Castro,
an international fashion retailer with over 140
stores in Israel, Russia, Germany, Switzerland,
Eastern Europe and Thailand, has implemented a range
of integrated retail software through VCSTIMELESS
to support its international expansion. The $163
million retailer has increased its revenues by almost
30% in the last year. The company says it plans
to open more international stores in the next few
years, and will open a new European logistics centre
at the start of 2008 to support growth.
Having realised
that further expansion within Israel, where it already
dominates the market, wasn’t
feasible, Castro embarked on a strategy of international
growth. In 2003 Castro decided to arm itself with
the technology it would need to support its future
international ambitions and selected the Colombus
Enterprise suite from VCSTIMELESS to manage the
company’s buying, sourcing, merchandise management,
pricing and replenishment. The retailer needed a
solution flexible enough to adapt to its changing
needs and ever-increasing presence on the international
retail scene, and the ability to manage local supply
chains for its stores, franchises and regional head
offices. Since the two companies began working together,
Castro has extended its use of the Colombus solution
and is now using additional modules including Colombus
Regional to manage a joint venture in Germany and
Colombus
Optimum to aid real time decision-making;
an essential tool for such an international group.
Castro’s first step in internationalisation
was in Germany where it formed a joint venture with
Heine (the retail division of OTTO group), the world’s
largest mail order company. This partnership has
been hugely successful and Castro recently opened
a flagship store in Berlin, with three floors and
a thousand square metres of space. The German stores
link directly to the Israeli head office thanks
to Colombus
Regional, an application designed specifically
for franchised and decentralised organisations which
allows Castro’s head office complete visibility
over the stores’ performance, but enables
Heine to set its own pricing and manage its own
purchasing and replenishment.
As Castro’s overseas success grew, the fast-fashion
retailer turned its attention to its supply chain.
Castro designs its range of men’s and women’s
clothing and accessories in-house, producing over
a thousand styles per season. It supplies around
five to eight new styles every day, keeping the
look fresh and the shelves fully-stocked. Most of
its garments are manufactured in the Far East, and
the company’s buying office is now based in
Israel.
“ With increased global competition and the
need to provide new styles on a daily basis, we
needed to ensure a very fast and efficient supply
chain, backed-up by reliable technology,” says
Shlomi Greenfield, IT director at Castro. “Improved
visibility of stock, based on more accurate sales
data and forecasts for every store, provides us
with the necessary transparency to ensure that the
right products are going to the right stores.”
“ The only way to stay ahead of fashion these
days is through integrated retail technology and
a seamless supply chain that mirrors demand,” says
Greenfield. “We chose VCSTIMELESS as our sole
retail
technology provider because of its reputation
in fashion, its international support, and flexible
multilingual, multi-tax systems that cater for franchises
too. We wanted one system to serve every country,
and with no need for interfaces.”
Greenfield
says that since it has implemented the VCSTIMELESS
technology to support its growing network
of stores, both sales and stock levels are improving.
Colombus Optimum, a decision-support tool, allows
the company to compare targets for every country
to actual sales figures so that it can measure how
each market is performing.
As Castro grows even further,
Greenfield is confident that the company has the
systems in place to support
its international expansion.
“ Everything we do is now supported by sophisticated
technology,” he concludes. “Our next
generation tools allow us to improve on the planning
and replenishment of stock. But fundamentally, the
technology is there to help us manage our business
and grow internationally.
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