The international market-entry checklist

This is the checklist we work through with brands before recommending any specific market. It is deliberately ordered: the early sections determine whether expansion makes sense at all, and there is little point working through the later ones if the answers to the earlier ones are weak.

1. Commercial fundamentals

• Can you state your category position in a sentence a buyer would repeat?
• Is there demonstrable demand in your existing market, with rate-of-sale data to show it?
• Do you have clear hero products, or is the range too broad to present coherently?
• Are your existing channels in conflict on price?
• Is domestic performance stable enough that international work will not destabilise it?

2. Margin structure

• What is your ex-works cost, honestly calculated including overhead absorption?
• What does freight and duty add for the markets under consideration?
• What trade margin will a distributor require in that market?
• What retail margin does the target channel expect?
• After all of that, where does the product land at shelf, and is that competitive in the destination category?
• Is there still room for promotional activity, or does the structure only work at full price?

Work this backwards from shelf price rather than forwards from cost. Forward calculation tells you what the price would be; backward calculation tells you whether the model works.

3. Compliance baseline

• How is your product likely to be classified in each candidate market?
• What registration or notification is required, and who is permitted to hold it?
• Are any ingredients restricted or prohibited at destination?
• Which of your current claims would need to change?
• What labelling and language requirements apply?
• Do you hold current specifications, certificates of analysis and manufacturing documentation in a form that would withstand scrutiny?

4. Supply capability

• Can production absorb export volumes without disrupting existing customers?
• What are your realistic lead times, including at peak?
• Does shelf life survive the supply chain with sufficient remaining life on arrival?
• Can you meet the minimum order quantities a distributor will need to make the arrangement viable?
• Do you have cold chain or special handling requirements that narrow the partner set?

5. Working capital

• Can you fund registration costs before any revenue arrives?
• Can you fund the first production run for export alongside domestic supply?
• What are the payment terms, and can you carry that gap?
• If the first market takes twice as long as planned, does the business absorb that?

This section is where expansion plans most often fail quietly. The strategy is sound, the market is right, and the business simply cannot fund the gap between investment and first revenue.

6. Commitment and capacity

• Who internally owns this, and do they have the time it will actually require?
• Is there leadership agreement on the commitment, or is this one person's project?
• What happens to the effort if domestic trading gets difficult?
• Is there a realistic review point where you would stop, and what would trigger it?

How to read your answers

Weakness in sections one or two generally means expansion should wait. Weakness in three or four is usually solvable with preparation, and is exactly what entry work addresses. Weakness in five or six is the most important to be honest about, because it is the least visible from outside and the most likely to stall a well-designed plan halfway through.

A well-argued case for waiting twelve months is a legitimate outcome of this exercise, and considerably cheaper than a failed entry.