Whitehall Garden Centres

Whitehall Garden Centres is an award winning, family run business with two garden centres. One is based in Whitchurch, Bristol and their main site based on the outskirts of the National Trust village in Lacock, Wiltshire.

The business has been running with the Self family since 1968.

Workshop Objectives

The business has expanded rapidly over the years and is now one of the largest garden centres in the South West. It is a common problem that, as businesses expand, the demand on working capital also increases. The owners and Directors of the business wanted to apply the principles of LEAN in order to reduce working capital cycle-times, enabling stock levels to be reduced. This would then help fund future expansion.

The aim was to involve all the Departmental managers within the business so that they could have ownership of the stock reduction project and the action plan.

Workshop Format

The four-day workshop started with an introduction to Lean and how to apply it to retail. Rather than boring people with PowerPoint slides, the message was delivered using a ‘Lego game’. The teams were competitive to say the least and set a new record to compete the game in four minutes 13 seconds!

Day two involved the 15 members, from all departments within the garden centre, mapping all activities involved in re-ordering stock through to the merchandising. Two value streams were mapped out, one for plants, and the other for giftware.

Once the team had completed the process mapping they then identified all wasteful activities and opportunities to simplify the process. This led to the design of new processes, which would significantly reduce lead-time on supply and so help reduce stock levels.

An action plan was then developed to move the process from its current state to the desired future state.

The team quickly got stuck into the implementation and by the end of Days three and four, they had largely implemented the action plan and were indeed working towards the new process!

Each Departmental Manager also ran reports of their current stock levels and identified the slowest moving stock items. They also analysed the month-by-month sales profiles of the stock to identify when to start reducing stocks, in anticipation of sales decreasing due to seasonality.

Outcomes

By identifying this stock, and by working closer with suppliers, they were able to identify over £100K’s of slow moving stock. Tackling this would both free-up working capital to re-invest in more popular lines. This increases sales to the benefit of everyone involved within the supply chain.

Working with the suppliers they also looked at ways of re-ordering of stock more easily and in less time. This involved looking at ways of re-ordering electronically rather than using manual means e.g. electronic catalogues and ‘looking-good’ lists.
Time has also been saved in mechanising by reducing down the number of items that are 100% inspected. If a supplier is reliable, with no quality or quantity issues on shipment, the principle of ‘good-faith’ receiving should be investigated.

Managing Director Peter Self commented: “Previously we had equated extra sales to an increase in stock and resources. Through Lean Retail we discovered that it could also be achieved by eliminating ‘waste’ and not just by throwing resources at the problem.”