From High couture to High street, ‘green' is next season's must have colour as fashion retailers respond to environmental concerns and their increasing need to reduce costs and waste.

The future of the plastic bag may be making the headlines, but behind the scenes retailers are now looking at a wide range of eco-friendly initiatives that also make better business sense.

At the vanguard is high street fashion retailer New Look which continues to position profit protection in its broadest sense at the heart of its growth strategy.
Director Will Kernan says an internal ‘green' drive follows hot on the heels of dramatically reducing ‘shrink' - loss caused by theft, internal fraud and damage - through a programme of culture change within the business. Over the last 18-months, - shrink at New Look has been reduced by a staggering 25 per cent against upward trends in the market.

NEW LOOK ADDS ENERGY SAVING AND CARBON
REDUCTION TO ITS  PROFIT PROTECTION STRATEGY

The setting up of a monthly Profit Protection Forum with strict and measurable KPIs and effective day to day management of issues by Profit Protection Manager James Bailey has empowered the workforce to deliver results across the board, particularly in general stock loss , returns, branch write-offs and staff discount abuse.

The focus on improved customer service through investment in training and the development of store teams which is measured by a targeted strategy of test shopping, has realised additional benefits in staff awareness - deterring theft and reducing losses.
"With stock loss reducing and the Profit Protection team, managed on a day to day basis
by James Bailey, ensuring that the strategy is delivered and steered in the right direction,
we have been able to consider new business areas to focus on to reduce loss and waste," says Kernan.

The business is now looking to cut its £14 million energy bills and downwardly review its packaging strategy. The business is also looking to reduce its supply chain impact on a global basis, both initiatives cutting the cost of doing business, but also reducing New Look's carbon footprint.

"We are simply focusing upon the worst offenders through education and rewarding the right behaviours, and are also ensuring that the issue is owned business-wide.
We have over 600 stores in the UK and Ireland, and across the business we have been able to instil a feeling that reducing profit leakage is everyone's responsibility, whatever their department," adds Kernan.

"New Look is committed to reducing its overall environmental impact and our waste and energy bills are obvious targets. Taking a thrifty approach can deliver cost and carbon savings hand in hand.

The profit protection team were the perfect group to pick up this challenge given the success of the past 12 months."

There is a further positive byproduct of this business drive - the identification of opportunities to increase productivity.

"Shoes are a good example. We now no longer have them delivered in boxes so we save packaging; we are looking further at reducing packaging so that we achieve the right balance of protecting the integrity of the product, reducing waste further with an added benefit of speeding up the replenishment of stocks to the shop floor and saving staff time."

The next focus for the business is energy. ‘Low hanging fruit' the business can go for to achieve quick wins include low energy bulbs and non-behavioural changes including the make up of the stores, new and old as well as their whole-life energy use.

"But changing hearts and minds is essential to drive further change and the same strategy of education, incentivisation and review will be called on"

To help achieve these changes, Kernan is using both internal and external energy expertise, as the business did when it set the co-ordinates onits profit protection journey.
"ORIS helped significantly with the original strategy and methodology because they helped instil the right cultural approach within the business and helped change the ethos on leakage and loss. This new area is an organic extension of that initial profit protection programme as we continue to increase our store estate by double-digit figures each year."

"It is a virtuous circle of affecting change by identifying issues, taking action and reporting back. We will continue to praise best practice through the business. With the roles of profit protection and Corporate Social Responsibility (headed up by Janet Biggs) continuing to work so closely, this forms part of a strategic approach to protecting profits
and the environment," adds Kernan.

New Look therefore sees profit protection spanning the colour spectrum by helping to drive retailers out of the red and into the black - by introducing all shades of green across the business.

© 2009 Retail Knowledge Ltd
Retail Knowledge