Business Science Corporation
Prepared for RYOBI Africa · Stevens & Co
Confidential proposal · 2026
Proof-of-concept proposal for RYOBI Africa

Turn RYOBI's existing data into the next set of profitable decisions.

Working with your team, we turn the sales, inventory, product, customer, branch and service data you already hold into an executive opportunity map — showing where money is being made, where it's quietly leaking, and which decisions are worth changing next.

Your team's instinct and hard-won experience, brought together with leading-edge analysis of the data you already hold. The aim is sharper commercial decisions — not another dashboard.

RYOBI Africa, up close

Five businesses under one RYOBI brand.

Stevens & Co runs RYOBI across Southern Africa — around 175 people, five branches, subsidiaries in Kenya and Namibia, plus the STECO and PROMAX lines. Each of these behaves differently — different margins, seasonality and stock risk — so each rewards different decisions. The prompt on each card is just an example of the kind of question it raises — a starting point to explore together, not a fixed view.

01

Portfolio

Power & cordless tools, garden, pressure washers, generators, welding, measuring, accessories, spares. Each category has its own margin, seasonality and inventory risk.

Which categories actually earn their shelf and cash?
02

Channel

Stockists, branches, key accounts, online partners, service network. Sell-in to a stockist is not sell-out to an end customer.

Where is demand real vs. just parked in the channel?
03

Brand & trust

Local service centres, repair agents, warranties, manuals, exploded views and spares are hard for a competitor to match on price alone.

Is service strengthening or leaking the brand promise?
04

Working capital

A broad catalogue ties up cash: slow SKUs, stockouts on winners, dead stock, branch imbalances, spares complexity.

How much cash is trapped in the wrong stock?
05

Service

Repairs, warranty claims, parts requests, returns and failures aren't only costs — they can be one of the sharpest commercial signals you own.

What is service data trying to tell you?
Where the money moves

Eight hypotheses worth putting a number on.

Starting points, not conclusions. The POC exists to confirm, size and rank these against your real data — then convert the survivors into decisions.

Revenue leakage

Stockouts on the winners

Lost sales when high-demand tools, batteries, chargers, accessories or spares aren't on the shelf in the right branch or region.

Margin leakage

Revenue that hides a loss

True contribution after freight, rebates, warranty, returns, discounts and service can invert the ranking that revenue alone suggests.

Range complexity

Too many SKUs, too little contribution

A long tail that adds inventory and operational drag without earning its place — cash and attention spread thin.

Attachment

Tools sold naked

Buyers walking without the battery, charger, blade, bit, line, bag, oil or spare — the highest-margin, lowest-effort revenue on the table.

Channel

Sell-in ≠ sell-out

Some stockists over-perform on fit and location; others stall on range, availability or capability. Distributor sales hide end demand.

Service signal

Warranty data left unread

Repair and warranty patterns reveal quality issues, misuse, training gaps, parts demand and retention opportunities.

Energy

Generators after the panic

As load-shedding urgency shifts, the play moves from panic-buying to planned resilience for SMEs, contractors, farms and off-grid.

Battery platform

The battery platform flywheel

One battery platform can drive repeat purchase and lock-in — but only if cross-sell and repeat paths are actually understood.

A sample analysis

What the opportunity map could look like.

This is the shape it could take — built here on illustrative figures so you can judge the method before any data changes hands. In practice we'd shape it around your data, systems and priorities. Every number shown is invented to illustrate technique, not a finding about RYOBI.

Illustrative data · shows method, not findings
Where the profit actually sits
Share of SKUs vs. share of true contribution — the split most catalogues hide.
Winners Long tail (thin) Profit drains
Share of SKUs Share of contribution 18% 64% 18% 71% 34% Profit drains: −5% (destroy contribution after all costs)
Read: ~18% of SKUs carry ~71% of contribution, a fat tail earns little, and a slice actively loses money after freight, warranty & returns. Where it points: protect winners' stock depth; put the drains on a fix-or-cut list.
Estimated lost sales — stockouts on winners
Modelled from stockout days × baseline sell-rate on top-decile SKUs.
R34m /yr
recoverable demand, concentrated in batteries, chargers & fast-moving accessories.
Batteries & chargers Accessories & consumables Cordless tools
Where it points: re-tier safety stock and branch allocation for a short list of winners before chasing new range.
Category profitability — revenue vs. true margin
Gross revenue index vs. contribution after freight, warranty, returns & service. Order changes when real costs land.
Revenue (index) True contribution
Cordless tools Accessories & spares Garden equipment Generators / backup power
Read: accessories & spares punch above their revenue on true margin; generators (in red) look big on revenue but thin after freight & warranty. Where it points: defend and grow the quiet earners; reprice / rebundle the headline categories.
What leaves with the tool
Share of tool sales that include the matched consumable. Gap = margin left on the counter.
Spare battery 32% Charger upgrade 22% Blades / bits / line 47% Case / bag 28% Ghost bar = category benchmark
Where it points: bundle & prompt at point-of-sale; even a 10pt lift on batteries compounds through the cordless platform.
Working capital in ageing stock
Inventory value by age band.
R58m >12 mo & dead
0–3m3–6m6–12m12m+
Where it points: a structured clearance + buy-discipline change on the tail releases cash for winners.
Where coverage doesn't match demand
Stockist & service coverage indexed against local trade, construction, agriculture & DIY activity.
Coverage index Demand signal
Gauteng W. Cape KZN Namibia Kenya
Read: where the red demand bar runs past the dark coverage bar (W. Cape, KZN, Namibia, Kenya) sits proven demand you're under-serving. Where it points: target stockist & service expansion, not blanket rollout.
From analysis to action

The kinds of moves a map like this tends to surface.

Rather than ending in a report, the work is built to end in decisions your team can weigh. Each opportunity gets sized, set against effort and confidence, and paired with the move it points to — so you can decide what's worth acting on.

01

Grow the winners

Where proven demand is held back by stock, coverage or bundling — and what it would take to free it up.

02

Fix profit drains

SKUs, customers and warranty patterns that look good on revenue but quietly hurt contribution.

03

Grow the basket

Where there's room to lift attachment across tool + battery + charger + accessory + spare + service.

04

Rationalise the tail

Which range is genuinely strategic, and which inventory is just drag that earns nothing.

05

Service as an advantage

What repair, warranty & parts data can tell you about product, stock, training & retention.

06

Segment channels

Where DIY, trade, contractors, farmers, industrial & stockists each want a different play.

07

Reposition energy

Whether generators can shift from panic-buy to planned resilience bundles — and for whom.

How we'd work

A typical engagement process.

A typical shape — we tailor it to your context, systems and priorities rather than run a fixed template. Low-risk by design: we start from data you already hold, keep the scope tight, and build usable outputs at each step rather than one big reveal at the end.

Step one

Wire & baseline

  • Secure data transfer & light governance
  • Build one clean, shared view of the data
  • Agree the questions worth testing
  • Baseline revenue, margin & stock health
Step two

Find the money

  • Winner / drain / long-tail on true contribution
  • True category & channel profitability
  • Lost sales, attachment & working-capital
  • Service & warranty signals · coverage gaps
Step three

Decisions & tools

  • The opportunity map, sized & ranked
  • Targeted analysis & insight packs
  • Clear actions, with owners
  • Leave-behind tools the team can keep using

What we'd ask for — all data you already hold

No new systems, no new collection. Pragmatic extracts, ideally 24 months, are enough to start.

Sales / order lines by SKU, customer, branch, date Product master & battery compatibility Inventory, ageing & backorders by branch Customer / stockist master Returns, warranty & repair jobs Spare-parts orders Promotions & rebates (if available) Landed cost / lead times (if available)
What you get

A series of outputs your team can use.

Executive opportunity map

Where money is made, where it leaks, ranked by confidence & effort.

Category & SKU profitability

Winners, drains & long tail on true contribution.

Stockist & channel performance

Sell-in vs. sell-out, over- and under-performers.

Lost-sales & stockout estimate

Recoverable revenue, sized and located.

Working-capital release

Ageing & dead-stock cash you can free.

Attachment & basket analysis

Batteries, chargers, accessories, consumables, spares.

Warranty & service intelligence

Quality, training & retention signals from service data.

Recommended management actions

Decisions, not just charts — with owners and next steps.

Tools you keep

Practical tools and packs the team can keep using afterwards.

The proposition

Prove the money on data you already have — before you change anything.

Existing data. A tight, low-risk scope. Outputs you can act on as they land — a clear view of where the money is, the analysis behind it, and tools the team can keep using.