Company

European family owned retail company with >10 formats and >9 billion Euro turnover. Currently serving the Belgian food retail market with 2 fully independent formats with > 1 billiion Euro turnover (hypermarkets, supermarkets, proximity stores).

Situation

As financial results ar below par, the company and (new) CEO were looking for synergies and optimisations within the supply chain. A transformation program was started to professionalise the supply chain, category management and sourcing.

Approach

Within 2 months a full redesign of the supply chains and logistic footprints of the 3 formats has been executed. We started with analysing mutualisation of unique references and categories between formats. We investigated and calculated mutualisation of logistic networks – warehousing, order picking and distribution between the 3 formats. We calculated the potential reduction of stock and working capital and we set up the business case and roadmap, including IT, HR and category management changes.

Results

The business case and roadmap have been approved by the executive board and owners. >20% yearly logistic cost savings and >8 million Euro of working capital reductions have been identified and validated. A simplification of the logistics footprint (from 5 to 2 warehouses) and a significant potential for further improvements in service, costs, quality and digitisation have been identified. A detailed roadmap for next steps including recommendations to centralise sourcing, category management, logistics, finance, IT and HR has been worked out.