The Good Old Days Are Gone: 2025 Supply Chain Year in Review

“When I review the year that is 2025, the clear message to me is that we are not going back to the good old days. The changes that have occurred this year are game changers.”

Across our clients in manufacturing, retail, and FMCG supply chains, several key trends have been apparent:

Table of Contents

• The age of global cooperation is behind us
• The next productivity leap lies in the supply chain
• Increasing accessibility to automation and robotics
• The need to understand the real ‘cost to serve’ to enable smarter investment decisions
• Supply chains increasingly define customer experience

The age of global cooperation is behind us

Things are not going back to the way they were. For supply chains, this is a confronting realisation. We are seeing market leaders re-examine their existing networks to design more robust and resilient structures, that are better prepared for supply shocks and hostile events. This allows rapid reorientation and rebalance.

The next productivity leap lies in the supply chain

For too long, the supply chain has been seen as a cost centre to be squeezed dry in order to extract cost savings for the broader business. The tide is turning, and I am seeing more businesses looking to their supply chains as enablers for growth and productivity gain. Relative to much of the world, New Zealand and Australia are at all-time low productivity growth rates. We are genuine laggards. Significant productivity gains are possible with focus and investment. The considered and accurate application of Al tools in inventory and demand planning, as well as in fulfilment operations optimisation, is yielding positive results that can be rapidly applied to many operations. This will accelerate into 2026 and create gaps between the movers and the waiters.

Increasing accessibility to automation and robotics

Even three years ago, you needed to be a substantial market player to secure an acceptable ROI for automation and robotics deployments. In 2025, we saw the cost of amazing systems fall significantly as the global manufacturer market for automation and robotics continues to get more competitive. Now, we have very modest size organisations securing extremely short payback periods on these investments. When coupled with high labour and property costs, applying automation and robotics to warehouse operations is a “when, not if” for most businesses. The next 2 to 3 years will bring greater competition, and thus consolidation, in the automation and robotics industry. This will further enhance the attractiveness of business cases and the reallocation of labour.

The need to understand the real ‘cost to serve’ to enable smarter investment decisions

Undoubtedly, I have seen a shift in businesses seeking to understand their true ‘cost to serve’. As cost-of-living pressures continue to rise, manufacturers and retailers simply cannot continue to pass these price hikes onto consumers. As a result, the need to understand the exact profitability of a particular market segment, channel, customer, or SKU is critical. With this knowledge, accurate investment decisions can be made about where businesses apply their focus and scarce resources for the greatest impact.

Supply chains increasingly define customer experience

With more cost-conscious consumers, and a plethora of channels to reach these consumers, the focus on supply chains’ impact on customer brand experience has come to the forefront. Businesses are wanting to ensure they more effectively “own” their customer experience so that it is consistent and positively differentiating. Late deliveries, out-of-stocks, and damaged goods do not align with any customer strategy. In this environment, the supply chain has become one of the most powerful levers a business has to protect and elevate its brand.

As a result of these key trends, I am seeing more manufacturers and retailers asking the question, “is my 3PL service provider doing a better job for my brand than I could do?”. In some cases, the answer is a definite “yes”. However, we often hear the answer “perhaps not”.

The Three Key Questions to Ask Yourself Are:

1. “Is there anyone that cares about my business and my customer experience more than I do?”
2. “Do I have the bandwidth and expertise to positively change this?”
3. “Should I focus my efforts on securing better outcomes from my existing 3PL service provider?”

With the pace of geopolitical, automation, and Al-driven change, the need for high quality leadership within supply chain operations has never been more acute. Leaders need to be able to identify, attract, and retain an increasingly different type of talent, including mechatronics engineers, data scientists, commercial dealmakers, and industrial change designers. This ensures the ability to seize full advantage of the dynamics confronting global supply chains right now.

The good old days are gone, but were they that good anyway? Perhaps what matters more is what we choose to build next.