Focus Wickes and Eqos win first Retail Week Supply Chain Award
2nd March 2004
Focus Wickes is the first winner of Retail Week's Supply Chain Initiative Award, for its work with Supplier Management experts Eqos. Announced at the ninth annual Retail Week Awards dinner at London's Grosvenor House Hotel on Monday the 1st March, the DIY chain beat World Duty Free and Somerfield to this premier retail award.
Focus Wickes commissioned Eqos to create 'Fusion', a portal to allow the DIY giant to work collaboratively with its 350 plus suppliers. The first phase of the supplier portal has focused on a Product Performance Management Solution (PPM) for publishing information, raising alerts and managing by exception. From this Focus Wickes has the necessary technology to review stocks, sales and service levels to enable a "category" view of the business.
"We recognize the importance of working in real-time with suppliers as the ideal way forward for improving sales, costs and operational efficiency and, in particular, in driving category management within the business," says Jeremy Bird, Commercial Director of Wickes.
Indications are that Fusion will help increase sales and margins in the first full year of operations by around 0.5 per cent, while stock-outs are on target to reduce by some 20 per cent. There are also likely to be significant savings in logistics, as well, as overstocking can be avoided. Across the group annual savings are likely to add up to around £10 million.
"Our work with Focus Wickes demonstrates the real bottom-line benefits Eqos systems can bring to a business. This coupled with the ready acceptance of the technology and culture shift by suppliers is a complete win-win situation," says Mike Quinn, chief executive officer, Eqos.
Judges for the Retail Week Awards included Ian Cheshire - CEO - International & Development, Kingfisher; Rob Templeman - Director, Debenhams; John Coleman - Chief Executive, House of Fraser PLC; Mike Shearwood - UK Managing Director, Inditex UK; David Oliver - Director, Retail Services, Kurt Salmon Associates (sponsors of the Awards); Stephen Sunnucks - Chief Executive, New Look Group PLC; and Sara Weller - Deputy Managing Director, Sainsbury's.
Notes to Editors:
Eqos Ltd
Eqos delivers flexible, proven solutions for Supplier Management over the Internet. Eqos helps its customers achieve rapid return on investment from modular, integrated solutions built with change in mind, to significantly advance supply chain effectiveness. Founded in 1997, Eqos is headquartered in the UK. Eqos' Platform is recommended worldwide as a Microsoft preferred platform for collaborative working and is based on Microsoft's .NET framework. More information can be found at www.eqos.com.
Focus Wickes
Focus Wickes is the second largest UK DIY retailer in terms of turnover. Through its Focus and Wickes branded stores, the Group offers an extensive range of home improvement products to both DIY and trade customers. This dual brand approach is unique in the UK DIY Market and allows the Group to access the broader UK RMI Market. Following a number of acquisitions, as at 30 April 2003, the Group operated 282 Focus stores, 150 Wickes stores and one Focus Wickes Warehouse.
For further information, please contact:
Linda Laderman or Anne Lomax
Laderman PR
5 Portland Place
London W1B 1PW
Phone +44 (0)20 7436 6676
Fax +44 (0)20 7580 0555
Email annel@ladermanpr.co.uk
