Sally Europe brings together five businesses operating in the UK and Continental Europe. The firm operates 400 stores in 7 markets across Europe, and the wider group supplies 4,000 stores worldwide. With more than 400 professional brands in the hair and beauty industry, it is critical that it manages stock levels efficiently. The firm has revenues of between £150-250 million.
Sally Europe runs its operations on Microsoft AX 2012. However, since 2015, it has also leveraged Slimstock’s supply chain platform. Sally Europe uses the Slimstock Sales & Operations Execution solution and its replenishment and forecasting solution.
The firm has been driving digital transformation to take advantage of the latest features from the Supply chain vendor. It has helped the firm to improve cash flow, increasing working capital by 5% while increasing on-shelf availability by 2%. To achieve these results, the Sally Europe team has worked closely with Slimstock to leverage its supply chain technology.
How Slimstock helps Sally Europe
Key to this success has been the approach taken by Sally Europe to dynamically adjust in the light of customer behaviours and wider market trends.
Nora Mebarka, Head of Supply and Demand Planning at Sally Europe, commented, “Our supply chain strategy is clear: optimise our operation to maximise availability, create value, and deliver service excellence to our customers. However, in this VUCA world, uncertainty can lead to overstocking and stockouts, resulting in missed sales opportunities and high costs.
“Having the best tool alone isn’t enough; you need skilled people and expert support to succeed. Thanks to the winning combination of my motivated and committed team with Slimstock’s knowledgeable consultants and responsive helpdesk, we have the perfect ingredients for seamless collaboration.”
Another reason for the successful partnership is the continuous improvements over the last nine years. These have seen Slimstock develop its product, adding new features, including AI capabilities. Sally Europe has also taken advantage of these improvements, updating their implementation.
Mebarka commented, “Sally Europe benefits from Slimstock’s latest product enhancement and new functionality, which are released every three weeks.”
Solving the supply chain challenges
Supply chains are complex, with many variables. Mebarka explained the challenge further, saying, “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to supply chain strategy. It is vital that we differentiate our approach by considering the channel and the product type. With an adaptive forecasting and replenishment foundation now in place, we can differentiate our supply chain strategy to deliver the best service to our customers. The results speak for themselves: we have increased on-shelf availability by 2%, instilling confidence in our entire operations team.”
The tailored approach to replenishment has meant that there is less chance of dead or obsolescent stock, overstocking or stockouts within the supply chain. The solution has enabled Sally Europe to maximise revenues and improve cash flows by increasing the available working capital.
Slimstock achieves this with dynamic stock transfers to ensure that stock is balanced where appropriate, without additional costs.
Mebarka commented, “We are now more responsive to emerging customer trends, allowing us to ensure optimal stock coverage across our network while maximising the capacity of our distribution centre.”
That flexibility means that Sally Europe can balance inventories across its store network without having to place additional orders with the supplier until appropriate. Mebarka explained, adding, “Rather than discounting or writing off excess stock, we now prioritise inventory for high-performing locations, ensuring optimal availability and maximised full-price-sell-through. This innovative approach has helped us significantly improve our return on investment by reducing working capital tied up in stock by 5%.”
Looking forward
Slimstock continues to build out its platform helping Sally Europe to attain and maintain its position as a trusted beauty partner for professionals and retail customers across Europe. With the next quarterly update webinar about the Slimstock product releases due on October 30th (Customers only), there are exciting updates for Sally Europe to take advantage of.
Mebarka concluded, “Our enhanced forecasting and replenishment processes are already yielding great results. We are now working with Slimstock to embrace AI and machine learning to further optimise our promotions. With Slimstock’s continued support and expert guidance, there is no limit to what we can achieve.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Slimstock has been helping Sally Europe for a significant time. Importantly, the vendor is not only improving its solution it is also working with customers like Sally Europe to take advantage of these updates.
While Mebarka indicates the kinds of difference that Slimstock has made to the company, it will be interesting to identify what additional savings the AI and machine learning functionality will bring to the health and beauty retail firm.
