The Musgrave Group simplifies the Supply Chain with Infor – Infor SCE to help enable Londis and Budgens owner’s “Any Product to Any Site” initiative

Infor, a leading provider of business application software serving more than 70,000 customers, today announced retail leader The Musgrave Group has extended its investment in Infor Supply Chain Execution (SCE) as part of ‘Musgrave Simplifies Retail’ (MSR) – a 40,000 man day, £16m project. MSR will help align costs and operations across the group’s Londis and Budgens brands throughout the UK and Ireland, providing more consistent visibility of costs and business done with specific suppliers to help improve profitability. As part of the MSR project, Infor SCE will help enable the delivery of products to any Musgrave Group warehouse site, providing not only operational flexibility but also a more consistent set of transport costs for reporting purposes.  

News Points

• The Musgrave Group is an international company that works in partnership with entrepreneurial retailers in Ireland, the UK and Spain. The nine retail brands within the group delivered combined sales of €6.6 billion in 2011. In the UK and Ireland, brands include Budgens, Londis, Daybreak and MACE.

• The Musgrave Group has recently completed MSR – a project to implement a common ERP framework across operations in the UK and Ireland, in order to deliver a single commercial platform across the group allowing for single cost and better buying benefits, and for improving the visibility of the supply chain to the Londis and Budgens brands.

• As part of MSR, The Musgrave Group has upgraded Infor SCE to help enable the future goal of “Any Product to Any Site” (APAS), routing product in any warehouse to any retail site, helping to enable Musgrave Group to eliminate brand-exclusive warehouses.

• Driven by SCE, APAS is set to deliver more standardised cost data and increased visibility that will be used to help improve negotiations with suppliers.

• In addition Infor SCE will enable cross-docking at Musgrave warehouses to help improve the speed and efficiency of order fulfilment.

The Musgrave Group Quote

“As part of the MSR project we realised we needed to have far greater consistency of costs and operations across the Budgens and Londis brands,” said Mark Trevarrow, MSR project director, The Musgrave Group. “Previously we had ‘brand-aligned’ warehouses, meaning products could only be shipped to certain stores from a specific warehouse. This actually resulted in different costs for the same product going to different shops.”

“Delivered on time and under budget, MSR will help enable far greater consistency and deliver the benefits of standardisation across our operations in Ireland and mainland UK. A key part of this is the fact that, enabled by Infor SCE, we will be able to supply any product to sites that were previously brand-exclusive and track the costs consistently.”

Scott Wharton, supply chain director, The Musgrave Group, added: “As part of the bigger MSR picture, our use of Infor SCE means we have faster, more responsive supply operations that are not only simpler but also more effective in getting the products that our customers demand onto the shelves. We will work as one organisation, improving the customer experience of Budgens and Londis alike.”

Infor Quote

“For retailers, the agility and speed of a supply chain to satisfy demands are critical factors,” said Pieter Leijten, vice president, supply chain, EMEA, Infor. “Barriers to that operational flexibility can be expensive and that is exactly where the Infor strategy of enabling efficient processes such as cross-docking, out-of-the box, can yield a fast and substantial ROI.”

“The APAS strategy in place as part of the MSR project is designed to enable not only greater responsiveness within the Budgens and Londis brands, but also improved visibility within  the supply chain and commercial operations across The Musgrave Group, promoting tighter cost control and improved profitability. This mix of better customer service and lower costs helps The Musgrave Group to continue to drive growth among entrepreneurial retailers in the UK and Ireland.”

Infor

www.infor.com