CASTORAMA EUROPES LEADING DIY RETAILER, IMPLEMENTS JDA PORTFOLIO TO SUPPORT INTERNATIONAL GROWTH

Castorama Group, Europes largest and the worlds third leading do-it-yourself retailer, has crafted a successful chain of stores serving family handymen and building contractors. Plans are now underway to add to its 150 stores that are spread throughout four countries in Europe. But such ambitious international growth calls for a sturdy IT foundation, and that is where some serious remodeling was needed.

The first step in the project was upgrading its information systems in France where the retailer, part of $8.1 billion Kingfisher Group, operates more than 100 Castorama stores. The companys former IT infrastructure was out-of-date, decentralised and incapable of handling the increased amount of information that expansion would generate.

Seeking to install a more structured, centrally-directed infrastructure to support expansion without totally eliminating its former IT architecture and processes, Castorama is implementing JDA Softwares Portfolio Merchandise Management (PMM) software and several Portfolio Space Management solutions by Intactix applications.

It is reassuring that JDAs progressive implementation approach is addressing our IT requirements and their solution is providing us with a modernised and streamlined IT platform, stated Philippe Meurillon, information systems director at GETINOR, the IT subsidiary for Castorama and Brico Dpt store brands. The most important advantages of JDAs solution are its flexibility, scalability, and the ability to meet our needs for such important functions as product management, restocking and pricing, continued Meurillon.

Castorama Focuses on More Profitable Categories with PMM: Today, more than 50 Castorama employees in France, who have been involved in the project since conception, rely on key modules of PMM to manage all product categories. One of the most significant returns on Castoramas investment to date has been reducing the number of catalogued items from 220,000 to only 120,000. This reduction enables buyers to focus on the more profitable product categories and leverage scale benefits from suppliers.

With plans to roll out PMM to operations in Europe, Castorama is capitalising on the solutions broad functionality. According to Meurillon, PMM enables Castorama to centralise its product range and collection management, which had previously been organised at the store level. Other positive changes resulting from using PMM include centralised procurement; improved vendor, price, cost and promotion management; as well as enhanced receiving, allocation and replenishment. Additionally, Castorama has gained better control over its supply chain, 98 percent of which had been managed by the stores.

Commenting on the ease of integrating PMM to support Castoramas new centralised business strategy, Meurillon stated, Very little specific development was needed. Thanks to their great flexibility, the JDA solutions can adapt over time to meet the needs of Castorama and our customers. We can now develop the appropriate modifications of our information systems ourselves, added Meurillon.

In addition to implementing PMM internationally, the retailers future plans call for the implementation of JDAs space management solutions at all Castorama stores. These JDA applications will support Castoramas newly created network of national category managers who are responsible for boosting category sales, improving shelf conditions and lowering out-of-stocks at stores.

With JDAs solutions in place, Castorama will have built a rock solid architecture that every do-it-yourselfer dreams of.