Cape Union Mart
by Kennith Barlow
Cape Union Mart retail chain team leader, Kennith Barlow says, “the solution supports the business.”
Cape Union Mart is an example of a long-established business (dating back over 70 years) that has moved ahead with great success, thanks to a forward-looking policy on the part of top management. This has resulted in the company evolving from a general merchandise supplier to become a well-known brand that provides specialist products into new target markets. The company’s IT systems have been constantly upgraded to cope with expansion from just a handful of branches to the present figure of 93, treating the brands as separate business units.
The existing Argility Merchandising solution provided the core platform and the new deployment of Argility Live Backoffice achieves cost-effective improvements in reporting, management and workflow without the need for on-site installation of software at individual stores.
“Cape Union Mart has a long-term relationship with Argility and UCS that goes back many years,” says Lester Aderem, MD of Argility. “The customer’s innovative policies for their business and technology solutions means that we have provided consulting over many years to ensure that their chosen solutions meet their business needs.
“Argility Live Backoffice, integrated into a successful Argility Merchandising solution, has built a platform that meets all the customer’s requirements and puts in place a foundation for future growth.”
The customer is also planning for further upgrades to the store systems.
“A next step which is being considered is to deploy Argility ActiveRetail as a POS solution to all the stores,” says Aderem. “That would provide Cape Union Mart with an end-to-end solution that meets all their needs for now and the foreseeable future.”
Kennith Barlow, team leader of the Cape Union Mart retail chain, points out how the solution supports the business.
Having the right information means making the right decisions.
“With Argility Live Backoffice reporting the information from our existing Argility Merchandising software, we can get instant views of stock movement in terms of sales and transfers from the warehouse,” he says. “This helps greatly when we are running a sales campaign or opening a new store, for example.
“The Argility solution also provides excellent support for supply chain management, as it has a very effective and powerful way of predicting the need in individual stores for specific products, based on recent or even historical trends.
“This helps us run the business and make sure customers’ needs are met – especially when there are exceptional runs on specific products.”
Conclusion
By proactively deploying the right solution on top of an already proven and successful platform, Cape Union Mart has set itself up for continued growth of its business. At the same time, the company has achieved improved service and reduced operational costs without limiting its flexibility or the agile way it can respond to customer needs in new markets.
