When you begin building your Joint Business Plan, something that’s already happened is that your product data is brought into Growzz.

This comes from the retailer — so it reflects what is currently ranged and selling in their business.

But as you’ll know, retailer data isn’t always clean. There can be inconsistencies, duplicate products, temporary pack variations, or gaps in how products are grouped.

So, before you ever start planning, Growzz applies a clean-up process.

It standardises the SKU set, links product identifiers, and makes sure that what you see reflects a consistent and usable product portfolio.

This step is where you review that outcome. In practice, that means you’re doing two things.

First, you’re confirming that this is the correct set of products you should be planning with for this retailer.

And second, you’re sense-checking that the key data attached to those products — things like pricing, pack size, and grouping — looks right.

It’s important to recognise that this isn’t just internal validation.

This is effectively your confirmation that:

“Yes — this is the product set I am putting forward for planning with this retailer.”

If something is missing, incorrect, or misrepresented here, it will carry through into every part of your plan.

So, this step is about getting that foundation right.

Alongside the SKU data, you will also see something called the True Base. This is the demand baseline that your plan will build from.

It has been calculated using EPOS data — what actually sold through the till — and adjusted to remove the impact of past promotions, pricing changes, and distribution shifts, while keeping normal seasonal patterns.

You don’t need to understand how it’s calculated in detail.

What matters is that it gives you a consistent starting point for planning. You should treat it as the baseline that your future activity will build on.

If something looks clearly wrong, you should flag it. But in most cases, the right approach is to use it as provided.

So, when you’re working through this step, your role is to:

Once you’re confident in those things, you’re ready to move forward.

Because everything you do next — whether it’s promotions, pricing, or longer-term changes — will be built on top of this.

So, think of this step as a checkpoint.

You’re confirming that the starting point is correct, so that the plan you build is reliable.

Here are the key takeaways.