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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