Leading industry researcher and adviser Gartner has revealed its annual ranking of the Top 15 supply chain organizations headquartered in Europe, at its annual Supply Chain Executive Conference, which took place in London last week.
The top five features four companies from last year — Unilever, Inditex, H&M and Nestlé, along with one new entrant, BASF, which has improved its position steadily. Four new companies joined the European top 15 ranking this year, all from the FMCG realm - Danone, L'Oréal, Diageo and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
For Swiss food giant Nestlé, 'Vendor management, the use of network modeling and a focus on sustainability have been crucial to improving its supply chain performance', according to Gartner.
Gartner identified the top 15 performers headquartered in Europe, based on a combination of financial metrics (revenue growth, return on assets [ROA] and inventory), and the opinion of peers and Gartner supply chain analysts.
Christian Titze, Research Director at Gartner, said: "Top European supply chains span the automotive, chemical, consumer products, life science and retail sectors and are headquartered in a variety of European countries, including France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
"Supply chain executives can use Gartner's analysis of these leaders to develop and implement more integrated, collaborative and demand-driven supply chain strategies."
"Top European-headquartered supply chains bring a wide range of best practices to the supply chain community, ranging from advanced collaboration practices with upstream and downstream partners, to innovations in demand sensing and shaping capabilities, to integrated business planning that brings sales and operations planning to the next level," Titze said.
To see Gartner's top 15 European supply chain companies, click here
Additional information is available in the report entitled "2013 Gartner Supply Chain Top 25: Europe" at http://www.gartner.com/technology/supply-chain/top25.jsp.
