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Foschini Limited Increases Profits and Improves Data with JDA Software

Foschini Limited, a South African investment holding company with a core focus on retail and financial services, is leveraging JDA Software solutions to increase profits with reduced markdowns, improved data accuracy and more efficient, accurate distribution of products in the right mix of sizes to the right stores.

Foschini consists of 1,300 stores in 13 trading divisions that focus on lifestyle products ranging from fashion, jewelry, accessories, cosmetics, sporting and outdoor apparel to housewares. After expanding into Botswana, Swaziland and Namibia, the company realized it needed sophisticated technology to enable targeted ranges and size scaling for all of its trading groups. In addition to JDA Size Scaling, Foschini has implemented JDA Allocation, Arthur Knowledge Base and Portfolio Merchandise Management (PMM), which was selected following a thorough evaluation of software vendors including SAP and Oracle.

The JDA solutions enable Foschini to plan ranges that meet local demand more accurately, positively impacting the bottom line. JDA Size Scaling was recently implemented in the company's 160-store Markham chain to measure sales patterns and view demand for each particular size by location, ensuring that the right quantities for all sizes are delivered to the appropriate store.

By addressing two critical merchandise management challenges for retailers - size demand by location and forecast estimates for following seasons - JDA Size Scaling enables more accurate allocation of products to locations resulting in a significant increase in sales and reductions in markdowns.

"Foschini Group was the first company to test JDA's Size Scaling solution in its menswear division, Markham, and it's gone beyond our expectations," said Brent Curry, Foschini's chief information officer. "JDA Size Scaling fills the major gap in addressing the size issue. Before, many stores suffered from selling out of certain sizes, but now we can provide the right mix of sizes to the right stores."

Prior to implementing the JDA software, Foschini had 27 systems that required manual markdowns and range planning without any access to real-time information on sales. With the use of JDA's Arthur Knowledge Base software, the company is benefiting from visibility into accurate data from one source, resulting in decreased markdowns and improved customer service.

"We've had a lot of success in clearing all of our lines, with more stock being sold out at full price - meaning more profit in retail," said Baziel Barends, Foschini's merchandising system executive.

JDA's Allocation solution automates and fully integrates with the JDA PMM system and with Foschini's distribution center, enabling the company to easily adjust the stock required, and if necessary, change deliveries to meet demand. By integrating the disparate solutions into one JDA suite of systems, Foschini can continue to focus on improving customer satisfaction levels.

"We have to cater to the needs of different clothing size requirements for different regions, and different ranges for the many market sector groups throughout the country," Curry said. "As a result, technology plays a key role in the business. Foschini has been working with JDA for nearly nine years, based on seven separate installations of JDA's merchandising system - one for each of our trading divisions. Today, all divisions are now running JDA's PMM system for one version of the truth."


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