Developing a global sourcing strategy
“We advised them on the shortest route to achieving benefit with minimum risk. This is where we added the most value.”
Wilkinson is a family owned retail chain, based in the UK. A strong customer focus and a vast range of discount products are at the heart of the business. Wilkinson retails an extensive product range including household, garden furnishings, hardware as well as toys and games, and health & beauty products. The company currently has 337 stores in the UK and continues to grow due to its aggressive pricing and established customer base. With a focus on price and quality while improving margins, Wilkinson has significantly increased the number of products it designs and sources directly from suppliers in the Far East and India. As a result, the company needed an experienced partner to assist with improving sourcing processes and implementing a new collaborative sourcing platform based on the Tradestone Sourcing System.
CMG led the project from the inception, defining the end to end sourcing process as well as the business requirements for the new system. We developed a phased approach for the implementation with an extended rollout to onboard each category at the beginning of their next buying season. Our team managed the initial implementations while developing the internal change capability for Wilkinson to go on and complete the rollout across all categories and functions.
The result has enabled a significant expansion in the sourcing team, based across the UK and Hong Kong, with the capability to support the sourcing and quality control for even more product areas.
According to CMG Client Partner, Ralph Behnke, “We advised them on the shortest route to achieving benefit with minimum risk. This is where we added the most value. We also helped them design how to roll this out into the business risk, developed an implementation strategy over a year, across all the relevant business categories, through the seasons and buying cycles.”
“CMG helped me understand how to manage & develop my training to work within the project”
Donna Jones, Head of Training, Wilkinson
Achievements
- Implementation of a system to support supplier selection and supplier management through a quality and ethical evaluation
- Implementation of a sourcing system, ensuring visibility of a clear brief across the supplier, agent and buying teams working to a common critical path
- Development of the in-house change capability to support governance, communication and training