Mark Harries: Welcome to the brand r/evolution

Two decades ago, it was hard to imagine a time where people would be buying anything other than their favourite brand of minty fresh toothpaste - and buying it directly from the store. Scale was on the incumbent's side and potential innovators were often deterred by their inability to compete for supermarket shelf space. From an investment perspective, this made such companies a fairly safe bet - think dominant players, repeat customers and high barriers to entry. Jump forward to the present day, however, and while a number of brilliant consumer staples companies remain, there is no d...