Our Supply Chain and IT infrastructure needs to support our service focus in-store and our digital ambitions.

Our IT systems are out of date and in need of upgrading. In common with many retailers new business opportunities have been supported to bespoke changes to existing systems. As a result our systems landscape is complex and expensive to maintain with changes to support new business opportunities taking too long to implement and being too costly.

Our Supply Chain needs to adapt to deliver better on shelf availability and ensure colleagues can focus on serving customers rather than being blinded by the task of stocking shelves. We also need to put in place the capacity and capability to support our ambitious digital growth strategy and make the customer experience seamless between stores and online.

We have started a trial of airlock deliveries where stock is delivered overnight and can be worked first thing in the morning before the store opens. We intend to roll this to further stores over the next 12 months.

To improve availability we have invested in new hand-held scanners in each store that together with new processes support us counting stock and maintaining the overall integrity of our stock file. We're also getting back to a real focus on good old-fashioned stock management disciplines.

We've already started a number of core IT infrastructure projects including the upgrade of SAP, the installation of a new faster store network and the move of our data centre. Beyond these we will look to invest in world class, scalable systems that support our digital and service growth ambitions in order to drive profitable sales growth.

FY14 Operational Milestones

• 25% of all stores working stock outside peak trading hours.

 

We have started a trial of airlock deliveries where stock can be delivered overnight.