Retail

The retail sector is crowded and highly competitive. Retailers are having to face the constant dynamics of new format and channels, new entrants and global price comparisons. At the same time they must improve on-shelf availability and reduce waste, working with less stock investment and shorter merchandise lead-times.

LCP understands these business issues and, through working with major clients, has been able to experience at first hand the impacts of these changes across a wide variety of business sectors.

We’ve identified that:

• channel integration synergies are possible but need detailed planning and evaluation
• global or dual product sourcing needs careful consideration of its true cost-to-serve
• shorter product lifecycles are driving new supply chain thinking that requires organisational alignment and end-to-end accountability
• a ‘one size fits all’ approach fails to recognise that different products have different supply chain characteristics which drive the need for different product delivery methods to market
• improved collaboration in the supply chain can offer significant benefits for all concerned, but major barriers to overcome are trust and confidence between business partners.

We have:

• designed the UK distribution network for a major retailer to support significant growth and a change in product mix - introducing new facilities and product flows to reduce cost and maximise availability
• developed a multi-channel supply chain strategy for a retailer - producing a road map which could be evaluated and flexed as the business responds to a changing market place
• audited and introduced a ‘change squad’ to quickly turn around a poor performing distribution centre - and introduced new operational processes around a Warehouse Management System (WMS) to create an efficient operation.

We have supported 5 out of the top 10 UK retailers - on developing supply chain strategy, designing new infrastructure, IT and operations, and providing experienced teams to make change happen.