Under The Pallet Wrap

Do you know what you are buying? — Brand, trust and the supply chain you never seeKeith bought a Sony TV from Argos. He thought about the South London depot. He thought about Sony. He stopped there.He didn't think about where it was assembled, where the screen came from, the chips, the rare earth metals in the components. He's spent 30 years in supply chain and he stopped at the depot.In this episode Keith and Dan get into the question most of us avoid: do we actually know what we're buying — and does it matter?They cover the brand as a proxy for everything we don't ask about, the £8 dress paradox, what happens to the return you sent back without a second thought, and the Digital Product Passport — the legislation that by 2027 will legally require brands to make their supply chain visible after 30 years of designing it to be invisible.They also disagree. Dan thinks the consumer has a responsibility. Keith thinks that's a comfortable story that lets everyone off the hook — and that policy and producer accountability are the only mechanisms that create change at scale.No tidy conclusion. Just an honest conversation about something neither of them fully lives up to either.

In this episode Keith and Dan confess to being the blocker - the very thing standing in the way of their own teams and projects. Every leader thinks they're helping. Most don't realise when they've become the problem. From staying at the office until 11pm answering questions nobody else could, to taking over an entire operation across another country for three months and not knowing how to stop - this is an honest conversation about the moments that taught them the most. When does micromanagement have its place? What does it take to let go? And is walking away ever the bravest thing you can do? If you lead a team, run an operation or work for someone who won't get out of the way - this one will feel familiar.

AI is coming for every industry. But is supply chain really at risk or is that just noise? In episode three of Under the Pallet Wrap, Keith and Dan get into the detail. What automation can and can't replace, why the humans who've done the job will always matter, and what the next generation of supply chain professionals actually needs to learn. If you work in ops, logistics or eCommerce - or you're just wondering whether your career is safe - this one's for you.

Supply chain. Everyone talks about it. Few people agree on where it actually starts and ends. In episode two Keith and Dan get into the detail — unpacking one of the most misunderstood questions in ecommerce and operations. Dan breaks it down to three questions every founder and ops leader should be asking before anything else: when, what and how much. Get those wrong and everything downstream suffers. If you're running an ecommerce business, managing procurement, or just trying to get your operation under control, this one will make you think differently about where your real problems begin.

Here, Keith and Dan get into the conversation they’ve been meaning to have for decades.They unpack the experiences, lessons, challenges, and moments across their careers that shaped how they think about supply chains, operations, leadership, and business today.It’s an honest, insightful, and grounded conversation about the realities behind the industry, the people within it, and why these discussions matter now more than ever.Listen, subscribe, share, and drop a comment.