Littlewoods: Merchandising / Supply Chain Transformation

Accenture helped Littlewoods renew its marketplace and financial success through a transformational program that changed the retailer’s culture, driving high performance business.

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Littlewoods Stores operates more than 250 locations across the United Kingdom and is part of Littlewoods Retail Group, one of Britain's largest family-owned enterprises. Littlewoods turned to Accenture to help re-establish its place as a leading High Street mass merchandiser when its customer base began to decline and the company began having difficulties attracting new customers.

Accenture's initial assessment revealed that Littlewoods required bold, enterprise-wide change. Having helped many retailers with transformational change of this magnitude, Accenture worked with Littlewoods to quickly prioritise the critical issues, mobilise a coordinated team and define a five-year business plan spanning eight major areas—that would ultimately transform the entire organisation.

Accenture collaborated with Littlewoods to redesign its supply chain processes as well as select, customise and implement a new merchandise planning and management system. This comprehensive effort covered merchandise planning, merchandise management, performance reporting processes, technical architecture and related organisational changes.

As part of this effort, Accenture implemented the Retek Merchandising System (RMS) to give Littlewoods more streamlined information. Calling upon its deep retail and Retek experience, Accenture was able to make modifications to the system to support the pioneering business processes Littlewoods was to adopt.

The RMS modifications gave Littlewoods more sophisticated analytical capabilities that provide detailed insights about its customers, inventory flow, product performance and markdowns. The architecture also provides closer integration with planning and increased automation, allowing users to focus on exceptions.

Accenture also helped Littlewoods define and carry out a set of cultural values and principles, establish business unit teams across functions, develop performance targets and create a new way to manage change within the organisation.

Working hand in hand with Littlewoods, and armed with a clear set of guiding principles, the transformational program has put the company back on track to success. Results include:

• A 20 percent inventory reduction.
• A 2 percent increase in margins.
• Improved liquidation of stock.
• A 40 percent increase in staff productivity.
• A 59 to 85 percent increase in cross-docking percentage.

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