Manhattan Associates builds momentum in South Africa with retail giant Foschini

Global supply chain optimisation provider Manhattan Associates has announced that Foschini Group, one of South Africas leading fashion and lifestyle retail chains, has selected Manhattan Associates Warehouse Management solution (WMS) for Open Systems, to serve the groups multiple retail divisions, which span clothing, jewellery, accessories, cosmetics, sporting and outdoor apparel, equipment and homewares. The contract award is a joint success for Manhattan and channel partner Supply Chain Junction, a specialist supply chain consultancy focusing on the South African market. The two companies will work together on the project to provide Foschini with an order fulfilment platform to support the Groups store network extending across South Africas nine provinces and into neighbouring countries including Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland.

With an incumbent WMS that required Foschinis own support and development, the company sought a WMS that would free up internal IT resources and that could also support business processes such as postponement, cross-docking, part order allocation and part order delivery. Manhattans WMS has the necessary functionality to effectively handle these requirements and additionally meets virtually all other process support requirements of Foschinis diverse portfolio of retail businesses.

The Manhattan solution positions our group strategically for the future, explained Jan Tukker, group logistics director. We wanted our internal team to be able to respond quickly to supply chain challenges and developments by making simple system configuration changes based on best practice rather than developing new code to support processes that may have been sub-optimal. Working with Manhattan will provide us with business benefits that alternative solution providers just could not deliver.

Steve Smith, senior vice president, EMEA, at Manhattan Associates, commented, This is another key win for us in South Africa and were excited to be working alongside Supply Chain Junction to help Foschini and other forward-thinking enterprises pursue a strategy of supply chain optimisation. There are some interesting dynamics at play both in South Africa and in the global economy right now and the need to be competitive is more intense than ever. Whether it is the pursuit of sales growth or a means to control cost or both, we believe our constantly evolving solutions complemented by the expertise of Supply Chain Junction position us well to strengthen the supply chain operations of both local and multi-national companies operating in South Africa.

About Foschini Group
The Foschini Group operates through the following trading divisions:
 
Foschini, branded as Foschini, Donna Claire, Fashion Express and Luella
Markham
exact!
The Sports Division, branded as Sportscene, Totalsports and DueSouth
The Jewellery Division, branded as American Swiss, Matrix and Sterns
@home, branded as @home and @home livingspace

With more than 1,350 stores across these divisions, Foschini is one of South Africas foremost specialty retailers. For more information, please visit www.foschinigroup.com.

About Manhattan Associates, Inc.
Manhattan Associates continues to deliver on its 17 year heritage of providing global supply chain excellence to more than 1,200 customers worldwide that consider supply chain optimisation core to their strategic market leadership. The companys supply chain innovations include: Manhattan SCOPE, a portfolio of software solutions and technology that leverages a Supply Chain Process Platform to help organisations optimise their supply chains from planning through execution; Manhattan ILS, a portfolio of distribution management and transportation management solutions built on Microsoft.NET technology; and Manhattan Carrier Management, a suite of supply chain solutions specifically addressing the needs of the motor carrier industry.