Established 2016
About ForestBase Desktop
We are a small Birmingham practice that draws category margin contribution charts and sits with the teams who have to defend them.
Registered business
ForestBase Desktop Ltd is the official registered business name. The company was established in 2016 in Birmingham after two former category analysts left a national grocery group to draw contribution charts that buyers would actually use in weekly trading meetings.
A short history
Early work focused on chilled and frozen aisles for regional multiples. By 2019 the practice had a steady book of wholesale and cash-and-carry clients who needed contribution views that survived messy cost files. Through the early 2020s we standardised a chart annotation style — bright callouts, plain-English footnotes — so finance and commercial could argue from the same page.
How we work with clients
We stay close to the files. Every engagement has a named chart lead, a reconciliation checklist, and a walkthrough. We decline briefs that ask us to invent contribution where cost authenticity is missing; better an honest gap than a confident wrong bar.
People
The studio is intentionally small: chart leads with retail commercial backgrounds, supported by a finance reviewer who checks bridges against your control totals. You will meet the person who drew your charts on the walkthrough call — we do not hand presentations to a separate “success” team.
Values in practice
- Readable first — if a buyer cannot explain a bar in one sentence, we redraw.
- Footnotes on the page — exclusions live next to the chart, not in a buried appendix.
- GB trading rhythm — timelines respect range reviews, promo locks, and supplier notice periods.