organisations, along with enhancements such as DMS-based tracking and retail-level early-expiry monitoring.

Result

The client now operates a streamlined, audit-driven, leakage-controlled damage & expiry management system that is faster, more transparent, and more cost-efficient — benefiting distributors, CFAs, and the company alike.

Background

A leading FMCG organisation in the health foods segment engaged Impacca to manage and streamline their secondary scheme verification and distributor credit process. The existing process was handled internally and was experiencing high turnaround time (TAT) for issuing scheme credits to distributors.

Key challenges included:

• Delayed submission of claims by distributors
• Non-standard claim formats arising from different accounting systems
• Verification activity being pushed to the last week of the month
• Workload pressure leading to review and approval delays

The leadership team wanted to reduce TAT without overloading the system or compromising controls.

Our Approach

Impacca conducted a deep-dive review of the end-to-end process and identified practical improvement opportunities. A structured transformation programme was implemented, including:

• Standardised Claim Submission Format
  A uniform claim template was designed and rolled out across the distributor network.
• Field Force Training & Enablement
  Sales teams were trained to support distributors in correct claim preparation. A monthly training day was institutionalised to account for new joiners and attrition.
• Early & Continuous Claim Follow-Ups
  Regular follow-ups from the 4th of each month ensured timely submission rather than bunching at month-end.
• Same-Day Basic Validation
  Claims with missing approvals or incomplete documents were returned immediately, allowing distributors time to correct and resubmit within the same cycle.
• Structured Verification & Control Tools
  Standardised trackers and claim-passing spreadsheets were introduced, with built-in checks to reduce human error and improve audit traceability.

Outcome

Within a year, the programme delivered significant TAT improvement without increasing process burden:

• Secondary scheme claims began getting credited by the 20th of the next month
• Earlier, credits largely happened between the 28th–31st
• Distributor satisfaction improved due to timely settlements
• Internal workload got evenly distributed across the month
• Accuracy and compliance remained fully intact

Result

Impacca now runs a disciplined, predictable, and control-led scheme-credit verification process, balancing speed, transparency, and governance for multiple FMCG and Pharma companies — supported by a dedicated Claim Management team.

Background

A leading pharmaceutical company with strong category-leading brands was experiencing business degrowth in select North Indian states. The organisation engaged Impacca to diagnose the underlying commercial and behavioural drivers behind the decline, rather than treating it as a pure sales challenge.

Our Approach

Impacca adopted a diagnostic, relationship-led methodology rather than a conventional audit stance, recognising that the pharma trade is often cautious and less receptive to formal audit activity.

Three years of sales and secondary data were analysed, following which 25 key distributors were shortlisted for detailed on-ground engagement.

Our team conducted structured interactions with distributors, retailers, field staff, and internal stakeholders — positioning the exercise as collaboration, not inspection.

This approach helped build trust and openness, allowing true market sentiment to surface.

Key Insights

• Distributor morale was suppressed by continuous price undercutting and rate infiltration
• Frequent ad-hoc schemes damaged market discipline and encouraged month-end stocking
• POB (Personal Order Booking) at retail outlets was extremely weak
• Many retailers were unaware of their mapped distributors
• Legacy distributors felt sidelined due to overlapping new distributor appointments
• Marketing budgets and gifts were diverted to support price gaps
• Institutional channel leakages further fuelled rate erosion

As a result, distributors were reluctant to deploy working capital into primary purchases — directly impacting sales volumes.

Market Sentiment Impact

An important and unexpected outcome emerged from the engagement. The very act of listening, engaging, and interacting with distributors created positive sentiment and renewed confidence in the organisation.

Distributors felt heard, supported, and valued — not audited.

As a result, in the very next month, the business witnessed a significant growth uptick, driven by improved stocking confidence and better channel alignment.

Result

The client achieved sustainable commercial control, renewed distributor engagement, and restored growth momentum — without market disruption.

These insights helped management identify clear improvement areas such as restructuring schemes, optimising marketing spends, and tightening controls and discipline in institutional channels.

Background

One of the leading NBFC clients in the Microfinance sector engaged Impacca to conduct Risk Review and Branch Process Audits as an additional layer within their regular audit framework.

The objective was to gain independent visibility into branch-level execution, control effectiveness, and field practices — especially across channel-partner–managed locations.

The audits were designed to go beyond documentation and test actual execution integrity.

Key Findings — Channel Partner–Managed Branch (Western Uttar Pradesh)

In one channel-partner–managed branch handling MFI loans, the audit identified serious governance and fraud-risk indicators, including:

• Regular EMI collections not updated in loan cards or systems
• Borrower complaints alleging misappropriation of collected amounts
• No complaint entries in the official register despite multiple grievances
• Collusion between branch staff and field personnel

Impacca’s team gathered clear documentary and field-level evidence establishing fraudulent practices by branch staff.

It was observed that during earlier regular audits, the branch attempted to manage audit visits by pre-arranging borrower unavailability during home visits.

To validate this, Impacca implemented geo-location tagging of “borrower not available” cases and conducted independent revisit checks. These revisits confirmed intentional audit circumvention.

Key Findings — Branch in South India

In another branch located in South India, the audit uncovered severe compliance lapses linked to conflict of interest, including:

• Branch personnel involved in unauthorized external activities
• Facilitating MSME-related certifications for a fee
• Subsequent sanction of MEL loans linked to these activities
• Weak documentation controls and policy violations
• Rising delinquencies and deterioration in loan quality

Impact & Management Action

The findings provided the NBFC’s leadership with actionable, evidence-backed insights, enabling them to:

• Initiate disciplinary and corrective actions
• Strengthen channel-partner governance
• Improve complaint management and escalation mechanisms
• Tighten field-collection controls
• Redesign risk triggers for early fraud detection

Impacca continues to support the client as a trusted risk-assurance partner, strengthening governance, compliance, and portfolio integrity across the network.