Multi-Channel Retail Planning: Ann Summers Opts For Island Pacific
Ann Summers, one of the biggest success stories in British retailing, has selected Island Pacific Planning to support the company's merchandise, store, in-season and assortment planning functions. The software will be used across all channels, including retail, web, franchise and Party Plan, for the Ann Summers and Knickerbox brands.
Ann Summers developed the concept of people selling seductive lingerie and adult accessories in the privacy of their own homes. Headquartered in Surrey, England, Ann Summers boasts a sales force of over 7,000 women as party organizers and has 134 locations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Channel Islands and Spain.
The first stage of the planning implementation will go live at the end of May 2008; with the final stages of implementation set for August. Island Pacific Planning will enable Ann Summers' head office to integrate store planning into its buying requirements, increasing efficiency, and providing an accurate reporting tool.
Prior to implementing Island Pacific Planning, Ann Summers operated from an Excel-based system, which supported the company's planning and merchandising activity. As Tony Indyk, commercial director at Ann Summers commented:
"We spend 80 percent of our time collating merchandising information, and 20 percent analyzing the data output via our current system. With the new planning tool, we would anticipate that the time spent on these activities will switch, and as a result we will be able to more efficiently plan across all levels, including channel, location, product and time (weekly or monthly), pre-season and in-season."
He added: "We chose to work with Island Pacific Planning, because of the ease of integration. It is in a relatively straightforward format, and does what we want it to do. The system will help us to plan in detail at all levels, and across different hierarchy, and multi-channel.
The team at Island Pacific has been easy to work with, offering a good understanding of our business and – more importantly – our requirements."
Mike Dotson, COO for Island Pacific Europe, added: "Ann Summers was looking for a suitable merchandising and planning system for some time, and I am pleased that we were able to offer the product to meet its requirements.
"Island Pacific Planning was developed to provide businesses with a flexible planning tool that can be tailored to suit requirements. We are working closely with Ann Summers to develop a product that will support the businesses planning and forecasting functions, and feel confident that it will deliver."
About Ann Summers
With 134 locations and 7,000 party organizers in Europe, Ann Summers is a leading retailer of lingerie and adult accessories.
About Island Pacific
Island Pacific is a global leader in retail merchandising and store operations software solutions. For 30 years, Island Pacific has been a thought leader in retail software solutions, and has developed a reputation for delivering high-quality, high-reliability software to the retail industry. As a result, Island Pacific is a leading resource for scalable, flexible and affordable solutions for retailers around the world.
Island Pacific, a division of 3Q Holdings Limited was founded in 1978. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, and has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
SOURCE: Island Pacific