Q&A with Stephanie Larson: Scaling Supply Chain Maturity in a Highly Seasonal Business

One of the most rewarding aspects of my role at ketteQ is the opportunity to speak directly with supply chain leaders who manage complexity daily. These conversations are candid, practical, and grounded in real-world execution, consistently highlighting how modern planning enables teams to scale decision-making without adding friction.

Stephanie Larson, Director of Supply Chain at Alliance Consumer Group (ACG), is one of those leaders.

ACG operates in a highly seasonal, promotion-driven environment. The company introduces dozens of new products each year while supporting big-box retailers, independent accounts, Amazon, and direct-to-consumer channels across multiple geographies. Managing this level of complexity requires more than static plans—it demands the ability to adapt quickly, make confident commitments, and align decisions across the organization.

During our conversation, Stephanie shared how her team manages seasonality and growth, how their planning maturity has evolved, and how ketteQ supports confident decision-making at scale.

Here is our conversation.

Q: Stephanie, can you start by introducing yourself and your role at ACG?

Stephanie: I’m Stephanie Larson, Director of Supply Chain at Alliance Consumer Group. I’ve been with ACG for about a year and a half, and my team is responsible for managing demand planning, sales and operations planning (S&OP), supply planning, and customer service. That structure provides us with end-to-end visibility from forecast through fulfillment, which is critical given the dynamic nature of our business.

Q: What are the most significant decisions you and your team are making every day?

Stephanie: Every day is about striking a balance between supply and demand. We continually manage new product launches, stock availability, and unexpected demand, particularly when sales exceed forecasted levels. Add in tariffs, supplier changes, and new customers that were not planned, and it becomes a daily exercise in prioritization and communication.

The core question we constantly answer is: Can we support this demand, and if not, when can we? What tradeoffs does that decision create?

Q: ACG introduces a significant number of new products each year. How does that impact planning?

Stephanie: It has a huge impact. We typically launch between 50 and 100 new items annually, and depending on the category, we may phase out a large portion of those as well. This year, we also adopted a wave-based launch approach tied to retail resets, typically in February and August, which requires forecasts and inventory to be prepared well in advance.

At the same time, we continue to introduce multiple new products every month. Once a product passes its early gates, our team gets involved quickly, working with sales to establish forecasts, loading those into ketteQ, and preparing supply so we can execute without delays.

Q: Seasonality seems to be a defining factor for ACG. How do you manage that complexity?

Stephanie: Seasonality is everything for us. Approximately half of our sales occur in the second half of our fiscal year, driven by products related to hunting, camping, storm preparedness, and cold weather. Prime Day, holiday promotions, and seasonal resets all overlap, which creates significant demand volatility.

Demand then drops off early in the calendar year before picking back up as outdoor activity increases. Managing these cycles requires accurate forecasts, swift adjustments, and robust guardrails to prevent overcommitment or under-serve.

Q: What makes your supply chain especially difficult to manage at scale today?

Stephanie: It’s very complex. We serve big-box retailers, independent retailers, Amazon, and our own direct-to-consumer site. We have expanded into Canada with bilingual packaging and a new 3PL, and we are preparing to extend our supply chain model into the UK and EMEA.

We also ship directly from Asia to some large customers. Each channel and geography has different requirements, lead times, and service expectations. Without a centralized planning platform, it would be challenging to manage all of that effectively.

Q: Tariffs have forced many companies to rethink sourcing. How has that affected ACG?

Stephanie: Tariffs have driven some of our most significant changes. Specific customers now require that no manufacturing occur in China, which triggered a rapid shift to qualifying factories in other countries, sometimes with suppliers that had never produced our products before.

Steel tariffs compelled us to relocate knives and tools out of China, and lithium battery tariffs affected power-related products. All of this requires long-term planning around volumes, minimum order quantities, and supplier capabilities. We have invested a significant amount of time diversifying our manufacturing footprint, enabling us to remain flexible as conditions change.

Q: How does ketteQ support decision-making in this environment?

Stephanie: ketteQ gives us a single, real-time view of supply, demand, and inventory. Instead of reconciling spreadsheets, we can see real orders, real inventory, and real constraints as they happen. That means our plans evolve as conditions change, rather than breaking when assumptions are wrong.

This allows us to answer questions quickly, whether it is promising a large order, adjusting allocations, or determining how long we can rely on existing supply while transitioning to a new factory. The ability to aggregate demand across channels and locations also helps us negotiate better pricing and plan more strategically with suppliers.

Q: Who across the organization uses ketteQ today?

Stephanie: We have broad adoption. Demand planners, supply planners, distribution leadership, and allocation teams all use it actively. Our sales team has roughly 20 to 25 users, so they can self-serve instead of calling planners for every question.

On the execution side, more than 200 field service sales representatives rely on ketteQ indirectly through Salesforce. When they click “Get ATP,” ketteQ evaluates availability and returns an accurate promise date in seconds. They are very vocal when it does not work, which tells you how critical it is to their daily operations.

Q: How do you define success for your supply chain team as ACG continues to grow?

Stephanie: Success means fewer fire drills and more confident decisions. We know we’ll always have change, that’s the nature of our business, but our goal is to respond with clarity rather than urgency.

When our teams can trust the data, understand the tradeoffs, and communicate clearly with sales and customers, we can scale without adding chaos. That’s what maturity looks like for us.

Closing Perspective

Stephanie’s perspective reflects what we consistently see across fast-growing, seasonal businesses: supply chain maturity is no longer about locking in a single plan; it’s about enabling better decisions as conditions change. As complexity increases across products, channels, and geographies, the ability to adapt without adding friction becomes a true competitive advantage