Cost reduction

Cost Reduction

Background

Our client is a market leader in the UK retailing industry. In the past 8 years, the increase in competitors and change in production and manufacturing (from local to overseas), had resulted in a decline of market share. Internally, organisational growth had produced a large, hierarchical structure with little cross-fascia communication, minimal use of economies of scale for central functions or negotiation, poor customer focus and disjointed buying, merchandising and supplier processes.
The client felt action was needed to revitalise the dominance of existing fascias in the market, provide clarity of product and ensure it continued to return high profit to the owner – a major retail holding corporation in the UK, while developing new concepts.

Consulting Assignment

The client asked us to focus on one of the most profitable fascias, young fashion, but one facing increasingly stronger competition. In 11months the project was to:
“Create and implement a customer-facing retail and supply chain model for the fascia, delivering a process capable of roll-out across the remaining fascias within the company and assisting the achievement of £100m profit within 5 years.”

Key Project Activities

The Analysis revealed significant opportunities for strategic market alignment and to:

  • Develop a team approach throughout the fascia, increasing levels of functional co-operation and trust to solve problems and achieve higher performance.
  • Create a sustainable customer focused business with a drive for continuous development and improvement.
  • Make major improvements to customer and store profiling, range focus, product scheduling and supplier management.

Case Study no 8 - Retail transformation

change-management

Client Benefits

Results of the change programme are summarised below, with first full-year benefits attributed to be between £8 – £15m profit.

change-management