A national market-potential map: GIS for distribution decisions

A spatial dashboard for a state-owned food company: regional demand heatmaps, the national road network, and isochrone analysis — answering "where should we expand next" with maps instead of tables.

Challenge

A state-owned food company needed to prioritize its national distribution expansion. Market-potential data existed — but as tables hundreds of rows long that never really answered the most important question: where?

Approach

I built a full GIS dashboard on PostGIS: every market-potential metric mapped by region down to drillable levels, with demand heatmaps and distribution-channel icons (general trade, modern trade, HORECA) lighting up according to the data.

Two capabilities separate it from a mere “colored map”:

The national road network inside the database (pgRouting) — so a distribution point’s reach is computed from real road travel time, not a naive radius circle.
Isochrone analysis: click a location and the map draws the area genuinely reachable within a given number of minutes. Placement decisions get a basis you can actually check.

Data rules are strictly enforced: zero values and missing data are explicitly distinguished, because in market research they mean different things.

Result

The dashboard is live in production and used in distribution-strategy discussions. Meetings that used to grind through spreadsheet rows now start by opening a map.